VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES
LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

DESIGNING READING TASKS USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
AS SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS FOR THE
TEACHING OF READING SKILLS ON ESP PROGRAM TO THE
SECOND YEAR NURSE STUDENTS AT NAMDINH UNIVERSITY
OF NURSING

(SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU CHÂN THỰC NGOÀI GIÁO TRÌNH NHẰM
THIẾT KẾ NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC THÊM DÙNG ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC
TRONG CHƯƠNG TRÌNH DẠY HỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH
CHO SINH VIÊN ĐIỀU DƯỠNG NĂM THỨ HAI TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI
HỌC ĐIỀU DƯỠNG NAM ĐỊNH)
M.A THESIS Training course: MA. in TEFL No 1
Code: 60. 14.10
Supervisor: Nguyễn Bàng, M.A
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
GE: General English
ESL: English as a Second Language
NDUN: Namdinh University of Nursing
L2: Second language

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1.3.3. Reasons for using authentic materials in teaching reading skills 19
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1.3.4. Limitations of authentic materials and some solutions 20
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22
2.1. Selection of participants 22
2.2. Methods of data collection 22
2.3. Data analysis 23
2.3.1. Findings from the questionnaire 23
2.3.2. Findings from the interviews with teachers 28
2.3.2.1. The aims of the teachers when using authentic materials as supplementary
reading materials 28
2.3.2.2. The advantages and drawbacks of using authentic materials 29
2.3.2.3. Ways of making use of authentic materials 30
2.3.3. Interpretations of the findings 31
2.3.3.1. Situation 31
2.3.3.2. Benefits of using authentic reading materials 31
2.3.3.3. Ways of using supplementary reading materials 32
2.3.3.4. Problems 33
CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING READING TASKS USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
AS SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS FOR THE
TEACHING OF READING SKILLS FOR 2
ND
-YEAR NURSE
STUDENTS AT NDU 35
3.1. Suggested activities to exploit supplementary for teaching reading skills
35
3.1.1. Organizing a lot of pair/group work 35
3.1.2. Getting supports from students 36
3.1.3. Using a lot of role-plays, and simulations 36

regulated market one. To meet the requirements of the economic renovation, the national
system, particularly health care education, including Namdinh University of Nursing
which is one of the leading centers in training nurses in Vietnam must reform its training
objectives, curriculum design as well as its pedagogical and training methodologies. Only
by doing so, can the university provide society with high quality „products‟, that is,
nurses who are not only well qualified but also active, creative, flexible and adaptable to
the rapidly changing health care system.
Since the academic year 2004, English for Nurses has been included as a
compulsory subject in the curriculum of training students for a bachelor of nurse at
Namdinh University of Nursing (NDUN). It is aimed at providing the nurse students with
background knowledge and a system of terms related to the topic resource, which help
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them develop their communicative competence in English about health care areas in
general and about nursing in particular.
As English for Nurses is newly taught at our department, we share an agreement
that it is vital to design interesting classroom activities which can motivate the students‟
enthusiasm and involvement in an EFL classroom, and particularly for the nurse students
and such activities should be useful and related to their future jobs. Being aware of
English serving as a bridge to connect Vietnam‟s nursing to the world‟ advanced nursing;
much attempt has been made to improve the teaching and learning of English for Nurses.
The main purpose is to help students cope with materials on Nursing in English, thus
they can read medical books, journals and other related reference materials for further
study for their work after graduation.
However, after some years, the materials, which has been used revealed failure to
meet students‟ needs and not very motivating them. The materials so do not appear
helpful enough to assist students to improve their English for Nurses. They have
difficulties in memorizing and using the language due to the short diversity of grammar
structures and system of contents. Thus, students are not usually engaged in the reading
activities, or they do not concentrate on or involve in the reading tasks because the

