MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
NGUYỄN THỊ LAM GIANG
AN APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING
IN TEACHING READING SKILL
TO NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT VINH UNIVERSITY
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
Nghệ An, 2014
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
**********
NGUYỄN THỊ LAM GIANG
AN APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING
IN TEACHING READING SKILL
TO NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT VINH UNIVERSITY
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Code: 60140111
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
SUPERVISOR:
Phan Thị Hương, M.A
Nghệ An, 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
iii
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CL Cooperative Learning
CLL Cooperative Language Learning

Chart 4.8: The students’ reasons for their evaluation of reading class
Chart 4.9: The activities students often do in reading classes
Chart 4.10: The classroom interaction used in a reading lesson
Chart 4.11: Activities teachers often use in pre-reading stage
Chart 4.12: Tasks often assigned by teachers in Post-reading stage
Chart 4.13: Skills teachers often teach their students in While-reading stage
Chart 4.14: The teachers and students' difficulties in teaching and learning
reading
Chart 4.15: The frequency of organizing reading activities with CL in English
reading class
Chart 4.16: Frequency of applying CL in EFL reading classes
Chart 4.17: Suggestions made by teachers and students for improvement of
reading lessons
Chart 4.18: Comparison of the frequency of Distribution of the Pre-Test Scores
Chart 4.19: Comparison of the frequency of Distribution of the Post-Test
Scores
Chart 4.20: Students’ attitudes towards CL in reading classes
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1:Pre-test
Appendix 2: Post-test
Appendix 3: Questionnaires for teachers
Appendix 4: Questionnaires for students
Appendix 5: Questionnaires for teachers’ interview
Appendix 6: Questions for students’ interview
Appendix 7: Example of lesson plan
Appendix 8: Students’ attitude towards the application of CL method in reading
lessons
Appendix 9: Reading Comprehension Achievement Pre-test and Post-test

learn and are responsible for their teammates' learning as well as their own.
This pedagogical approach enhances student–student interaction via working
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in small groups to maximize their learning and reach their shared goal; hence
they develop their social skills while learning English language. It is believed to
help avoid competitiveness and individualism while increase opportunities to
actively construct or transform the knowledge among students. Furthermore,
research has demonstrated that CL produces higher achievement and positive
relationships among students. In short, CL is a powerful educational approach
for helping all students attain content standards and develop the interpersonal
skills for succeeding in their EFL study. Bearing this goal in mind, the author
thinks that CL needs to be implemented in the teaching of reading skill for
NEMs at VU.
With the main reasons stated above, the author aims at conducting the
study entitled “An application of Cooperative Learning in teaching Reading
skills to non-English majors at VU” with the hope of contributing to the
process of teaching and learning English for non- English majors at VU.
2. Review of previous studies related to Cooperative Learning
CL mode has been applied to maximize learner learning through
student-student interaction. Therefore, many researches on CL have been
carried out both in the world and in Vietnam up to present. Following are some
of the previous studies on this topic.
International
In 1992, a project in Texas that sought to integrate effective practices
into literacy education, an empirically based CL model, and a classroom
management model was conducted by Calderon, Tinajero & Hertz to help
teachers develop the English and Spanish language proficiency for their
students. The CL model selected was Cooperative Integrated Reading and
Composition. One of the most important outcomes of the project was the
creation of a better learning environment for the students learning English

used to teach reading texts in this coursebook.
5. Research questions
The following research questions provide the specific focus for study:
1. Are there any differences in terms of reading comprehension quality
between ESL/EFL students who are instructed with CL methodology and those
who are not?
2. How effective is the application of Cooperative Learning to teach EFL
reading skills in reading classes of NEMs at VU?
6. Significance of the study
The study is expected to enhance reading comprehension performance
of NEMs at VU and improve the reading classroom atmosphere. In addition, it
could be a good exemplar for teachers who wish to implement CL to enhance
their students’ language learning as well as their motivation to learn English.
7. Hypotheses
Based on the related literature review and the research questions, the
author hypothesizes that the participants’ EFL reading performance would be
improved thanks to the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning method.
Besides, it is also expected that the participants would have positive perception
towards the use of the cooperative reading activities in their EFL reading and
this will create a friendly atmosphere of learning.
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8. Organization of the study
The study consists of the following parts:
I. Introduction
This part presents the rationale for the study, a quick review of previous
studies related to Cooperative Learning, purpose, scope and significance of
the study and organization of this M.A thesis.
II. Literature review and theoretical background
Theoretical background related to the topic and surveys of articles,
books and other resources relevant to the study topic will be presented. This

