VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
***

NGUYỄN CHÍ DŨNG
ADVANCES IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS EMPLOYABLE
FOR THE TEACHING OF READING COMPREHENSION
TECHNIQUES TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS
AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

(Những thành tựu mới trong Anh ngữ học có thể ứng dụng vào việc giảng dạy
kĩ năng Đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất
Trường Cao đẳng Công nghệ Viettronics)

M.A. Minor Thesis

Filed : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60 14 10

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1. Review of literature 4
1.1. Introduction 4
1.2. An Overview on the Nature of Reading 4
1.2.1. Definition of reading 4
1.2.2. Definition of reading comprehension 5
1.2.3. Reading process 6
1.3. Types of reading 6
1.3.1. Manner of reading 7
1.3.2. Purposes of reading 8
1.4. Some advances in English linguistics employable for the teaching of reading
comprehension techniques 8
1.4.1. Extensive reading 9
1.4.1.1. Extensive reading definitions 9
1.4.1.2. Extensive reading vs Intensive reading 11

iv
1.4.1.3. Using extensive reading in the language class 12
1.5. Previous research studies 14
1.6. Summary 15
CHAPTER 2: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF
TEACHING AND LEARNING READING AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE (VTC) 17
2.1. Introduction 17
2.2. An Overview on Viettronics Technology College 17
2.3. Teachers and Teaching Methods 18
2.4. Materials and Assessments 18
2.5. Data Collection, Findings and Discussion 19
2.5.1. Data Collection 19

3.2.10. The teacher is a role model of a reader 33
3.3. Summary 34
PART III: CONCLUSION 35
1. Recapitulation 35
2. Limitations and suggestions for further research 37
REFERENCES 38
APPENDIX I
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS
ABBREVIATIONS
VTC: Viettronics Technology College

rate of world economy. Using English as a useful means of communication is really in
need. Furthermore, to have good chances to find out stable jobs as well as to get high
social positions, one of the key factors to the success is good at English. For the reasons,
teaching and learning English is getting highly development in the world.
Learners of English must concern in four practical skills in English as reading, speaking,
writing and listening. Obviously and surely, most of learners want to be the masters of all.
Some of them pay attention to speaking and listening, they consider speaking and listening
as a tool for the communication and realization of their goal. Also, writing is important and
necessary for others because of their office documents, reports and business letters etc.
requirement. However, most of them confirm reading is one of the most complex skills. It
is difficult for them to focus on reading, especially for reading texts with lengthy and
unknown words. They also complain that the reading classes are boring and they feel bored
because they are able to understand a little about the subject they are reading. Therefore
teachers need to have some new advances to improve reading skill for learners. Learners
must be taught how to read and teachers should give best methods and new advances in
reading to motivate and develop learners’ reading skill.
Viettrronics Technology College, a seven – year – old College is located in Hai Phong city
has four faculties, Basic department, Electrical and Electronics department, Information
Technology department and Economic Administration department. We, English group
belong to Basic department so we teach for non- English major students who are offered
reading course in Lifelines book (Elementary by Tom Hutchinson) for the first term and
second term. For the first year students have to face up with quite a lot of problems in
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learning reading because most of them have just graduated from high school. They seem to
lack of basic background knowledge of reading. Moreover, they are not acquainted with
lengthy and unknown words reading texts in limitation time. They only have two periods
to read and carry out a reading text in each lesson that cause them many difficulties in
reading and understanding the text. That is also the reason why the first year students often
have to look up new words and write down everything the teachers explain. As a certain