year nurse students at Namdinh University of
Nursing. It also suggests some techniques for designing reading tasks
using authentic materials to teach reading skills, including how to choose
authentic materials, what reading activities to design and how to design
them.
3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
As this is a small-sized scale study, a number of issues would be beyond the
scope of the study and would be best dealt with in a further study, for example a research
of the whole process of teaching reading skills or conducting reading skills in class. It
would be focused on the ways to develop the use of supplementary reading materials on
nursing for the second year nurse students.
4. METHODS OF THE STUDY
First of all, intensive and extensive reading would help equip the author with
sufficient knowledge and gain data for the literature review. Secondly, survey,
questionnaires, class observation as well as interview would be made among the second
year nurse students and their teachers at Namdinh University of Nursing.
5. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
This part has introduced rationales, objectives, scope and methods of the study
Chapter one deals with theoretical back ground concerning the features of ESP in
general and English for Nurses in particular, authentic materials, reading and reading task
design.
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Chapter two studies in the use of authentic materials in teaching reading skills on
English for Nurses to the second year nurse students.
Chapter three introduces some ways to exploit supplementary materials for
teaching reading. Also from the information in chapter 3, implications for reading task
design will be presented.
The conclusion presents the review of the study, recommendations for further
study

English (GE).
Absolute characteristics
 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners;
 ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline
it serves;
 ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis and register), skills,
discourse and genres appropriate to the activities.
Variable characteristics
 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;
 ESP may use in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that
of General English;
 ESP is likely designed for adult learners, either at the tertiary level institution
or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at the
secondary school level;
 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students;
 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but
it can be used with beginners.”
The absolute characteristics refer to the teaching methodology as well as the
language elements. ESP makes use of an underlying methodology and activities of the
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discipline it serves. Both the methodology and activities used in the ESP classroom,
therefore, are different from those of GE. However, an important feature, which
characterizes ESP as being different from other general language courses, is that the
domains not only relate to distinctive content, but also to discipline-specific lexis, genres,
and registers (Munby, 1978; Gibbs, 1991)
1.1.2. Characteristics of English for medical purposes in general and nursing in
particular
1.1.2.1. Characteristics of English of medical terminology
(i) English medical terms derived from Greece and Latin, especially derivatives and

(ix) Medical terms in abbreviation
E.g. SARS, AIDS, DOA (dead on arrival), FUO (fever of unknown
origin)
1.1.2.2. Grammatical features of English for medical purposes
Grammatical items which are dominantly employed in medical English
(i) Tenses
According to the time axis, tenses in English include past tense, present tense and
future tense. Tenses show the time of the actions. In the other words, tenses indicate that
the actions happen with time.
ESP in medicine in general and in nursing in particular, present simple, present
perfect and progressive are commonly used to describe diseases, medical history and
medical/nursing procedures. To describe diseases such as present simple is used like this
“cholera is a serious bacterial disease spread through food and water which has been
infected by Vibrio cholerae” (Collin, 2004:71). To ask for medical history of a woman
who is in the family planning clinic, a sentence “How long has the coil been fitted?” is
used. And to describe nursing procedures, nurses often say to the doctors these sentences
“He has had his medication and is feeling sleepy or I have taken Mr. Pool’s temperature,
but I haven’t checked his blood pressure yet.”
(ii) Mood
Mood is a set of contrasts which are often shown by the form of the verb and
which express the speaker‟s or writer‟s attitude to what is said or written. Three moods
have often been distinguished: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.
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Indicative mood is the form of the verb used in declarative sentences or questions.
In English for Nurses, declarative sentences or questions are commonly used in
conversations between nurses and patients for example:
Nurse (N): How are you feeling?
Patient (P): I feel hot. What does the thermometer say?
N: Yes, you do have fever. Your temperature is a little over 38. Have you got sore

