VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES


HONG TH TÂM THNH

AN EVALUATION OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN THE
NEW TEXTBOOK TIENGANH 11 IN MOTIVATING AND
IMPROVING STUDENT’S READING PERFORMANCE

(ĐA
́
NH GIA
́
CA
́
C HOA
̣
T ĐÔ
̣
NG TIÊ
̀
N ĐO
̣
C CU
̉
A SA
́
CH GIA

M.A.MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES


HONG TH TÂM THNH

AN EVALUATION OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN THE
NEW TEXTBOOK TIENGANH 11 IN MOTIVATING AND
IMPROVING STUDENT’S READING PERFORMANCE

(ĐA
́
NH GIA
́
CA
́
C HOA
̣
T ĐÔ
̣
NG TIÊ

̣
C CU
̉
A HO
̣
C SINH)

M.A.MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Phm Th Thanh Thy, PhD.

Hanoi, 2013
i

DECLARATION
This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Education.
I confirm that this is my own research and that it has not been published or
submitted for any other degrees.
Student‟s signature

Hong Th Tâm Thnh

I would also like to thank Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, my colleague, for her
precious advice from the beginning of this paper.
Last but not least, I should acknowledge my great gratitude to all my friends
in Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, and my family for their understanding, encouragement, assistance as well
as financial supports during the process of preparing this graduation paper.

iii

ABSTRACT
This research investigated whether adaptation of pre-reading activities
increased the classroom motivation, involvement as well as reading performance of
learners at an upper-secondary school. The main methods were employed in this
study namely document analysis, students survey questionnaire, teachers interview,
classroom observation and pre-test post-test experimental design. Eighty four
students selected from two classes (11A3 was employed as the control group and
11A5 as the experimental group) at Dao Duy Tu high school were used for the
study. The students selected were made up of both male and female. The findings
revealed that pre-reading activities in the textbook were too monotonous to get
students involved in the reading lesson. Students and teachers were not in favor of
these activities available in the current textbook. Also, adaptation of textbook
activities would be helpful in increasing the students‟ motivation in pre-reading
stage and better comprehension can be gained through exposure to pre-reading
activities. The study recommended that teachers could use pre-reading activities as
a useful tool to facilitate students‟ motivation and reading comprehension
performance. It also could be suggested that teachers should change some
inappropriate pre-reading activities of students‟ interests in the reading class to get


v

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 3.1: Students‟ beliefs towards the reading texts in the new English 11
Figure 3.2: Students‟ attitudes to their teacher‟ pre-reading activities
Figure 3.3: Frequency of undertaking extra pre-reading activities in reading class
Figure 3.4: Students‟ involvement in pre-reading activities in reading lessons
Figure 3.5: Students‟ preference for participation in pre-reading activities
Figure 3.6: Teachers‟ evaluation of reading texts in the textbook
Figure 3.7: Teachers‟ evaluation on pre-reading activities in English 11
Figure 3.8: Frequency of adaptation for pre-reading activities
Figure 3.9: Teachers‟ methods for adaptation

Table 3.1: Description of topics in English 11
Table 3.2: Activities of reading stage in 6 units are analyzed
Table 3.3: Pre-reading activities of 6 units are analyzed
Table 3.4: Difficulties students encounter in reading lessons
Table 3.5: The most frequently used activities to start a reading lesson
Table 3.6: Students‟ beliefs about good effects of pre-reading activities
Table 3.7: Students‟ beliefs about bad effects of pre-reading activities
Table 3.8: Frequency of using pre-reading activities by the teachers
Table 3.9: Students‟ preferences for pre-reading activities
Table 3.10: Students‟ evaluations on pre-reading activities in the textbook
Table 3.11: Students‟ recommendation on pre-reading activities to make a reading
lesson more interesting
Table 3.12: Teachers‟ beliefs about the purposes of carrying out pre-reading
activities
Table 3.13: Teachers‟ beliefs about students‟ participation in pre-reading activities
Table 3.14: Teachers‟ recommendation to increase students‟ participation

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I. 1. 1. Definition and the importance of pre-reading activities in teaching
reading 6
I. 1. 2. Types of pre-reading activities 7
I. 2. Theoretical background about motivation 8
I. 2. 1. Definitions and types of motivation 8
I. 2.2. The importance of motivation in learning reading 9
I. 2.3. Common factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning the reading
skill 9
I. 2. 3.1. Students‟ factors 9
I. 2. 3. 2. The reading materials factors 10
I. 2.3. 3. The teacher‟s factors 10
I. 4. Theoretical background about textbook evaluation 10
I. 4. 1. Definitions 10
I. 4. 2. Criteria for textbook evaluation 11
I. 5. Theoretical background about textbook adaptation 11
I. 5. 1. Definitions 11
I. 5. 2. The necessity of textbook adaptation when teaching foreign languages 12
I. 5. 3. Techniques for textbook adaptation 13
PART II: METHODOLOGY 15
II. 1. Setting of the research 15
II. 2. Subjects of the research 15
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II. 2. 1. The students 15
II. 2. 2. The teachers 16
II. 3. Data collection instruments 17
II. 3. 1. Document analysis 17
II. 3. 2. Survey questionnaire for students 17

increase students‟ participation in pre-reading activities 37
III.3.5. Frequency of adapting pre-reading activities and methods of adaptation
39
III.3.6. Teachers‟ difficulties when undertaking pre-reading activities 40
III.4. Data collected from classroom observation 41
III.5. Data collected from pre-test post-test experimental design 46
PART C: CONCLUSION 50
1. Summary of the study 50
x