difficulties in reading and choose the best suitable advances using for teaching of reading
comprehension techniques to first year students at Viettronics Technology College.
4. Scope of the study
The main focus of the study is the employment of extensive reading as a possible way of
teaching reading comprehension techniques to help non- English major students to solve
reading texts, especially, lengthy and unknown words texts. Due to the limitation of time,
the author will pay more attention to survey on the first year students of Economic
Administration department at VTC to investigate reading difficulties that students are often
coped with then give some principles of extensive reading employable for the teaching of
reading comprehension techniques to motivate them better in their reading skill.
5. Design of the study
This minor thesis is divided into three parts
Part A “Introduction” firstly, introduce how important English language is in
modern society. The students’ demands for studying English including four skills: reading,
speaking, listening and writing as well as students’ attitude to these. Secondly, talk a little
about the difficulties in studying reading comprehension at VTC. Thirdly, presents the
background aims, objectives, research methods, scope and design of the study.
Part B: Consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Reviews literature and the literature of previous works and some linguistic
concepts concerning to research topic such as definitions of reading, definitions of reading
comprehension, types of reading, reading comprehension, definition of extensive reading,
extensive reading versus intensive reading etc.
Chapter 2: Analyzes the general learning situation at VTC, teachers and their teaching
methods, materials and assessment, especially, data collection, finding and discussion also
will be focused in this chapter.
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Chapter 3: Gives the employment of extensive reading as a possible way of teaching
reading comprehension techniques to the first year students at VTC.
Part C: “Conclusion” summarizes what is obtained in this study and shows the limitations

take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning”.
Harmer (1989:153) states that “eyes receive the message and the brain has to work out the
significance of the message”. He views reading from a different perspective and he
consider reading as a mechanical process.
Obviously, Experts give different reading definitions but they all share the same idea that
reading includes reader, text, reading process and reading message.
1.2.2. Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays a very important part in teaching and learning reading a
foreign language. It is the ability to understand information in a text and interpret it
appropriately. So that:
Swam (1975:1) states “a student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read
accurately and efficiently to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of
understanding”.
Grellet (1981:3) proposes “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means
extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”.
Lenz (2000:3) also says “reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning
from the text”. It means that reading comprehension consists of at least two people, the
reader and the write. Thus, the process of comprehending involves decoding the writer’s
words and using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the
writer’s passage.
On the whole, reading comprehension is the process that helps readers obtain information
in a text and understand it appropriately. - 6 -

1.2.3. Reading process
Kamil (1986) claims that there have been three general orientations of reading models:
bottom-up models (text – based), top- down models (reader – based), and interactive
models (balanced – models)


Figure 1: The traditional types of reading
1.3.1. Manner of reading
According to Doff (1988), reading is divided into two main types: reading aloud and silent
reading in which “reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also
saying it”. This type is considered as a good way to convey necessary information to the
other but it is not common activity outside classroom. However, there is also other
researcher consider reading a loud as a way for students to make the connection between
Manner
Purposes
Reading aloud
Silent reading

Grellet (1981:19) states that “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and
often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so”. This type of reading use
to read the text rapidly to find a specific piece of information.
Unlike skimming and scanning, extensive and intensive reading are viewed differently.
While extensive reading is associated with long texts and is used to read for pleasure with
emphasis on overall meaning. Intensive reading pays attention to short texts with detailed
information.
1.4. Some advances in English linguistics employable for the teaching of reading
comprehension techniques.
According to Jack C. Richards (2003), reading is divided into three types:
Extensive, Intensive and Oral reading. The figure 2 shows the general picture of these
types.

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INTENSIVE READING

Cohesion
Scanning
Skimming
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Richard Day and Bamford (2004) consider extensive reading as ten principles:

Principles
Descriptions
1
The text should be easy for students
Should not give many unknown words to students.
2
Teachers should present students with many kinds of reading
materials (books, stories, topics, genres )
3
Students should be given the possibility of selecting what they
want to read
4
Readers should read as much as they can
5
The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure,
information and general understanding.
6
Reading is its own reward
7
Extensive reading should be silent and at the students’ pace.
8

