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SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT GIA LÂM
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH
PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION
(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA
VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN)
Môn học : Anh văn
Giáo viên : Hoàng Thị Kim Quế
Tài liệu kèm theo: Phụ lục
Năm học 2011-2012
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Reading is an essential skill for English as a foreign language (EFL)
students; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master. With
strengthened reading skills, EFL readers will make greater progress and attain
greater development not only in English but also in all academic areas. Therefore,
“reading is the most heavily researched single area of the whole curriculum, and
yet, paradoxically, it remains a field in which a good deal of fundamental work
has yet to be approached, and one in which a great many teachers would claim to
be almost wholly ignorant” and secondary teachers “who have generally had no
training at all related to reading but nevertheless feel conscious that the ability to
read fluently is the basis for most school learning, and one of the surest predictors
of academic attainment” (Harrison and Gardner, 1977).
Traditionally, attempts to improve the comprehension of texts for EFL
students have focused on familiarizing the students with vocabulary needed to
comprehend the passage. However, within the last 15 years, much of the research
conducted in the field of reading comprehension has concentrated on the
knowledge and control of reading strategies, and more and more emphasis has
been put on the importance of training EFL learners to be strategic readers.

predicting strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar & Brown, 1984). Interacting with
text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in the text to generate
predictions.
2. Aims.
My study aims at, firstly, examining the impact of the predicting strategy
instruction on the reading comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat
Upper Secondary School, and secondly, determining effective techniques to teach
predicting strategies in reading comprehension in their reading classes, from the
teacher’ and students’ perspectives.
3. Scope of the Study
This study only focuses on the teaching of predicting strategies to 10
th
grade
students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, so the teaching of other reading
strategies or to other subjects would be beyond the scope.
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PART II. DEVELOPMENT
1. Literature Review
Reading is “a fluent process of readers combining information from a text
and their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is
comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency, and strategies combined together
define the act of reading” Anderson (2003, p. 68)
There are three Reading models: bottom-up, top-down and interactive.

Bottom-up Reading Model
All the proponents of bottom-up models agree that comprehension begins
by processing the smallest linguistic unit and working toward larger units, and
proceeds from part to whole. In this way, bottom-up theorists view reading as a
passive process dependent on the written or printed text.
Top-down Reading Model

non-native readers because it may serve as an effective way of overcoming
language deficiency and obtaining better reading achievement both for regular
school assignments and on language proficiency tests.
Predicting Strategies is a family of strategies. Here is the list of the
activities to develop predicting strategies.
• Pre-reading activities: activating prior knowledge, previewing and
overviewing,
• While-reading activities: reading to confirm the prior predictions and
predicting what to come next.
BEFORE READING
Activating background
knowledge
• Open prediction
• True/ False prediction
• Pre-question
• Network
• If You Don’t Know, Ask, OK?
Previewing
• Look at the title and the headings for each
section to predict what the reading text is
about.
• Look at the pictures to predict what the
reading text is about.
Overviewing
• Read the first and the last paragraphs each
paragraph to predict what it is about.
WHILE READING
Reading and Confirming
Prior Predictions
• Read and confirm or reject the prior

To develop the strategies of predicting the main idea of a paragraph
from the first sentence.
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To develop strategies of using prior backgrounds knowledge of the
content and the knowledge of the textual structure to predict what to
come next in the text.
Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course
To investigate the students’ improvement in their English reading
comprehension, I developed two reading tests, one of which was conducted at the
beginning of the research as the pre-test and after the intervention as a delayed
post-test and the other after the intervention as an immediate post-test. These tests
were adapted from the reading tests in the course book Interaction Access.
Obviously, necessary changes were made to fit the purpose of the study, and to
guarantee their equal value in terms of vocabulary, content and difficulty level.
These tests were designed as achievement tests, which normally “aim to find out
how much each student, and the class as a whole, has learnt of what has been
taught, to provide feedback on students’ progress to both teacher and students, to
show how effectively the teacher has taught”.
Each test consists of two reading passages, which are followed by five
multiple-choice reading questions. The participants were required to read the
passages to choose the best answer for each question. The time allowance for each
test was fifteen minutes. To ensure that the tests can give a reliable answer to the
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first research question, the researcher bore in mind such qualities of a good test as
validity, reliability, discrimination, practicality, and washback.
Data were also collected by means of the researcher’s diary and the students’
journals during the implementation of the project. As can be inferred from
Kemmis’ cycle, reflection is one of the major steps. Teacher’s diary and students’
journals provide some reflection on the part of the teacher as the researcher and
the students as the participants respectively.


