Phát triển tài liệu đọc thêm: Luận văn Thạc sĩ phương pháp giảng dạy tiếng Anh nâng cao khả năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 tại trường THPT tỉnh Bắc Ninh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

CAO THỊ THẮM

DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS

TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION FOR GRADE 10th STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL

IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(Phát triển tài liệu đọc nhằm nâng cao kĩ năng đọc cho học sinh lớp 10

tại một trường Trung học phổ thông ở Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Hanoi – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

CAO THỊ THẮM

DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS

TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION

FOR GRADE 10th STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL

IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(Phát triển tài liệu đọc nhằm nâng cao kĩ năng đọc cho học sinh lớp 10

tại một trường Trung học phổ thông ở Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Vu Thi Thanh Nha, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2019

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not

been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially.

Hanoi, September 2019

Cao Thị Thắm

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor

Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha who gave me a lot of valuable guidance, encouragements,

criticisms and correction throughout my thesis writing.

I am indebted to 40 students at Thuan Thanh 2 High School, who provided

me with lots of useful information via the questionnaires.

My sincere thanks go to my family, my friends for their encouragement and

support that help me to complete my work.

ABSTRACT

This thesis reports the findings of an action research study to improve

reading skill for grade 10 students at a high school in Bac Ninh province. It

attempts to find students‟ opinions of the current textbook, their difficulties in

learning reading skill in order to provide suitable supplementary reading materials

to improve students‟ reading competence. The data was collected via questionnaires

with 40 students at a high school in Bac Ninh province, diagnostic and final test

and classroom‟s observation. The findings of this study have shown that most of the

students find the reading texts in the current textbook interesting and relevant with

suitable reading tasks. However, they find it hard to improve their reading skills

because they lacked reading strategies and suitable supplementary reading

materials. The research also gave some suggestions in suitable reading materials

and reading strategies to help the students improve their reading comprehension.

Surprisingly, her students make great progress in reading skills after the

supplementation time.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................ vii

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES ................................................. viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1

1.1. Rationale for the study ..................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................. 1

1.3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 2

1.4. Significance of the study .................................................................................. 2

1.5. Methods of the study ........................................................................................ 2

1.6. Design of the Thesis ......................................................................................... 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 4

2.1. Definitions of reading, reading comprehension ............................................... 4

2.1.1. Reading ............................................................................................................. 4

2.1.2. Reading comprehension ................................................................................... 5

2.2. Types of reading skills ..................................................................................... 6

2.3. Types of reading exercises ............................................................................... 8

2.4 Factors involved in reading comprehension process of EFL learners ............ 9

2.4.1 Language knowledge........................................................................................ 9

2.4.2 Background knowledge ..................................................................................... 9

2.4.3 Motivation ........................................................................................................ 10

2.4. 4 Reading strategies .......................................................................................... 11

2.4.5 Reading materials. ........................................................................................... 11

2.4.6 Regular reading practice ................................................................................. 11

2.5. Material development in language teaching .................................................. 12

2.5.1 Definition of language teaching materials and types of materials ............... 12

2.5.2 Processes of materials development. .............................................................. 12

2.6. Supplementary materials in teaching reading skills ....................................... 15

2.7. Summary ........................................................................................................ 18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 19

3.1 Setting.............................................................................................................. 19

3.2 The participants ............................................................................................... 19

3.3 The course book .............................................................................................. 20

3.4. Research Design ............................................................................................. 20

3.4.1 Diagnosing ....................................................................................................... 23

3.4.2 Action planning .............................................................................................. 23

3.4.3. Taking action .................................................................................................. 24

3.4.4 Evaluating ........................................................................................................ 25

3.4.5. Specifying learning ........................................................................................ 25

3.5 Data collection instruments ............................................................................. 26

3.5.1. Dianogstic test và Final test ........................................................................... 26

3.5.2 Questionnaire .................................................................................................. 26