meaning of unknown words. Material consists of short stories, plays or articles from
newspapers and magazines. A few adaptations of vocabulary and structure will be made.
The style of writing should entail a certain a number of repetition without monotony. And
it is intended to develop good reading habits, to build up knowledge of vocabulary and
structure and to enable students to get independence in basic skill development.
In contrast, the purpose of intensive reading is to practice and learn the grammar and
vocabulary of the target language through reading. Students are involved in looking inside
the texts at the vocabulary and grammar, and is paying attention to a “detail reading” of the
texts.
According to Holden (2003), there are ten features of an intensive reading approach.
Firstly, the material is often collected by teachers. Secondly, Most of students have the
same document at the same time in their class. Thirdly, the text is not very long enough for
students to practice. Next, there is a heavy emphasis on using the texts to study new words
structures and grammar. Then, there are many difficult words that appear in the reading
texts. Sixthly, Vocabulary is explained by translation. Seventhly, there is a pre-reading
task. Eighthly, comprehension is tested. Ninthly, there are post-reading grammar and
vocabulary exercises. Finally, students rarely meet new words again in later lessons.
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Certainly, there is very little practice of the skill of reading. The students will be unable to
read fast because of many unknown words. The students often give up reading to use
dictionary, ask their teacher for explanation, or analyze the texts word-by-word. Beside
that the texts may or may not create interest for students because it is selected by teachers.
Obviously, intensive reading gives students the opportunity to learn new word, practice
grammar and have tightly relationship with the topic of the texts. However, only with
intensive reading is not enough to be a good reader, students’ reading skills will be
widened and developed better by using extensive reading.
1.4.1.3. Using extensive reading in the language class.
Firstly, extensive reading can provide comprehension input.
Krashen (1982) states that “extensive reading will lead to language acquisition, provide

Stotsky (1983) and Krashen (l984) reviewed a number of L1 studies that appear to show
the positive effect of reading on subjects' writing skills, indicating that students who are
prolific readers in their pre-college years become better writers when they enter college. L2
studies by Hafiz & Tudor (l989) in the UK and Pakistan, and Robb & Susser (1989) in
Japan, revealed more significant improvement in subjects' written work than in other
language skills. These results again support the case for an input-based, acquisition-
oriented reading program based on extensive reading as an effective means of fostering
improvements in students writing.
The sixth benefit of ER is that it can motivate learners to read.
Reading material selected for extensive reading programs should address students' needs,
tastes and interests, so as to energize and motivate them to read the books. In Yemen, this
was achieved through the use of familiar material and popular titles reflecting the local
culture (e.g. Aladdin and His Lamp). Bell & Campbell (1996, 1997) explore the issue in a
South East Asian context, presenting various ways to motivate learners to read and
explaining the role of extensive reading and regular use of libraries in advancing the
reading habit.
And it can consolidate previously learned language.
Extensive reading of high-interest material for both children and adults offers the potential
for reinforcing and recombining language learned in the classroom. Graded readers have a
controlled grammatical and lexical load, and provide regular and sufficient repetition of
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new 1anguage forms (Wodinsky & Nation, 1988). Therefore, students automatically
receive the necessary reinforcement and recycling of language required to ensure that new
input is retained and made available for spoken and written production.
The eighth is that it helps to build confidence with extended texts.
Much classroom reading work has traditionally focused on the exploitation of shorts texts,
either for presenting lexical and grammatical points or for providing students with limited
practice in various reading skills and strategies. However, a large number of students in the
EFL world require reading for academic purposes, and therefore need training in study