Secondly, throughout my research, I have found out some effective
techniques to teach the students predicting strategies.
• The most effective one, as perceived by the teacher and the students, is that
the predicting strategy course should include Explicit strategy instruction,
consisting of an explicit description of the strategy including when and how to
use it, teacher’s modeling, student’s modeling accompanied by the teacher’s
explanation of each step, guided practice with gradual release of responsibility,
and independent use.
• The second most effective technique, as perceived by the teacher and the
students, is that in order to teach the students predicting strategies effectively,
the teacher should conduct exciting, real-life, practical and useful tasks that
equip the students with sufficient vocabulary and knowledge related to the
text, and help them practice the strategies effectively. The learning principle
underlying the task-based approach proposes students will learn best if they
engage in tasks that require them to use language in ways that closely resemble
how language is used naturally outside the classroom (Bachman, 1990).
Besides that, exciting, practical and useful task ensure that students want to
learn, have the desire to accomplish the task, have a positive attitude toward
the task, and exhibit effort to accomplish the task, which build motivated
readers.
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• Next, the teacher and the students perceived Interesting and
comprehensible reading texts of familiar topics would guarantee the
effectiveness of the predicting strategy instruction. Interesting texts motivated
the students by making them want to read, whereas familiar topics and
comprehensible inputs motivated them by making them believe in their ability
including the ability to make predictions about the text and comprehend it.
Reading motivation facilitates the strategy use.
• Pair work and group work are also very useful to the strategy learning. In

necessity for the shift in their reading behaviours. Therefore, teacher should: 1)
assess students’ awareness of strategy use; 2) raise their awareness of the
importance of strategic reading; 3) raise their awareness of the array of strategies
available to aid reading comprehension; and then 4) provide explicit strategy
instruction. Teachers should also understand that developing students’ strategic
reading is not simply a matter of introducing them to a number of reading
strategies, but promoting mastery of these strategies involves teachers’ constant
modeling and instant feedback not only at the beginning but also through the
whole implementation of the strategy instruction.
Finally, it is suggested that strategic reading should be entwined with
enhanced content and formal schemata, especially content schemata. As seen in
the study, students could not made good use of predicting strategies in their
reading comprehension because of their deficiency in their prior knowledge of the
text topic and the textual structure as well as their vocabulary. Nevertheless, in
many cases, even though the students understood all the linguistic cues, they
failed to make predictions due to their insufficient relevant prior knowledge of the
topic. Therefore, it is vital that teachers help students broaden their knowledge and
vocabulary, and this might be aided by extensive reading. Teachers should
frequently assign students reading texts of different topics and structures, then ask
them to summarize each text in the form of network, or semantic map and note
useful words and phrases. By this means, students’ world, vocabulary and
structural knowledge stores are also expanded, which enhances linguistic
proficiency. In addition, during each strategy instruction lesson, the teacher should
use a number of techniques for the activation of the students’ prior knowledge and
review of textual structures and useful vocabulary so that they can make full use
of their prior knowledge to facilitate their reading comprehension.
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APPENDIXES
Appendix 1: Pre-test and Delayed post-test
READING COMPREHENSION TEST

D. Although the Niagara River flows through the United States and Canada, the
falls are only in the U.S
2. According to the passage, why was Niagara Falls Park created?
A. To encourage tourists to visit Niagara Falls
B. To show off the natural beauty of Niagara Falls
C. To protect the area around Niagara Falls
D. To force Canada to open Queen Victoria Park
3. The paragraph following the passage most probably discusses
A. additional ways to observe the falls
B. steps taken by government agencies to protect the falls
C. a detailed description of the division of the falls between the United States and
Canada.
D. further problems that are destroying the area around the falls.
Passage 2: Listening Online
A. Twenty years ago, most people listened to music on records or tapes. The sound
quality was not very good. Then, in the early 1980s, the compact disc (CD) appeared on the
market. The sound quality was better, and CDs were easier to take care of. Nobody thought
records were going to disappear, but now records are not manufactured (made), and very few
people buy them. The next question is: Will the CD ever disappear? How will we be listening to
music twenty years from now? Some people think the CD will disappear as well. Already,
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people are listening to MP3 files (digital music files) and downloading music from the Internet.
Downloading is when you move files from the Internet to your own computer.
B. Napster was the first company to use the Internet to help people share music. A
college student named Shawn Fanning started the company in 1998. Shawn discovered a way to
allow people to download songs from each other's computers. Over 70 million people used
Napster. The record companies were very angry. They thought that people were using Napster
to steal music. The record companies took Napster to court. In 2000, a judge ordered Napster to
close. Will that be the end of free online music sharing? Probably not.
C. Napster is starting a new Web site together with a record company. On this new site,

plant and animal species live in rain forests or originally came from rain forests. Scientists
continue to discover plants in the rain forests that have medicinal value (useful for treating
medical problems). In fact, over 25 percent of the medicines we have come from rain forest
plants. And there are still a lot of plants to find.
The Effects of Rain Forests on the Earth's Climate
But rain forests are important not only for the plants and animals that live in them and
for the medicines that come from them. They also have major effects on the earth's atmosphere
and climate. According to some scientists, global warming is causing dangerous changes to the
earth's climate. Rain forests can help us fight global warming. Some scientists believe that rain
forests cool the atmosphere by absorbing the sun's heat. Absorb means to soak up. Also, plants
and trees use carbon dioxide. The cause of global warming is an increase of gases like carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere. So rain forests can clean some of the excess (extra) carbon dioxide
out of the air.
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A
B.
How We Are Destroying Rain Forests
Rain forests are so important to the earth, but we are cutting them down and burning
them very quickly. Why? Some companies want to use the trees to make wood and paper.
Others want to use the land to raise animals or grow crops (plants that farmers grow to use as
food). This is dangerous for the climate in two ways. First, we are destroying something that
helps cool down the earth's atmosphere. And second, by burning rain forests, we add a lot of
carbon dioxide to the air. In fact, the burning of rain forests is responsible for about 30 percent
of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Some people believe that in 40 years, all the rain
forests will be destroyed. What will happen to the earth's climate when all the rain forests are
gone?
1. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Rain forests are important because they are very old and most of our medicines come
from their plants.
B. We need to protect rain forests because they are important to the earth in many ways.

