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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 10
th
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

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 10
th
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.
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- 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.
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”.
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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

- 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
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- 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.

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
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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.

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. 
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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 10
th
form students to

- 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
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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.

th
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 10
th
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

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
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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 10
th
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).
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
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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 10
th
form were surveyed. 67% of them are female. They were selected
from seven classes of the 10
th
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 :

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 10
th
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.

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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

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
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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.

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.
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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

82
72
15

7
19

5
70

12
2
7

4

5
10
7

6
3

9
8

5
20
46


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
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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'

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 10
th

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.
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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