Some suggestions for doing some diferent types of English readingcomprehension exercises effectively in the English textbooks of grade 10 & 11 for students atLam KinhHigh school

PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale for the study
In the trend of global integration, English is considered as an international language. It is the major language of intercommunication, international commerce, business, science, culture and so on. In Vietnam, the economic open-door policy pursued by the Government has increased the demand for using English. Therefore, there has been a positive trend of teaching and learning English across the country. English is also introduced to the educational curriculum from primary education (optional) to tertiary education (compulsory). [3].
In recent years, Lam Kinh high school as well as the other high schools in rural and mountainous areas, teaching and learning English has been taken into consideration. In the process of teaching and learning English, reading comprehension skill is by far the most important of the four macro-skills. It can be said that reading comprehension skill becomes very important and essential for language learners that all important exams such as the national Examination for GCSE, the entrance exam to university. are focusing on testing reading comprehension skill of learners.
However, teaching and learning reading comprehension at Lam Kinh High School is not very effective and is still far from satisfactory for various reasons. Students are habituated to solve simple and direct passages in their school days, but when it comes to competitive exams as national examination for GCSE and the entrance exam to university) the task becomes difficult. Being unable to understand the vocabulary (meaning of words) and concept of the passage, getting used to the habit of word-by-word reading; focusing excessively on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limited background knowledge are the obstacles that make students embarrassed and worried about the reading comprehension skill . As a result they may fail to solve it or ignore it all.
	In order to help the students build up passion for reading, have strategies for comprehending the reading text well, develop effectively reading habit outside classroom so that student can improve their reading skill and can get high marks in examinations , I choose the topic of study: “Some suggestions for doing some diferent types of English readingcomprehension exercises effectively in the English textbooks of grade 10 & 11 for students atLam KinhHigh school”
II. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are to investigate some effective techniques and 
strategies in solving some types of the reading comprehension exerxcises in reading lesons, then in examinations for GCSE and the entrance exam to university. Some main purposes covering the study are summarized as follow: 
 + To understand the theoretical background of reading comprehension in order to improve students’ English reading skills. 
 + To investigate some techniques and strategies for reading comprehension.
Note: At this page, the paragraph “In the trend oftertiary education (compulsory)’’ is consulted from Reference number [3].
+ To help English teachers, especially teachers of English at upper secondary schools to find out effective techniques to deal with reading comprehension with the hope of helping them in teaching English. 
III. Objects of the study
This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective ways and strategies for doing some types of reading comprehension exercises in order to help students to gain success in reading lessons, then in the GCSE examination.
IV. Methods of the study
	To achieve the aims mentioned above, a detailed study is used. The theoretical background of the study presented in my study comes from documents on the internet and many published books written by different authors on language teaching. The statistics and data collected for the study come from the students and the English teachers at Lam Kinh upper secondary school by making observation through reading comprehension lessons in the classroom and through tests and exams .Through theoretical and practical experience in leaning environment at Lam Kinh high school, I myself build up the topic.
V. New points of the study
Although the study has some similarities with the previous one, I pay my attention to some suggestions for doing some different types of reading comprehension exercises in the English 10, 11 for students at Lam Kinh high school with the hope of investigating into ways to do the reading comprehension exercises more effectively, which make lessons more stimulating and interesting in stead of the boring ones. 	
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
I.Theoretical background
1. Definitions of reading comprehension. [6].
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading.Reading comprehension skill plays a very important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign language. It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as a means ofcommunication between the writer and the reader. 
Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. That means reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way.
To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading comprehension can appreciate how much readers understand the text.
Therefore, how to help students have effective reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most important part in reading teaching
2. Types of reading
Note: At this page, the section 1. “Definitions of reading comprehension” is consulted from Reference number [6].
 According to purposes, reading is categorized into four types: skimming, scanning, extensive and intensive reading.
2.1. Skimming
If the task of the reader is merely to get an overall idea of the passage, he is most likely to use the strategy called skimming. This strategy enables the readers to say what kind of text it is and what kind of information it contains. Thus, the learner can expect what the passage is about and, consequently, he can activate appropriate schemata. Skimming is also helpful in deciding whether a text is relevant for particular reader’s purposes, as the reader can quickly estimate the relevance of the text by skimming it. Since this technique provides the readers with the main ideas of the text, it affords a logical framework for details to be fitted into it during more intensive reading. What is significant to add, during skimming the reader does not pay attention to details and can skip new words providing the text can still be understood. [1].
