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

HỒ THỊ XUÂN HỒNG

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING
SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED
ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY
(KHẢO SÁT VỀ THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO
SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC CÓ TRÌNH
ĐỘ KHÔNG ĐỒNG ĐỀU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LÂM NGHIỆP
VIỆT NAM)
M.A Minor programme thesis

Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 60 14 10

HANOI, 2010
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI


UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

HỒ THỊ XUÂN HỒNG

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING
SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED
ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY

6. Organization of the study .......................................................................................... 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT ......................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 4
1.1. Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning ............................... 4
1.1.1. Definition of reading comprehension .................................................................... 4
1.1.2. Models of reading process ..................................................................................... 5
1.1.2.1. Bottom-up model ................................................................................................ 5
1.1.2.2. Top-down model................................................................................................. 5
1.1.2.3. Interactive model ................................................................................................ 6
1.1.3. Features of an effective reading lesson .................................................................. 6
1.1.4. Reading problems and solutions ............................................................................. 7
1.1.5. Stages of a reading lesson ...................................................................................... 8
1.1.5.1. Pre-reading stage ................................................................................................ 9
1.1.5.2. While-reading stage ............................................................................................ 9
1.1.5.3. Post-reading stage ............................................................................................... 10
1.2. Theory of mixed-ability classes .............................................................................. 10


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1.2.1. Definition of mixed ability classes ......................................................................... 10
1.2.2. Benefits of mixed ability classes ............................................................................ 10
1.2.3. Challenges of mixed ability classes ........................................................................ 11
1.2.4. Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes .......................................................... 12
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.......................................................... 14
2.1. The teaching context ............................................................................................... 14
2.1.1. The learners ........................................................................................................... 14
2.1.2. The teachers........................................................................................................... 15
2.1.3. The syllabus........................................................................................................... 15
2.1.4. The teaching and learning conditions ..................................................................... 15

4.2.2.1. Before reading .................................................................................................... 35
4.2.2.2. While reading ..................................................................................................... 36
4.2.2.3. After reading ....................................................................................................... 38
PART C: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 40
1. Summary of the study ............................................................................................... 40
2. Limitations of the study............................................................................................. 41
3. Suggestions for further study .................................................................................... 41
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 42
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................... i
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires ............................................................................. i
Appendix 1.A: Survey questionnaires for students .......................................................... i
Appendix 1.B: Survey questionnaires for teachers .......................................................... ix
Appendix 2: Sample reading texts .............................................................................. xvii


vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
VFU: Vietnam Forestry University
ESP: English for specific purposes
MAC: Mixed ability classes
ESL: English as second language

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS


viii

Table 1: The frequency of difficulties in teaching reading texts
Table 2: The frequency of pre-reading activities

learning of English in general and English reading skills, in particular have received a
greater deal of attention and achieved certain success because English and English reading
skills are very important for the students to read their major’s documents in English and
very useful for their job later. However, the effectiveness of teaching and learning reading
skills is still limited, especially to the first year students. This problem may be resulted
from some factors. Firstly some teachers have been accustomed to traditional teaching
methods. They often waste much of their time explaining new words and grammatical
structures for final exams instead of providing different reading strategies for different
reading tasks to develop the students’ reading skills. The text, therefore, plays as a source
of materials for language lessons instead of skill lessons. Secondly, achieving effectiveness
in teaching reading skills become more challenging when all English classes in this
university consist of a large number of students with different language learning ability.
The other reasons may come from the reading materials, syllabus and teaching and
learning conditions.
As a teacher of English in VFU for nearly four years, this situation encourages the author
to investigate the advantages as well as the disadvantages of this issue and give some
suggestions for better learning and teaching English reading skills to the first year students.


2

2. Aims of the study
The major purposes of this study are:
(1) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to
the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU.
(2) to give some suggestions to make use of the advantages and overcome the
disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability
classes at VFU?
These objectives will be achieved by finding the answers to the three following questions:
(1). What are the advantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in

Part B is the development which consists of 4 chapters:
Chapter 1, which serves as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the
study reviews the literature relevant to the topic.
Chapter 2 presents the research methodology.
Chapter 3 refers to the results and discussion of the survey in addition to the
summary of the main findings.
Chapter 5 is the implications which include some suggestions for better teaching
and learning reading to the first year students in MAC in VFU.
Part C is the conclusion that summarizes what has been done through the study, presents
the limitations and gives some suggestions for further researches.