institution in the province of Buenos Aires. She proved that Extensive reading (ER) is not
only important and compulsory in Ll but also can be extended to L2 and FL programs
since the teaching of another language apart from the mother tongue is included as
compulsory in the curriculum. In her conclusion, she said that, educators will necessarily
have to work on ER more in these days when a world in constant change will need, in the
near future, students who can enlarge their knowledge of the world through their native as
well as another language.
Macalister (2008) claimed that the integration of the reading reflected teacher and learner
differences, and supported that the way in which extensive reading is included in a
program should be determined by the specific language learning environment.
Renandya, Rajan, and Jacobs (1999) conducted a study on the impact of extensive reading
(ER) on the language proficiency of a group of Vietnamese government officials studying
English. They came to a conclusion that ER can indeed be beneficially implemented with
second language learners beyond the age of university undergraduates.
All the studies prove that ER is good for students, like Krashen (l993:23) states after
reviewing hundreds of research studies in both first and second language learning contexts:
Reading is good for you. The research supports a stronger conclusion, however. Reading is
the only way, the only way we become good readers, develop a good writing style, an
adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar, and the only way we become good spellers
1.6. Summary
There are a lot of definitions concerning reading in general and extensive reading in
particular but it can be summarized with some main points. Firstly, reading is often
referred to as the most important of the four language skills for students. Traditionally, the
types of reading are divided into scanning, skimming, extensive reading and intensive
reading. Secondly, Bam ford and Day (2004) explain extensive reading as a set of ten
principles. Thirdly, extensive reading can be conducted in different ways.
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Bell (1998) provides several role of extensive reading in language learning such as ER can
provide comprehensible input, enhance students’ general language competence, increase


CHAPTER 2:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF
TEACHING AND LEARNING READING
AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE (VTC).
2.1. Introduction
This chapter starts with an overview on VTC with background, facility and briefly trend of
development. Then some information about students and learning requirements are given.
In addition, teaching methods, materials and assessments, and data collection are also
analyzed in this chapter.
2.2. An Overview on Viettronics Technology College.
Viettronics Techonogy College was established in 2003 and now it is located at 118 Cat Bi
street, Hai An district, Hai Phong city. Because of a newly founded college, there are a lot
of difficulties with nearly 130 students into four classes and over ten teachers and staffs for
the first year.
Currently, VTC has over 73 classes with nearly 5,000 students and over 130 teachers and
staffs at which four departments as Basic department, Electrical and Electronics
department, Information technology department and Economic administration department.
We, English group belong to Basic department so we teach for non- English major
students.
This figure shows the quick development of our college as well as the potential for
teachers to access to students’ variable requirements.
The English teaching at VTC is divided into two parts. At the first part, students have to
study general English for two terms. In the first term (15 weeks), They have to learn four
skills but they much focus on listening and speaking skills and they have to much pay
attention to reading and writing at the second term (15 weeks) and this term also equips
background knowledge as well as reading skill for students before starting learning ESP
for the second part (in the third and the fourth term) so that reading skill seem to be very
important for students, especially for the first year students. In addition, teachers’ role and
the way of teachers’ teaching reading have great influences on students.

activities, while-reading activities, post-reading activities), and at the end of the reading
texts are exercises for ideas or information from the text. Therefore teachers will be
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depended on too much the text in this book. They become lazy for finding extra materials
or extensive activities to improve students’ habit of reading as well as their reading ability
development. And the last part of this material is listening, speaking and pronunciation.
2.5. Data Collection, Findings and Discussion
2.5.1. Data Collection
2.5.1.1. The Subject
The subjects of the study are 210 students of elementary level (including of 4 classes
KTK7A, KTK7B, QTK7E, QTK7F) of Economic Administration department at VTC.
Both male and female students’ ages are from 19 to 22 and they come from different areas
of Viet Nam as Thai Binh, Quang Ninh, Bac Giang, Ha Noi, even there are some students
who come from mountainous or remoted religions as Cao Bang, Lang Son Now they are
studying for the second term at VTC.
2.5.1.2. Data collection instruments
In this study, the researcher used survey questionnaire as a main means of data collection
to get information concerning. The questionnaire was designed with 20 questions divided
into 4 parts. The first part pointed out students’ attitude towards the role of reading English
to their learning and their future career (question 1). The second part dealt with students’
attitude towards the reading text in Lifeline- Elementary book (questions 2-5). The third
part gave students’ activities in reading (pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading),
(questions 6-13). And the last part emphasized students’ attitude towards the activities of
their teacher in the reading lesson (questions 14-20). From the information, the researcher
can give some advances in English linguistics employable for the teaching of reading
comprehension techniques to first year students at Viettronics Technology College.

1%
2%
40%
57%
not important
not very important
important
very important