2. Recommendations for using and adapting pre-reading activities in reading class
at grade 11 effectively 52
2.1. When and how to use pre-reading activities 52
2.1.1. When using pre-reading activities 52
2.1.2. How to use pre-reading activities 53
2.2. When and how to adapt pre-reading activities in reading class 55
2.2.1. When conducting pre-reading activity adaptation in reading class 55
2.2.2. The way of conducting pre-reading activity adaptation 56
3. Limitations of the study 57
4. Suggestions for further study 57
REFERENCES 58
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 V
APPENDIX 3 VI
APPENDIX 4 XX
APPENDIX 5 XXII
APPENDIX 6 XXV
positive results and its effects on student‟s motivation as well as reading
performance. Hopefully, the paper is also to offer some practical suggestions for not
only teachers but also textbook writers or designers to adapt pre-reading activities in
reading classes more effectively.
2

2. Aims and objectives of the research
2. 1. Aims of the research
The study is carried out with the aim to analyze pre-reading activities in the
new textbook English 11. Moreover, it explores the situation of teaching pre-
reading activities in reading comprehension lessons at Dao Duy Tu high school.
Eventually, it provides some effective adaptations enabling students of learning
English to be motivated and improved in reading performance.
2. 2. Objectives of the research
The paper is intended to achieve the following objectives:
1. Exploring suitable and unsuitable points of pre-reading activities in the new
textbook English 11 published in 2007 by Education Publishing House.
2. Investigating into the current situation of pre-reading stage in teaching
reading lessons to 11
th
form at Dao Duy Tu high school-Thanh Hoa.
3. Suggesting some practical adaptation for pre-reading stage in order to
increase students‟ motivation and performance in reading comprehension
lessons.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above aims and objectives, the investigation is supposed
to answer the following research questions:
1. What are some suitable and unsuitable points of pre-reading activities in the
new textbook English 11?
2. What is the current situation of using pre-reading activities in the new

reading lessons focusing on the pre-reading stage. 11A3 is employed as the control
group using original pre-reading activities in the textbook. While for the
experimental group (11A5), the same lessons are taught with adjusted pre-reading
activities. Analyzing and comparing the number of students‟ involvement in
teacher‟s pre-reading activities, students talking time to prove whether the
4

adaptation of textbook activities will be helpful in increasing the students‟
motivation in pre-reading stage.
Finally, a pre-test post-test experimental design was administered for the
study to reveal that providing pre-reading activities might serve as useful tools for
language teachers and reading teachers in facilitating learners‟ reading
comprehension ability. Both groups were pre-tested the same reading
comprehension passage; however, only the experimental group received the
treatment regarding pre-reading activities.
6. Expected findings
Hopefully, my study is able to:
 Explore the suitable and unsuitable points of pre-reading activities in
the new textbook English 11.
 Investigate into the current situation of pre-reading stage in teaching
reading to 11
th
form at Dao Duy Tu high school.
 Seek out the effective ways of using pre-reading stage in teaching
reading to help students achieve the goals of reading lessons.
7. Significance of the research
The study highlights the vital role of pre-reading stage in offering an
overview of the materials and making the structure and organization of the text for
students. The research, hence, makes an important contribution to illuminate not
only the current situation of adapting some activities in pre-reading stage at Dao

Part C - Conclusion summaries the main points presented as well as supplies
some practical suggestions to help teachers increase effectiveness of pre-reading
stage. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further possible research are also
discussed in this section.
6

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides the theoretical background of pre-reading activities,
motivation, textbook evaluation and suggested adaptation for using pre-reading
stage effectively to make reading lessons comprehensible.
I. 1. Theoretical background about pre-reading activities
I. 1. 1. Definition and the importance of pre-reading activities in teaching
reading
So far, different researchers such as Lazar (1993:83), and Graves (1995:664)
have provided many definitions of pre-reading activities. Lazar, for example,
defined pre-reading activities as activities that help students with cultural
background, stimulate student interest in the story, and pre-teach vocabulary.
Besides, Graves defined pre-reading activities as “devices for bridging the gap
between the text‟s content and the reader‟s schemata.”
It cannot be denied that pre-reading activities play a crucial important role in
motivating the students through the reading lesson. The aims of pre-reading stage
are to activate the student‟s knowledge of the subject, to provide any language
preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage and, finally to
motivate the learners to want to read the text, according to Celce-Murcia
(1991:225). Furthermore, Tudor (1989:17) called pre-reading activities
“enabling activities” because they provide a reader with the necessary background
to organize activity and to comprehend the material (these experiences involve
understanding the purposes for reading and building a knowledge base necessary for
dealing with the content and the structure of the material). They said that pre-