4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews theories and previous researches related to reading comprehension
skill as well as mixed ability classes (MAC). It serves as a basis for an investigation into
teaching reading in MAC which is presented in the next chapter.
1.1. Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning
1.1.1. Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreign
language. Having a deep understanding about nature of reading is very essential because
what teachers understand about it will have a great influence on what they teach in the
class. In fact, methodologists and researchers have been provided with different definitions
of reading comprehension.
According to Grellet (1981, p.3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text
means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author
means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of
word combination in the text in the most efficient way.

most important ones.
1.1.2.1. Bottom-up model
In Christine Nuttall (19820)’s opinion, “In bottom-up processing, the reading builds up a
meaning from the back marks on the page: recognizing letters and words, working out
sentence structure” (p.17)
David Nunan (1991, p.64) shared the same opinion that “the bottom-up approach is
basically a matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural equivalent”.
It is certain that in bottom-up process, readers focus on individual words and phrases and
achieve understanding by combining the detailed elements together. This model helps
readers much understand the elements in the text such as vocabulary and grammar
structure. However, this kind of reading process reveals some shortcomings.
According to Christine Nuttall (1982, p.17), if only using bottom-up model, readers cannot
believe that the apparent message was really what the writer intended. Moreover, the
reader in this case is put in a passive state and the text is treated as a grammatical unit
rather than a textual one as a whole. In addition, it was difficult to account for the role of
contextual clues and that of the reader’s prior knowledge in understanding the text.
1.1.2.2. Top-down model
In contrast to the bottom-up model, the top-down one argues that readers bring a great deal
of knowledge, expectation, assumptions, and questions to the text and they continue to read
as long as the text confirm their expectation (Goodman, 1967, p.126).
Cambourne (1979, p.78-90) had a clearer definition that
Top-down reading is an active process of prediction, selection, and confirmation in
which the reader brings to bear not only knowledge of the language, but also internal
concepts of the processing of language information, encoded in graphic, symbols, past
experimental background, general conceptual background knowledge.
These points of view indicate that top-down process emphasizes the reconstruction of
meaning rather than the decoding form. The interaction of reader and the text is the centre


6

To have a successful reading lesson, it is advisable to know the characteristics of an
effective reading comprehension lesson. According to Penny Ur (1996, p.148), an effective
reading lesson should contain the following points:
a) The language of the text is comprehensible to the learners. It is not too difficult or too easy.
b) The content of the text is accessible to the learners; they know enough about it in order
to apply their own background knowledge.


7

c) The reading process is fairly fast: mainly because the reader has automatized recognition
of common combinations, and does not waste time working out each word or groups of words.
d) The reader concentrates on the significance and skims the rest. He does not have to pay
the same amount of attention to all parts of the text.
e) The reader takes incomprehensible vocabulary in his or her stride: guess its meaning
from the surrounding text, or ignore it.
f) The reader can think ahead, hypothesize, and predict what will be next.
g) The reader can use his background information for understanding the text.
h) The reader is motivated to read by an interesting context or a challenging task.
i) The reader has a clear purpose in reading.
k) The reader uses different strategies for all texts.
All the features listed by Penny Ur above indicate the important roles of the teacher in a
successful reading lesson. Concerning to this issue, Moore (1992) said that “The teacher is
an environmental engineer who organizes the classroom space to fit their goal and to
maximize learning. The way the physical space of the classroom is organized can either
help or hinder learning”. (p.5)
Being concerned with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Marianne (2001, p57-62)
listed a lot of the teacher’s in teaching reading such as controller, organizer, assessor,
prompter, participant, resource, tutor and observer. In his opinion, all these roles aim at
facilitate the students’ process of reading.

at the headlines before reading, etc.
- Activate schemata: The reading process becomes easier if students can relate the topic to
what they already know in their real life.
Comprehension task problems
- Differentiate testing and teaching: the best kind of tasks are those which raise students
expectation, help them tease out the meaning of the text whereas tests are used to explore
students and their weaknesses, therefore, teachers should base on these purposes to choose
suitable activities in reading lessons.
- Appropriate challenge: when asking students to read, it is better if texts and tasks are
either far too easy or far too difficult. Getting the level right depends on the right match
between text and tasks. Thus whether a text is difficult or easy, it may still be used only if
the task is appropriate.
Negative expectation
When students have low expectation of reading, it will be the teacher’s job to persuade
them to change these negative expectations into realistic optimism.
- Manufacturing success: by getting the level of challenge right (in terms of language, text
and tasks), students are sure to succeed. And by giving them a clear and achievable
purpose, teachers can help them achieve that purpose.
- Agreeing on a purpose: It is important for teachers and students to agree on both general
and specific purposes for reading. Are the students trying to discover detailed information
or just get a general understanding of the text? If the students know what they are reading
for, they can choose how to deal with the text. If they understand the purpose, they will
have better chance of knowing how well they have achieved it.