It is difficult to define reading in a word. Many scholars and researchers
have defined it in many different ways. The definition and meaning of reading
depend largely on the purpose of the reader, on the text and textual contents,
on the attitude of the readers towards the text, on the reading materials and on
the experience and schemata of the reader. However, experts have tried to
define it differently in their own way of observation and thought.
While Marie Clay (1991:6) considers reading as “a message-getting,
problem-solving activity which increases in power and flexibility the more it is
practiced”, Grabe (1991:378) points out that to define the term of reading is
not simple: “A description of reading has to account for the notions that influent
reading is rapid, purposeful, interactive, comprehending, flexible, and gradually
developing”. Nunan (2003:68) also defines reading as “a fluent process of
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readers combining information from a text and their own background
knowledge to build meaning”. Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that
reading is not a simple skill and there are different types of skills corresponding
to the many different purposes we have for reading.
Goodman (1976:498) suggests that reading is a receptive,
psycholinguistic process. It starts with linguistic representation encoded by a
writer, and ends with reader constructed meaning. Reading is a process where
the writer encodes thought as language and the reader decodes language to
thought. It can be understood that reading is not a passive skill. It requires
frequent practice and exercise. To be an effective reader, one should make a
logical link between the language of the text and his mental perception.
Therefore, the language should suit the level and perception of the reader.
Students should enable themselves to enter the world of the text without
seeking the help from the traditional teaching method of comprehension
checks.
Besides, reading is not just an act of going through the text. It involves
certain attitudes and reactions towards the text a reader is reading. According

output to reader goals. The flexibility of reading demonstrated by fluent readers
keeps the processes and purposes aligned with each other. Reading is also a
continuously evaluative process. We evaluate how well we are reading, we
decide how we should respond to a text and we like or not what the author
says…etc. Evaluation in reading makes it a learning process. Finally, reading is
a linguistic process. It cannot be able to read without making graphemes-
phonemic connections, without recognizing the words to be read and the
structural phrases organizing the words, and without having a reasonable store
of linguistic knowledge.
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In conclusion, in learning contexts, reading comprehension can be seen
as a very active and complex process involving the content of the text, the
readers’ prior knowledge and purpose for reading as well as reading strategies
that learners use to comprehend the text. Therefore, for a student to be a
successfully independent reader, he or she must be given opportunities to
respond to the reading text individually, share responses with others, listen to
other viewpoints, and adjust his or her own interpretations about the text. To
provide such an environment, Cooperative Learning can be considered an
important option that teachers may apply in their reading classes.
2.1.2. The Sub-skills of Reading
Reading consists of a number of sub-skills which are used in different
situations with different purposes. Following are the main sub-skills of reading
comprehension process.
2.1.2.1. Skimming
Skimming refers to the way of reading in which readers quickly run their
eyes across a whole text for its gist. One of the effective series of procedures
for approaching a reading text, so called ‘SQ3R technique’- Survey-Question-
Read-Recite and Review-starts with skimming the test for an overview of main
ideas and then readers embark on more focused reading. It is also common
part of many reading tasks.

appropriate for each types of text and depends on the size of the text, the
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purpose of reading, time allowed and so on. Following are some approaches of
reading proposed by different authors:
2.1.3.1. Top-down Approach
This approach was proposed by Goodman (1976). The main feature of
this process is that “the reader comes to the text with a previously formed plan,
and perhaps, omits chunks of the text which seem to be irrelevant to the
reader’s purpose” says Urquhart and Weir (1998:42).
Nuttall (1996:16) views on Top-down approach as follows: We draw on
our own intelligence and experience - the predictions we can make, based on
the schemata we have acquired - to understand the text. We make conscious
use of it when we try to see the overall purpose of the text, or get a rough idea
of the pattern of the writer’s argument, in order to make a reasoned guess at
next step.
Expectations of the reader play “a crucial, even dominant, role” in this
process. The reader brings his/her personal experiences and views with
him/her, and those aspects largely affect the way of interpreting a text.
Goodman characterizes this approach as viewing reading as “precise,
sequential identification”. Top-down approach is precisely suggested by most
thinkers and researchers because it is directly related to the reader’s schemata
- his/her personal knowledge and experiences. Its importance can be stretched
from Nuttall (1996: 17): This enables him to predict the writer’s purpose, the
likely trend of the argument and so on, and then use this framework to interpret
difficult parts of the text. The top-down approach gives a sense of perspective
and makes use of all that the reader brings to the text: prior knowledge,
common sense, etc. which have sometimes been undervalued in the reading
class.
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2.1.3.2. Bottom-up Approach