reading they should have good general idea of what it is about.
8

I. 2. Theoretical background about motivation
I. 2. 1. Definitions and types of motivation
It is common knowledge that motivation is thought to be important and
inevitable in most fields, without which one is difficult to succeed. Motivation to
learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual
work or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the
satisfaction experienced in this activity. According to Kleinginna (1981:6)
motivation considered as “a desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented
behavior”. Sharing the same point, Brown (2002:160) indicated that “motivation is
some kinds of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve
something”. Motivation is also suggested by Woolfolk (2001:136) as “an internal
state that arouses, directs and maintains behavior”. Moreover, “motivation involves
the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort that learners
make to learn a second language.” (Ellis, 1997:5) Overall, motivation refers to the
combination of effort and desire plus favorable attitudes toward learning the
language and occurs as a result of connection of external and internal influences.
Apparently, kinds of motivation and their features have been discussed by
scholars and psychologists, who referred to motivation which comes from inside
and from outside. Among them, Moore (1992) separated motivation into two main
categories intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation that have an important part
in classroom motivation and they are partially accessible to teacher‟s influence.
According to Moore (1992:261) “intrinsic motivation is what learners bring to
learning environment, that is, their internal attitudes: attitudes, values, needs and
personality factors.” For example, students who love to read are intrinsically
motivated to read-there is something about reading that they enjoy and that makes
them want to do it even if there is no reward for it. In addition, he said that
“extrinsic motivation originates outside the individual and is concerned with

knowledge to comprehend the new material and more importantly they will lose
their interest in reading the text.
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I. 2. 3. 2. The reading materials factors
Reading material is another important factor that greatly influences the
students‟ motivation in a reading lesson. First of all, if the reading material is
interesting and relevant to the students, it will motivate them to read more. Reading
material should have suitable contents, this means, the texts are considered suitable
will tell the students thing they do not know and introduce them to new and relevant
ideas. Secondly, reading material‟s language items such as vocabulary and
grammatical structures may have an impact on the students‟ motivation “knowing
vocabulary and structures is necessary for getting meaning from a text” (Aebersold
& Field, 1997:138). Through the texts, the students can comprehend the way the
others feel or think and make them read for themselves.
I. 2.3. 3. The teacher’s factors
Definitely, teachers also pose an important factor in motivating the students
in a reading lesson. The teachers, in fact, play the key role in creating a good
classroom environment, since it has a powerful effect on the encouragement or
discouragement of motivation to learn. Furthermore, the teachers‟ activities and
tasks are the chief component to the students‟ motivation learning reading skill.
Therefore, the teachers need to choose carefully for a specific phase of a reading
text, especially for the pre-reading stage. If not, the students will be left in confusion
and unable to get involved in dealing with the reading passage.
I. 4. Theoretical background about textbook evaluation
I. 4. 1. Definitions
Many authors have defined material evaluation so far. Hutchinson & Water
(1987:96) suggested that “evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something
for a particular purpose”. Especially, Dudley & St John (1998:128) affirmed that
“evaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to

12

(1998:236). There are several definitions of adaptations by different scholars.
Madsen & Bowen (1978: ix) claimed adaptation is an action of employing “one or
more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing,
simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content.”
Ellis, M. (1986:47) considered adaptation as the process of “retaining, rejecting, re-
ordering and modification” and Tomlinson (1998b: xi) referred to “reducing,
adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”.
I. 5. 2. The necessity of textbook adaptation when teaching foreign languages
Actually, it can be said that textbook is a key component in most language
course and it is considered as a source of language, a learning support. It is also for
stimulation and for reference. Among many important components of English
language instruction, textbooks used by language instructors are considered as the
most essential constituent to any language program.
“The textbook is an almost universal element of ELT teaching. […] .
No teaching- learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant
textbook.”
(Hutchinson & Torres, 1994:315)
Despite the above-mentioned undeniable advantages of the textbooks in
language teaching, there is no perfect course book for every course. Cunningsworth
(1984:6) stated that “No course-book will be totally suited to particular teaching
situation”. A course-book can be ideal in this situation but in the others is not.
Sheldon (1988:239) addressed lack of cultural appropriation of some textbooks, for
instance, the thinking underlying the textbook writing may be different from or in
conflict with the assumptions held by the teachers.
To sum up, teaching materials are a crucial component in any language
teaching context. So both the benefits and limitations of the use of textbooks needs
to be considered, and if the textbooks that are being used in a program are judged to
13