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1.1.5. Stages of a reading lesson
A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre-reading stage, while
reading stage and post- reading stage. Each of these stages carries its own features and

stage

such

as

deducing

meaning,

questioning,

recognizing,

matching, ordering, following instructions, comparing, note-taking, completing and
decision-making/ problem-solving.


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It is, however, essential to be flexible in this task. The selection of any of them depends on
the nature of the reading text and the level of the students. Besides selecting suitable
activities, during the while-reading stage, the teacher should bear in mind his roles of an
organizer, observer, assessor or prompter, etc.
1.1.5.3. Post-reading stage
This is the final but not the less important stage of a reading lesson because it is time for
students to apply what they have got from the text into real life communication. In
William’s opinions (1984, p.39), the post-reading stage aims at consolidating or reflecting
upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge interest or
views. After completing the tasks in the previous stage, students may be asked to discuss

with more proficiency ones, and advanced learners benefit by using their skills to help
lower level ones negotiate learning. Students in MAC can learn to work together across
differences and develop learning communities in which members learn from one another strengths.
Ur (2005) showed a positive attitude toward MAC by listing a lot of its advantages as follows:
- Students’ knowledge, varied opinion, interests and ideas can be used in classroom interaction;
- Students increase their knowledge and awareness of the others;
- There is much more peer learning and collaboration among students since teachers are
less able to attend every individual student;
- Classes are more challenging and interesting for teachers and students.
These strengths of MAC should be taken into account to weaken a number of its
shortcomings which will be discussed in the following part.
1.2.3. Challenges of mixed ability classes
The variations in MAC may occur in different degrees in different classes. Thus, if
teachers want to ensure that all students perform to their maximum potential, they must
identify these problems and deal with them accordingly.
According to Penny Ur (2005), various differences in MAC pose a lot of teaching
problems. He considered some as the most significant ones in such MAC such as difficulty
in control discipline; difficulty to be certain that all students are learning effectively;
difficulty to find appropriate materials; difficulty to follow individual progress; and
difficulty to activate all learners’ participation.
Şalli-Çopur (2005) shared the same opinion with Penny Ur but he described the difficulties
much more clearly:
Effective learning
Because of the fact that every student has a different way of learning, and learns and
progresses at different speeds, while some students may find the learning task very easy to
deal with, others may find it difficult to understand. Besides, learning also depends on
what students have brought with them into class. Since each comes from a different family,
a different environment and/or a different nation, the multi-cultural population of the
classroom may be an obstacle for the teachers in reaching the students, which eventually
results in ineffective learning.

Teachers certainly have to do more work for class management and teaching material
preparation. Hence, lesson planning is often time-consuming and the classroom
management is exhausting. It is also difficult to use one source of teaching materials and
there is less time for each group of students.
1.2.4. Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes
Solutions to problems in MAC are suggested by many methodologists and researchers.
According to Şalli-Çopur (2005), pair/group work activities are useful in MAC. They are
not only for the teacher to observe students but also for the students to cooperate and to
learn from each other. When a strong student works with weaker students, the student can
be a source of language/knowledge in the group. The teacher, on the other hand, may form


13

groups of weaker and stronger students separated from each other, and she can give
different tasks to these groups. So the stronger and quicker students work with more
complicated tasks, whereas the weaker students deal with a simpler task or work with the
teacher as a group member.
Harmer (2008) suggested following key elements in successful large group teaching:
understand students, be organized, establish routines, use a different pace for different
activities, maximize individual work, use students, use pair and group work and take
account of vision and acoustics.
Penny Ur (2005) also recommended a variety of procedures teachers could adopt to
overcome the problems which emerge in MAC.
- To deal with discipline problems, teachers can vary tasks and materials to make the lesson
more interesting since discipline problems can associated with boredom and lack of challenges;
- For all students effective learning, teachers can individualize activities, thus students
learn at their own pace, and occasionally they choose their own tasks; teachers can
encourage compulsory plus optional instructions in which students have to do a minimal
part of the task, and the rest they do if they want to; teachers can also open ended cues, in