To sum up, skimming is a very useful reading comprehension skill for students, and it is advisable to apply at the first stage of teaching reading with the hope that it can help them to have an overview of what they are reading. Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with theother tasks that followed.
2.2. Scanning
Scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies. However, scanning is far more limited than skimming since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose. Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information. 
When scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so. We simply let our eyes wander over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of information”.[1].
	In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we can look for and where to find it. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading through the whole text.
2.3. Intensive reading
Intensive reading is a slow reading of a text aimed to explain every unknown word, grammar structure and style. It also very often involves translation of the reading passage. As the main emphasis is on features of the text, rather than on its semantic context, the reader’s interest in the story may be reduced. The objective of intensive reading is to achieve a full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced thus it is made use of when the reader encounters a more difficult foreign language text. Intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students’ comprehension.
Overview, purpose, questions, reading, summarize, test, and understanding are the seven procedures that cover the method, for very effective reading for detailed comprehension and long retention reader’s knowledge.
Note: At this page, the section 2.1. “Skimming be understood.”,& section 2.2 ”Scanning..specific piece of information” are consulted from Reference number [1].
2.4. Extensive reading
Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding. It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text. Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and includes reading longer texts for pleasure, as well as business books. Use extensive reading skills to improve our general knowledge of business procedures. Getting students to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading skills.
 Reading is necessary to every learner and undeniably an important skill in comparison with others. In addition, it is notable that intensive and extensive reading should not be seen as in being opposition but need to be paid equal attention for the sake of the students. For second or foreign language learners, both intensive and extensive reading are of great importance as they act as a means to gain knowledge.
3. The importance of reading in foreign language learning
In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, the teaching andlearning of reading are always received much attention, since it is regarded as one of the mostimportant major skills. First of all, reading helps students learn to think in English, enlarge their English vocabulary, improve their writing. Richard (1993:4) claimed that “reading may help to increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures”. There is a close relationship between reading and vocabulary knowledge, because while reading, the readers know most of the words in the text already, and they can also determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the contexts. Therefore, the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. It is understandable that anyone who has a large vocabulary is usually a good reader.Besides, Richard (1993: 4) also stated that “reading in the new language is also animportant way to learn about the target culture”, which means that reading provides the students with a wide range of interesting information, helps them understand the ways of life, behaviors, thoughts and other aspects of the native people and it is also a good way to find out about new ideas, facts and experiences. Therefore, they can master vocabulary, grammar and the background knowledge or cross-cultural problems that they encounter. In other words, reading is very important to the foreign language learners because it widens their knowledge of language and life. It seems to be the most important skill to the students of English since their main purpose is to understand the written texts.
II. Practical background
1. Background of the study
1.1. Description of the English syllabus at upper secondary schools
At upper secondary schools, there are three levels of English: English 10, 11 and English 12. In the past the textbooks used here are the three-year-course ones, the seven- year-course books have been used lately. English is now a compulsory subject in schools. Students have English lessons during the first term and second term of the school year.
	The textbooks chosen are English 10, 11, 12 by Nha Xuat Ban Giao Duc. Each consists of 16 lessons which have been covered through out the school year with mid-term and term tests in between. Each lesson is divided into 5 periods with the aim of giving the students basic knowledge of English and practice four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing skill. By using this textbook, we can develop our students’ communicative competence and our students can learn real things from daily life. The textbooks also develop students’ reading and writing skill. At the end of each term, students have an exam for four skills.
1.2. Description of the students at upper secondary schools
Most of students of LamKinh high school have already learned English for at least four years at lower secondary school but many of them are at the low level of English proficiency. Another fact is that most of the students are from rural areas in ThoXuan district. Consequently, individual differences in learning styles, identities, attitudes, motivation, etc are unavoidable and may cause the teachers some problems during their teaching. In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interested in learning English. Although most of them have already learnt English for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge of English is still poor and limited. Some students can even hardly say a complete sentence in the target language.
1.3. Description of the teachers at upper secondary schools
At Lam Kinh High School, there are totally 6 teachers of English, including me, aged from 30 to 44. Half of us graduated from Hong Duc University in Thanh Hoa province and none of us have been to any English speaking countries. The number of female teachers formed the majority (5 female teachers and only one male teacher). All of us are enthusiastic with their career and had at least eight years experienced in teaching English.