At the Amazon.com site, people can search for a book about a subject, find many different
books about that subject, read what other people think about the book, order them by credit
card, and get them in the mail in two days. This kind of bookstore was a new idea, but the
business grew. In a few years, Amazon.com had 10 million customers and sold 18 million
different items in categories including books, CDs, toys, electronics, videos, DVDs, home
improvement products, software, and video games. Today, at a “virtual shopping mall” – a
group of online stores - you can buy anything from gourmet food – special, usually expensive
food – to vacations.
Fifteen years ago, many people said, “Online
shopping is crazy. Nobody can make money in an online
company.” They were wrong. Today, Jeff Bezos is a
billionaire. More and more people are shopping on line,
and online companies are making a profit. It is a huge
business.
Jeff Bezos giving a speech
4. The main idea of paragraph B is _________
A. the Web was growing 2,000 percent a year.
B. Amazon.com is a famous online bookstore.
C. Jeff Beros quit his good job and moved to Seattle, Washington.
D. Amazon.com is an example of a company that sells on the Internet.
5. The following part of paragraph D most probably discusses _____
A. Jeff Beros. B. online shopping in the future.
C. how scientists use the Internet. D. other uses of the Internet.
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B.
.
C.
.
D.
.

- Tell the students to imagine that they are looking
for a tour to go on during the summer vacation,
and that they are going to study these incomplete
advertisements, and make a decision on which tour
they would like to have based on the content of the
- Talk about what to think of
when making a decision on a
tour.
- Make up the groups.
- Listen to the teacher’
instruction.
ad predicted through the titles and the pictures.
- Giving the model. For example, I think we should
go to Ha Long because….
- Ask the students to prepare for the task
individually first.
- Ask the students work in groups, share with the
other group members which tour to choose, and
how to choose the tour among those advertised.
- Ask the students to prepare to report to the class
how they did the task and which tour they have
decided to choose.
- Ask some groups to present their reports, and the
whole class discusses to make the final decision on
the tour.
- Give feedbacks on the students’ report.
- Observe the modeling.
- Work individually, study the
titles and the photographs and
make decision on the tour and

questions given and work in
pairs to answer these questions.
- Read the list of the activities
that people like to do on
5’  To practice predicting
what the text is about
through the title, pictures
and headings.
- Ask the students to read the list of the activities
that people like to do on vacation, then check all of
the things that they like to do on vacation and add
two more things.
- Ask the students to share their lists with other
partners.
- Ask the students to report the result of their survey
in front of the class.
- Lead the students to identify the topic of the
reading lesson.
- Review useful words and phrases and present
some others that may be found in the reading text.
Task 2: Previewing the Reading.
- Ask the students to look at the title of the reading
text, and the pictures and headings in the text to
predict the topic of the text that they are going to
read.
- Model the prediction.
Based on the title of the text, the photos and the
headings in the text, I predict that the text is about
_____.
- Do the task individually, predicting what the text is

You Read
10’
10’
 To practice reading for
the main idea of the text,
using predicting strategy.
 To practice reading for
specific information,
using predicting strategy.
Task 1: Finding the Main Idea
- Ask the students to read the text quickly to choose
the main idea of the text.
- Model the task.
I read the text quickly from beginning to end. While
reading, I check which prior predictions are correct
or formulate other predictions about the main idea of
the text. Finally, I choose the main idea among the
sentences given.
- Ask the students to share their answers with their
partners, discussing how they found the main idea
and what their best choice of the main idea is.
- Ask the students to report their answer.
- Give feedbacks on the students’ report.
- Give the correct answer.
- Ask the students to identify the process of finding
the main idea of a text.

Task 2: Deciding which tour is best for each
person.
- Ask the students to read what different people say

discuss how they did the task and what they
decided.
- Ask some groups to report to the class what they
have done, and the whole class makes the final
decision.
- Give feedbacks on the students’ report.
- Listen to the instruction.
- Listen to the modeling.
- Work individually, read the
headings and look over the
pictures to predict what tour is
mentioned in each paragraph,
then read the text silently to
check the predictions and
choose the best tour for each
person based on the specific
information in each passage.
- Work in groups of four and
discuss how the task was done
and what the decision was.
- Report in front of the class.
- Ask the students to review the process of reading
for specific information in the text.
- Review the process of reading
for specific idea in the text.
5. After
You Read
5’  To practice writing the
title of a tour
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