Basic noun phrase and complex noun phrase are discussed in the following part.
Simple sentence which covers all seven structures is employed in English for
medical purpose: (i) SVO; (ii) SVC; (iii) SVA; (iv) SVOO; (v) SVOC; (vi) SVOA; (vii)
SV.
Examples: (i) SVO
- Today’s strict rules for drug-testing owe a great deal to Thalidomide.
(Nursing 1)
- The technology of modern medicine has prolonged human life and reduced
human suffering.
(ii) SVC
- Shock is a life-threatening condition.
(iii) SVA
- The patient is wheeled into the operating room (English for nurses)
(iv) SVOO
- Can you prescribe something for me?
(v) SVOC (positions)
- She is taking the patient to the E.N.T ward (English for nurses)
(vi) SVOA
- The surgeon corrected a heart valve defect with a tiny balloon-catheter
(vii) SV
- He is recovering
Kinds of complex sentences are commonly used in English for medical purposes
According to Cob Build (1990) conditional clause is used to talk about possible
situation and its consequences. Sentences containing conditional clauses are called
conditional sentences and usually begin with if or unless. These clauses are often used to
give instructions or warning in medical English. “If you have fever, unexplained weight
loss, nigh sweats and a persistent cough, see the doctor immediately or If you have a
parent or sibling with type one diabetes, your chance of developing the disease
increases.”
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different strategies suitable to dissimilar text-types. Therefore, developing skills and
strategies to deal with different text-types is a pressing necessity to readers in general
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since in real life, they usually apply various ways of reading in stead of one individual
way and learners of a reading course in particular.
Apparently, reading is a language skill essential to any language learners not only
for their academic study but also for their future profession. Reading is even more crucial
and significant to ESP learners if it is agreed that the most fundamental purpose of
learning ESP is to process a tool that enables learners to deal with the enormous bulk of
literature in their career life.
From Strevens‟(1980) perspective, “ ESP may be restricted as to the language
skills to be learnt (e.g. reading only). This pinpoints the significance of reading skills in
facilitating the learning of general English and especially ESP. Hutchinson and Waters
(1987) favored a learning-centered approach in teaching ESP materials with its
underlying processes of reasoning and interpreting are decisive and helpful in the
extraction of meaning from discourse despite the surface form such as word
arrangements, visual layout of a text or equivalent between the mother tongue and the
target language, etc. In other words, due to the underlying interpretive strategies, the
learner can cope with the surface firm, for example guessing the meaning of words from
context, using visual layout to determine the type of text, exploiting cognates (i.e words
which are similar in the mother tongue and the target language). It is parent that the
reasoning and deducing processes involved in the learning process of ESP are associated
with the reading process. They are common and essential to any learner of any language
to be successful in their learning. “It is argued that learning skills are not language-
specific but universal and that there is a core of language (for example, certain structures
of arguments and forms of presentation) which can be identified as “academic” and
which is not subject-specific.” (Chivavelu, 1980, quoted in Hutchinson and Waters,
1987: 13)
Thus, reading strategies are what language learners in general and ESP learners in

(grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions, and discourse) are not considered as
tasks in our view. Rather they are called exercises. In similar way, activities that requires
some attention to meaning but do not involve communicating new messages to others
(e.g. “question and answer” practice) are also not considered as tasks
A task usually involves real-world processes of language use. In other words, it
engages learners in a language activity that is normally found in the real world, for
example, completing a form, or that at least resembles those activities occurring in real-
world communication, for example in drawing pictures learners engage in asking and
answering questions to clarify and negotiate meaning. In this way, learners function
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primarily as language users rather than language learners and thus their communication is
more purposeful and authentic.
As for me, the author of this thesis, gives a more simple definition of task; task is
a meaning-focused activity that a teacher asks his/her students to do to achieve a
particular learning goal during a limited time.
Finally, it should be noted that learning cannot occur without tasks. By
completing meaningful and authentic tasks learners can improve their language
proficiency.
(ii) Types of task
There are different types of task, which can be information gap activities, jigsaws,
ordering and sorting activities, problem solving activities, conversation grid activities,
and discussions can foster interaction in the classroom. Willis (1996) classifies them into
different groups:
- Listing tasks include brainstorming and fact-finding. The outcome is a
completed list of fact or ideas.
- Ordering and sorting tasks include sequencing, ranking, categorizing, and
classifying. The outcome is a set of information ordered and sorted according to specified
criteria.
- Comparing tasks include matching, finding similarities and differences. The

marking and labeling. Use marked text
as basis for summary (diagrammatic
or note form)
Text completion
- Word completion (selected words
deleted from the text)
- Phrases completion (selected
phrases/clauses deleted from the
text)
- Sentence completion (selected
sentences deleted from the text)
Sequencing
- Selected segments of text arranged
in logical/time sequence (text cut
into segments representing steps,
event, etc.)
- Segments of text classified (text cut
into segments representing certain
categories of information)
Prediction
- Pupils predict next events/steps or
stage after reading segments of text
(text segments presented a section
at a time)
Table completion
- Pupils fill in cells of table using row
and column headings and text as
sources of information (teacher
provides row and column headings)
- Pupils devise row and column