interactive reading, a pattern is synthesized based on information provided
simultaneously from several sources. Therefore, reading is not just a one-side
approach. Both the reader and the text have their respective shares in an
interactive process.
Coady (1979) cited in Karakas (2000:27) comments that interactive
process involves three factors: conceptual abilities, background knowledge,
and process strategies. Therefore, for a successful reading a reader should
and must possess basic intellectual ability. This ability is used to make a proper
relation between the textual information and his/her existing schemata, proper
knowledge of the world, and reading strategies including familiarity with the
phonology, graphemes, and lexicon of a language.
2.1.4. Classrooms Procedures for Teaching Reading
Classroom activities are very important for the development of teaching
reading skills. Teachers should help and encourage the students to read
effectively in the class. To perform the job, teachers have to design effective
activities for teaching reading in the class as a successful teaching of reading
in the class depends largely on the proper planning of reading lessons.
Teaching techniques should be designed according to the level of the
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perception of the students. An experienced and efficient teacher knows well
when a particular technique should be used and how. However, in the teaching
of reading, there are some tested teaching techniques by recommended
experts, and these techniques can be followed in the classroom.
Williams (1996:37) has suggested that for effective teaching of reading in
the classroom, the lesson should be divided into three consecutive phases:
Pre-reading, While-reading and Post-reading. Moreover, we consider these the
main phases of the teaching Reading process.
2.1.4.1. Pre-reading
Pre-reading stage is important because it can help to ‘whet’ the students’
appetites to read. Greenwood (1998:15) argues that this procedure can help

(6) answering pre-set questions
(7) matching texts with picture, diagrams, etc.
(8) guessing meaning of unfamiliar words
The While-reading phase is significant and is the most active stage among
the three because according to Williams (1996:38), proper activities in this
phase “enable the students to understand the writer’s purpose, to understand
the text structure and to clarify text content.
2.1.4.3. Post-reading
This stage is designed to evaluate what the teacher has taught in the while-
reading stage. In the post reading stage the teacher may ask the students
about their reaction to the text, for example, the students may answer whether
they have likes and enjoyed it, or found it useful or not. If the text is found
useful, the meaning and content of it may be extended to the students’ known
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social phenomena, personal interests and knowledge or experience. In short,
activities at this stage do not refer directly to the text, but ‘grows out’ of it.
This stage is also important in teaching reading skills since it is supposed to
evaluate and examine the output and feedback from the students. Moreover,
according to Williams (1996: 39), the Post-reading phase enables the
students to consolidate or reflect up on what has been read and to relate
the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interest, experience or views.
2.2. Cooperative Learning Method
2.2.1. Definitions of Cooperative Learning Method
Cooperative Learning (CL) has been recognized with its significant role
in a broad range of endeavors, including education for many decades.
However, the term CL seems to be well-known from the 1970s when a great
deal of research and practical work began on discovering how best to harness
peer power for the benefit of learning.
Over the past forty years, different researchers have developed different
approaches to CL. Thus, CL takes many forms and definitions. Following are

manner that enhances both group and individual learning.”
Tang (1998:116) emphasizes the practices and effects of Cooperative
Learning: this method provides a non-threatening learning context for
interaction between students. During CL process, students are exposed to
other perspectives and alternatives, the share and exchange ideas, criticize
and provide feedback. Peer feedback can help students increase their
awareness of their learning aims, and of the strategies to employ to achieve
those aims. Cooperation provides “scaffolding” for mutual support and enables
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