VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
ĐẶNG THÚY HẰNG
A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING
THE READING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN AT HANOI COLLEGE OF
INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(Nghiên cứu các thủ thuật dạy học của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên
năm thứ nhất tại trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 01 11 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

I, Dang Thuy Hang, hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on
the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at
Hanoi College of Industrial Economics” is the result of my own research in the
fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post
Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam
National University, Hanoi.

Hanoi, April 2014
Signature Đặng Thúy Hằng

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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills
at HCIE for freshmen and providing some suggested reading teaching techniques for
the teachers to help teachers and students teach and learn reading skills more
effectively. To attain these objectives, three kinds of instruments are applied such as
survey questionnaire, observation and semi- interview. Ten English teachers and one
hundred students are selected to be participants of the survey. Necessary data are
gathered using questionnaires for both students and teachers. Contributing to these
data, observation is used to get useful information at CKX12.8 where is experimented
some effective teacher’s teaching techniques. In addition, five teachers are randomly
chosen to give their opinions about their real teaching experience, difficulty and
solutions. From the findings, the study depicts that while students are passive and
demotivated in learning, the teachers’ techniques are dominated by traditional
approach which are not effective enough to improve students’ reading skills. Basing
on the research’s results, some recommendations for the students, the teachers and the
authorities are stated. In conclusion, this study’s findings contributes a better
understanding of teaching and learning reading techniques in general and teachers’
reading techniques in particular; however, some debatable points are unavoidable in
this thesis. iv

Chapter 2: THE STUDY…………………………………………………………18
2. 1. The context……………………………………….………………………….18
2.1.1. An overview of Hanoi College of Industrial Economics…………… ……18

v

2.1.2. Teachers and teaching methods………………………….…………… ….19
2.1.3. Students and their background English knowledge………………… ….20
2.1.4. Teaching materials ……………………………….…… …… ……… ….20
2.2. The study…………………………………….………… ………… 21
2.2.1. Participants……………………………………………… …………….….21
2.2.2. The instrument……………………………………………….………….….22
2.2.3. Data collection procedure………………………… ………………………23
2.3. Data analysis…………………………………………….………….… …….23
2.3.1. The survey questionnaires…………………………….…………………….23
2.3.2. The class observation ……………………….……………………… ….…29
2.3.3. The semi-interview……………………………………….………… ….….32
2.4. Summary……………………………………………………….……… ……32
Chapter 3: RECOMMENDATIONS……………………… ………………… 34
3.1. To the students ………………………………………………… …… … 34
3.2. To the teachers………………………………………………… … … 35
3.3. To the authorities…………………….……………………………… ……36
3.4. Summary………………………………………………………… … ……37
PART C: CONCLUSION……………………… …………………… ………38
1. Conclusions………….…………………………………………… … ……38
2. Limitations and Suggestions for further studies………………… ………39
References:………………………………………………………… ………40
Appendices…………………………………………………………… …… I

vi vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FINGURES

Table 1: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the course book (p 23)
Table 2: Students’ attitude toward the reading activities (p 24)
Table3: Students’ attitude toward the teacher’s techniques and preferring
techniques (p 25)
Table 4: Teachers’ technique of combination and its efficiency (p 26)
Table 5: Teachers’ responses concerning Pre-reading activities (p 26)
Table 6: Teachers’ responses concerning While-reading activities (p 27)
Table 7: Teachers’ responses concerning Post-reading activities (p 28)
Table 8: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward supplementary texts (p 29)

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
On the road of integrating and developing in Vietnam, English is quite important to
learners. The teaching and learning of English is paying much more attention by
both teachers and learners.
Nowadays, a lot of universities require their students to learn English as one of their
general subjects. In order to master English, students have to try their best to develop
the English skills such as listening, speaking, writing and reading. There have been
debates on the topic: which skill in English teaching and learning is the most
important? There are some who state what they need is only speaking English fluently.

reading skills in particular at the college. With the effort of my own, a study is
carried out to find which reading techniques are more effective for improving the
quality of teaching and learning reading skills at HCIE.
That is the reason why my graduate paper is “A study on the teachers’ teaching
techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of
Industrial Economics”.
2. Aims of the study
This paper aims at:
- Investigating the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills for freshmen
at HCIE.
- Providing some suggested reading teaching techniques for the teachers to help
teachers and students teach and learn reading skills more effectively.
3. Research questions
To reach the above aims, the thesis works to answer two following research questions:
- How reading skills are being taught and learnt at HCIE?
- What reading techniques should be applied to improve the reading skills of
freshmen at HCIE?
4. Scope of the study
This study focuses on improving the reading skills of freshmen at HCIE. Efforts to
study the improvement of other skills, for students of other years at other
institutions are above the scope of the study.
5. Methodology
With the purpose of investigating the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving
the reading skills of freshmen at HCIE, this study employs a survey research. To
achieve this aim, the survey questionnaire is used as the main instrument to collect