However, in terms of methodology, the teachers in our school usually employ the traditional methods of teaching especially Grammar-translation method. They often apply this method in teaching English. In other words, they focus on analyzing the grammar rules, not on the acquisition of language skills. They spend most of the classroom time explaining new words, analyzing grammar structures and translating texts into Vietnamese. Students often listen and take notes passively. This leads to low motivation in students and creates very few chances for them to improve their communicative competence.
1.4. Description of physical setting
In most upper secondary schools, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are designed for lecture lessons with the only classroom equipment: a blackboard, tables and a desk. The only type of teaching aid that the English group has is some cassette recorders and pictures. In term of class size, the number of students in an English class is quite large, from 40 to 50. This large number causes a great deal of difficulties for the teaching and learning activities. The materials for reference and self-study are not available for teachers and students at schools. In the school library, there are only some English books that are not really helpful for teachers and students.
2. Difficulties
2.1. Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading
When asking the teachers about the problems they were facing with in teaching reading, the majority admitted that the most difficult issue was the students’ limitation of vocabularyand grammatical structures.	
Moreover, despite the fact that the teachers at LK school are well aware of the techniques and strategies for reading comprehension skill, some of them find it difficult to use them in their teaching because of many reasons. The biggest one is that they are deeply affected by old teaching methods. They said that after quite a long time applying these methods, they become absorbed to them and it is very difficult for them to change. In the reading lessons, before doing the task, teacher often provide students with all of the new words and then translate the text in to Vietnamses.This makes students become passive in learning. 
2.2. Students’Difficulties
2.2.1. Passive learning style
	The students are still deeply affected by the old and passive learning methods such as Translation or Audio-lingual Method and the learning environment at lower secondary school where reading was not fully taken into consideration. They only learn what the teacher supply in the classroom .They are accustomed to the habit of word-by-word readingand doing simple and short reading comprehension exercises. 
2.2.2. Lack of knowledge for comprehension
The information from the data collected clearly shows that students’ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures, their lack of appropriate reading strategies and their background knowledge are students’ main difficulties, which influence their motivation for reading as well as their understanding. Not only the students but also the teachers faced many problems when dealing with reading lessons. Students had very limited vocabulary, and were too dependent on teachers, peers dictionaries. New words have affected the students’ process of reading.
Background knowledge is found to be a less challenge than vocabulary. Students found that they did not know anything in some aspects. Therefore, they had many difficulties when reading a strange topic. With many demonstrations that those who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading better than the others with low prior knowledge. Students’ lack of appropriate reading strategies is another problem, the teachers had to face.
III. Some suggestions for doing some different types of reading comprehension exercisesin the English text books of grade 10 and 11 effectively.
1. Identifying the types of exerxcises or questions
Understand and become familiar with the types of questions allows you to save time when analyzing and understanding the meaning of the types of questions, so that you have more time to read the answers to each question and find the correct answer of all. In this analysis, I‘ll guide students how to recognize all types of questions in reading comprehension tasks by explaining and giving examples 
1.1. Main idea/ main topic/ main purpose questions: [1].
- These ask sts to identify an answer choice that correctly summarizes the author’s main idea, the subject of the main passage, or the author’s reason for writing the passage.
- The questions are often like these:‘’ What is the main idea of the passage?’’/‘’ What is the passage primarily about?’’
1.2: Vocabulary – in- context questions/ Exercises:
 These ask students to identify the meaning of word or phrase as used in the passage.
Example: “ The word ‘’.’’in line 10 is CLOSEST in meaning to? ”
1.3. Factual questions (Stated detail questions)[1].
Factual questions ask about explicit facts and details given in the passage. They often contain one of the WH- question words: who, what, when, where, why, how much and so on or they often start with: “ According to the passage where did?”/“According to the author why did?”/“ Which of the following is true , according to the passage? ‘’
- Students have to locate and identify answers to questions about specific information and detailed in the passage 
1.4. T-F statement exercises 
- These questions ask students to determine which of the statements are true (T) and which ones are false (F) according to the passage.
- T-F statement exercises are often reaised with the following: “Decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).”
1.5. Gap- Fill exercises
- In the classroom, Gap-fills are often used to practise specific langu