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Table 1- Types of reading tasks
Practically, the reading tasks above are really useful in teaching reading skills as
it can cultivate teachers as well as student‟s knowledge and skills.
(iv) Criteria of a good reading task
In “Second Language Teaching and Learning” (1999:262) Nunan extracts Davis‟
arguments for good reading tasks that are characterized by the following features:
- typically make use of authentic and challenging texts
- provide students with a rhetorical or topical framework for processing and
analyzing the text
- frequently involve an oral reading of the text by the teacher or a student followed
by silent reading and rereading of the text
- involve students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question
answering
- frequently involve the transfer of information from the text to a visual or
diagrammatic representation.
In order to make a good reading task for English for Nurses, the teacher should
take these criteria into consideration.
(v) Guidelines for designing reading tasks
Notably, different language learners have different language proficiency. Apart
from all which are already mentioned, task designers should pay attention to some
characteristics of a task that may affect the appropriate difficulty level.
- Tasks that require processing less information tend to be easier than tasks which
require processing more information.
- Tasks that require processing information from just one location in the text tend
to be easier than tasks which require integrating information scattered throughout
the text.
- Tasks that require recalling exact content tend to be easier than tasks which

result, time allocation for this is nearly two-third of the whole lesson.
 Post-reading stage
This is the last phrase of a reading lesson so it is the time of students‟ production.
What they produce will reflect how well they understand the text. “The post-reading
stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text
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to the learners‟ own knowledge, interests or views” (William (1984: 39)). Normally, it
takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage.
All above stages are important; however, it is not necessary to go through all of
them on every occasion. Depending on the aims of the lesson, the teacher may apply
these stages as time allocation for each section appropriately.
1.3. AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
1.3.1. Definition of authentic materials
The term “authentic materials” has been defined in a number of ways. Authentic
materials are the kind of materials designed for native speakers of English used in the
classroom in a way in similar to the one they are designed for. For example, a radio news
report brought into the class so that students discuss the report on pollution in the city
where they live.
Nunan (1989:54) describes authentic materials as any materials which are not
specifically produced for the purposes of language teaching. Also, authentic materials
can be understood as anything a native speaker of English would hear or read or use.
Authentic materials can be theater programs, newspapers, magazines, poems, songs,
brochures, information leaflets, menus, new broadcasts, films, or videos and so on.
(Bang, Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen, 2002).
Generally speaking, authentic language is used by native speakers communicating
in spoken form or in written form.
1.3.2. How authentic materials have been used in language teaching
The use of authentic materials in EFL classroom is what teachers are involved in
foreign language teaching, which has discussed in recent years.

language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teachers
can keep abreast of such changes.
- Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in
the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value. As teachers, we are
educators working within the school system, so education and general
development are part of our responsibilities.
- Authentic materials provide Ls with a wide selection of everyday
vocabulary which textbooks do not often include.
- The same piece of material can be used under different circumstances if
the task is different.
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- Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teachers
can keep abreast of such changes.
- Reading texts are ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, e.g.
students are given a new article and asked to look for specific information
(amounts, percentages, etc). Students read to news reports and they are
asked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc (ability to
detect key words).
- Books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide variety of text
types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials.
- They can encourage reading or listening for pleasure because they are
likely to contain topics of interest to Ls, especially if students are given
the chance to have a talk about the topics or kinds of authentic materials to
be used in class.
In general, there has been a trend towards bringing classroom reading practice as
close to the real world reading as possible, especially for the teaching of English for
Nurses. The need for and the usefulness of authentic materials has been increasingly
acknowledged.
1.3.4. Limitations of authentic materials and some solutions