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the needed data from the students and the teachers. Besides, other instruments are
also made used of such as the researcher’s observation in reading lessons, and the

reading skills to freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics.
The last part is the Conclusion. In this part, the writer gives out the summary, the
limitation of the study and the suggestions for the further study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. 1. An overview of the nature of reading skills
1.1.1. Definition of reading
Reading skill is one of four macro-skills in teaching and learning a language in general
and a foreign language or second language – English in particular. This term has been
attracting a lot of scholars, linguistics, educators and teachers to give the attention to.
So many definitions of Reading are given out. It is the fact that each person has his own
way to define it. Obviously, giving an exact definition for the word “reading” is not an
easy work. As Aebersold and Field (1997:5) notes that “the act of reading is not
completely understood nor easily described.” In this paper, some of typical
definitions are listed to give an overview of the term “reading”.
Firstly, Goodman (1981: 135) proposes that reading is “a psycholinguistic process
by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message
which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”. Clearly, reading is an act
that involves the reader works to find out the meaning encoded by written letters.
This definition points out three elements in reading process: the writer, the reader
and the text. Another definition of reading is suggested in the interactive view of
reading. In fact, contemporary interactive approaches to reading extend and
elaborate psycholinguistic theory by focusing precisely on the important role of
cognition in an interaction between the reader and the text. Thus, McKenna and
Robinson (1993:21) defines that “reading is an interactive process in which a
reader’s prior knowledge of the subject and purpose for reading operate to
influence what is learned from text.” This opinion is as the same as Silberstein’s

of the writer’s passage. Agreeing with this theory, Lenz (2000: 3) also says that “reading
comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from the text.”
A conclusion can be drawn here is that reading comprehension is the process that
helps the readers obtain information in a text and understand it appropriately.
1.1.3. The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning
It is generally accepted nowadays that reading is a key skill for most students
learning a foreign language and that it should therefore, take place alongside the

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development of oral ability in the school program. Having the same idea Carrell
(1997:1) agrees: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four
macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language”
First of all, reading is a means by which further learning takes place. It is an
effective way of stimulating students to talk, write and listen. By reading, learners
are able to enrich their knowledge of grammar structures and vocabulary items.
These factors contribute an important part to help students easier to listen to the
lessons. In addition, knowledge of structures and new words ungraded by reading
also provides learners a chance to speak more confidently and naturally. Next,
writing skill is improved based on the model reading texts.
Secondly, reading weighs as a heavy tool belt of a working, technological society. It
helps us to solve both personal and social problems in daily life. Print is
everywhere: memos and menus, candy wrappers and constitutions, bills and serial
numbers, signs and rest room doors. Without reading anything, it is impossible for
human beings to behave appropriately.
Finally, reading in a new language is also to be beneficial to learn about the target
culture. It helps learners understand the ways of life, behavior, thought, belief, etc.
that pays an important role in widening the knowledge of cross-culture.
To sum up, reading is a vital skill in learning and teaching a second language.
1.2. Teaching reading skills

and the cognitive domain. These stretch in teaching and learning reading as well.
The psychomotor domain is the domain of the mind and the body working together
to produce physical performances. Some examples of psychomotor activities
include learning to walk, tie shoelaces, swim, type, drive a car, and perform creative
dance routines. The second domain is the affective domain which is the domain of
attitudes, interests, values, appreciation, and life adjustment. The common examples
of affective activities are responding positively to success and constructively to
failure, adopting healthy habits over unhealthy ones, developing a democratic
tolerance for opposing points of view, or invoking ethical principles for behavior in
morally ambiguous situations. The third domain is the cognitive one which consists
of intellectual skill including the recall or recognition of information, the
comprehension of information, and the development of logical and rational thought
skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The popular examples of cognitive
activities are remembering facts, summarizing thoughts, applying principles to solve
problems, deducing a coherent explanation from disparate pieces of evidence, or
objectively critiquing arguments in terms of their logical consistency.

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In applying these domains in teaching reading skills, they were divided into small
goals which were equal between the affective domain and the cognitive domain, and
the psychomotor domain was eliminated. Each domain contains two goals. Two
goals in the affective domain are developing positive attitudes toward reading and
developing personal interest and tastes in reading. Two goals in the cognitive
domain are developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems and
developing the fundamental competencies of reading at succeedingly higher levels
of independence. The first goal deals with developing positive attitudes toward
reading. It means that readers try to improve or make progress in their confidence in
their own ability. In other words, students should experience success regularly and
approach reading confidently without being fear of failure. The readers may