2.1. The teaching context
The researcher has been an English teacher in VFU, a non-English major university for 4
years. This university is situated in Xuan Mai town which is about 30 kilometers far away
from Hanoi center. This following part deals with some features of the author’s teaching
context which reveals some benefits and challenges in developing students’ English skills
in her university.
2.1.1. The learners
VFU is a non-language major university and because of its distinct forestry majors
(Sivilculture, Forest Management and Protection or Wood Processing…), many students of
this university come from remote areas. Recently, thanks to the university’s policy of job
extension, some other majors have been opened such as Accounting, Business Management,
Informatics Technology or Construction, VFU attracts quite a lot of students from cities and
other nearby provinces. Obviously, conditions of studying English in remote areas are very
poor, so apart from the difference in the students’ interest, their English proficiency is also at
different level. Students from remote areas are often worse at English than those from the cities.
In addition, although many students may come from the same area, city or province, before
entering university, some of them had learned English for 6 years, some had learned for 3
years, some had learned Russian or French and some even have never learned a foreign
language. Thus, some of them are good at English, some of them are not. Moreover, in this
university, since English is only one of the general courses, the students often have much more
concentration on their majors rather than practice English although it is very important for their
future jobs.
2.1.2. The teachers


15

There are totally 9 teachers (including the researcher) of English in this university. They
all graduated from Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages.
Of the 9 teachers, 3 of them, who used to be teachers of Russian or French have been


16

computers and projectors have not been frequently used because of some reasons. Some of
the teachers are unable to use them well. In addition, these devices have not been fixed in
the classrooms, so before each lesson, if the teachers want to use them, they have to make a
registration and call another one to bring them to the class. This situation seems to be not
vey convenient, thus the teachers are sometimes hesitant to use them. Furthermore, in the
library, except for the English text books, there are no extra references for students.
2.2. A survey on the teaching of English reading skills to the first year students in
MAC at VFU
Basing on the teaching condition, a survey was conducted to find out the strengths and the
drawbacks that the teacher in VFU encounter when teaching English reading skills here.
2.2.1. Participants
The survey was carried out with the help of 300 first year students and 9 English teachers
of VFU.
- The students are the first year students who were chosen randomly from different English
classes. Because VFU is applying the training credit system, the students of any faculty can
register to learn in one English class, so they are not from one faculty but from 6 faculties
of this university. In addition, as described in the last part (c.f. 3.1.1), they are not English
major students, they come from different provinces, and their ability to learn English is
different, too.
- The teachers are all the teachers in the foreign language department of this university.
They has experienced from 3 to 17 years of teaching English. Some of them used to be
Russian or French teachers, and the rest were fully trained to be teachers of English (c.f. 3.1.2).
2.2.2. Data collection instruments
Survey questionnaire was chosen as the instrument to collect data for the study because of
some reasons. Firstly, this kind of instrument does not take so much time to administer as
the others. Secondly, since the same questionnaire is given to all participants at the same
time, the data are more standard and accurate. Lastly, questionnaires can be easily

teachers understand much about their students’ proficiency, difficulties or learning styles,
etc. And this is the time when the students are also familiar with their teacher’s teaching
methods. Therefore they can answer the questionnaires more exactly.
Finally, the collected data was analyzed quantitatively. The results were presented in the
form of charts and tables for clear analysis and comparison.
In summary, this chapter presents some information about the survey on the teaching of
English reading skills to the first year students in MAC in VFU. It mentioned the teaching
context, the participants, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedure.
The survey’s results and discussion will be presented in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION


18

This chapter will first present the results of the survey in addition to some discussion or
comments, then summaries of main findings will be given.
3.1. Results and discussion
3.1.1. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward learning and teaching English reading skills
Questions 1, 2, 3 (Appendix 1.A & 1.B) are delivered to investigate students’ and teachers’
attitudes to the importance of reading in English and teaching reading skills to the first year
students in VFU.
Chart 1: The importance of reading in
comparison with other language
skills

Chart 2: The importance of developing
reading skills to the 1st year students
in VFU



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Teachers

0

0
A

B

C

D

A

B

C

A. more important than any language skills

A. very important

B. as important as other language skills

B. important