learning to read begins to shift to reading to learn; developing vocabulary
and knowledge; beginning to use subject area textbooks.
 Stage 4, Multiple Viewpoints (high school): dealing with more mature texts
that introduce varying viewpoints and more challenging concepts; more
independent reading.
 Stage 5, Construction and Reconstruction- A World view (college and adult):
more advanced and discriminating reading; constructing knowledge on a high
level of abstraction and generality; varying purposes and rate; critical reading.
In short, setting clear goals that makes readers at any ages become wiser and more
effective ones. In teaching reading, taken together these goals helps us to imagine
an ideal state of affairs in a reading class and provide a conceptual basis for the
why of teaching reading.
1.2.2. The reading teaching/ learning approaches
Sadoski, M ( 2004: 81-88) states the three fundamental teaching/learning approaches
on the second continuum (instruction and education) which were program-controlled
teaching/ learning, teacher-controlled teaching/learning, and reader-controlled
teaching/learning. These are the ways in which we teach readers to do it.
 In program-controlled teaching/learning: the program is dominant and the
teacher and the reader are subordinate.
 In teacher-controlled teaching/learning: the teacher is dominant and the
program and the readers are subordinate. In this approach, the teachers
determine the learning conditions according to their professional training,

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experience, and judgment. Programs and text materials are used according to
those determinations, and readers are subject to those determinations.
 In reader-controlled teaching/learning: the reader is dominant and the
teacher and the program are subordinate.
However, Elba(2006:8) gives out another teaching reading approaches applied a lot

 During-reading: This stage requires the teacher to guide and monitor the
interaction between the reader and the text. One important skill teachers can
impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new
vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize
information and record their reactions and opinions.
 Post-reading: The post-reading stage offers the chance to evaluate students’
adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that
“readership” must be respected as long as the writer’s intentions are addressed.
To sum up, what this paper suggests to the reading teacher is that some combination
of instruction and education may be best for reaching all the goals. Teachers might
be best advised to find a balanced approach most suitable for each situation to
realize all the goals.
1.2.3. Techniques for teaching reading
Reading itself involves two parties: the printed text and the reader. Teaching reading is
added the third party, that is the teacher. The techniques that teachers apply in a reading
lesson influence a lot the reading habit of the students and their lessons.
Richard (1970: 130) suggests techniques of SQ3R which stands for Survey,
Question, Read, Recite and Review:
 Survey: the purpose of this step is survey to get a general idea of the text.
Then skim quickly over the topic headings, look at pictures, graphs, charts,
or diagrams; see if there are questions or a summary at the end.
 Question: this step helps the readers to read with a purpose, look for specific
answer and anticipate essential points of information.
 Read: It means the reader reads the text as quickly as possible to find out
what is being looked and where to get the necessary information.
 Recite: This helps the readers consolidate the information which have been
read, relate it to previous information, and prepare for what is to follow.

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 Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a
sense of the structure and content of a reading selection.
 Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about
content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the
text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using
knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style,
vocabulary, and content.
 Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main
idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions.
 Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and ideas in
the text as clues to the guess the meanings of unknown words, instead of
stopping to look them up.
 Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by
restating the information and ideas in the text.
In short, each scholar or linguistic has their own way to divide reading techniques.
However, which techniques are most effective in teaching reading are determined
by teachers who directly carry out the reading lessons. Applying these techniques
requires teachers to consider carefully so that their lessons are lively and they can
motivate students to learn better.
1.3. Factors affecting teaching and learning reading
As stated above, teaching reading involves three parties which are the printed text,
the reader/ student and the teacher. These parties significantly affect teaching and
learning reading process.
1.3.1. The reading text
Texts play an important role in teaching and learning reading. It is said that new
lexical, phonetic and grammatical items are presented. They also help students to
enrich their background knowledge.

They are not only the subject but also the object of teaching and learning process.
Nutall (2000: 33) gives several main roles for the students in a reading lesson such as:

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 Taking an active part in learning: Students have to be active and take
charge of what they do.
 Monitoring comprehension: Students need to understand how texts work
and what they do when they read.
 Learning text talk: Students have to learn how to carries on a dialogue with
the text.
 Taking risk: Student have to take the risk of making mistakes because a
mistake is an opportunity to learn.
 Learning not to cheat oneself: Students who do not want to learn to read
can easily cheat but they are cheating themselves. In fact they are wasting
their opportunities.
In a reading lesson, the students play the role of the readers. It is the fact that students
are the heart of the reading lesson and the element which determines the success of a
reading lesson. That is to say they must be very active in the lesson from the beginning
to get the right meaning of the texts. Besides, students have to do other exercises that
help them accumulate a large amount of knowledge from the text and then understand
it thoroughly. In some cases, students sometimes have to cope with some problems
which are beyond their abilities such as idioms, proverbs or background understanding
so on. As a result, making mistakes is obviously unavoidable. However, thank to these
mistakes students have a great opportunities to learn better through their own mistakes.
In addition, making mistakes help learners who are not interested in reading learn more
confidently and motivate them to read more to eraser their errors.
1.3.3. The teacher
Many linguistics agree that the teacher is the most important factor in a reading
lesson. The teacher, as a matter of fact, is not only an instructional expert, an