3.5.3 Teacher’s observation ..................................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 28

4.1. Phrase 1: Diagnosing the Research topic ....................................................... 28

4.1.1 The result of the dianogstic test ...................................................................... 28

4.1.2. The result of the survey questionaire ............................................................ 29

4.2. Phrase 2: The effects of using supplementary reading materials on improving

students‟ reading comprehension. ......................................................................... 35

4.3 Phrase 3: Evaluate results................................................................................ 39

4.4.Phrase 4: Discussion ....................................................................................... 40

4.5 Findings .......................................................................................................... 41

4.5.1 The students’ evaluation of the current text book for year tenth students. ... Error!

Bookmark not defined.

4.5.2. The reasons for students’ low level of reading comprehension ................... 42

4.5.3 The ways to use supplementary reading materials to improve students’

reading comprehension ............................................................................................ 42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 45

1. Conclusion of the study ..................................................................................... 45

2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study ............................... 46

3. Suggestions for further study ............................................................................ 46

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 48

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations Meanings

GCSE General cerificates of secondary

education

EFL English as a foreign language

vii

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES

Table 1: Exercises believed to be suitable to develop reading skills .......................... 8

Table 2: The result of the diagnostic test ................................................................. 28

Table 3: The students‟ opinion on level of difficulty, content and length of the

reading texts in the textbook ...................................................................... 29

Table 4: The teachers‟ and students‟ opinions on reading exercises ........................ 30

in the textbook. .......................................................................................................... 30

Table 5 : The frequency of doing reading practice outside the classtime ................. 31

Table 6: The reasons for students‟ lack of reading practice ..................................... 32

Table 7: The students‟ expectation of the supplementary reading materials ............ 34

Chart 1: The kinds of exercises that students prefer ................................................. 33

Chart 3: The result of Unit 7 ..................................................................................... 36

Chart 3: Test score of dianogstic test và final test. ................................................... 39

Figure 1: Action research spiral (adapted from Kemmis, 1983) .............................. 22

Figure 2: Detailed Action Research Model (adapted from Susman, 1983) .............. 23

viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale for the study

Nowadays, English has become increasingly important as a means of global

communication and a bridge to mankind‟s knowledge. In the process of global

integration, the teaching and learning English has become a great concern in Viet

Nam. Among the language skills, reading is at the core of language learning

instruction. It is reading that provides the foundation for success in language

learning and academic learning.

According to Carrell (1981, p.1), “reading is by far the most important of the

four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second foreign language”. Reading

involves the integration of various bottom-up and top-down skills in order to reach

the goal of comprehension. However, teaching and learning reading skill at high

schools is still far from satisfactory for various reasons. One reason why students in

general and students at a high school in Bac Ninh province, in particular, cannot

improve their reading skill is that there is not sufficient material which is suitable to

their demand and their language ability and their lack of reading strategies.

Therefore, it is essential that the researcher develop reading materials and provide reading strategies to help 10th – form students at a high school in Bac Ninh

province enhance their reading comprehension.

1. 2. Aims of the study

This study aims at improving the quality of learning English reading comprehension for 10th – form students at a high school in Bac Ninh province based

on learners‟ needs. To achieve this aim, the study has to find answers to the following

questions:

1. What is the students’opinion of the reading texts in the current used text book for grade 10th students

2. Why did the students have difficulties in reading comprhension?

3. How can teachers use supplementary reading materials to help the students to

improve their reading comprehension?

1.3. Scope of the study

To improve reading comprehension skills for 10th – form students at a high

school in Bac Ninh province, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a

number of things should be done. However, in this study, the author only intends to

a brief overview of current situation of learning reading comprehension skills in the 10th – form students of a high school in Bac Ninh province to develop reading

material that can be applied in learning reading comprehension skill so as to help

the students to become effective readers.

1. 4. Significance of the study

This study was carried out to design extra reading materials in order to

develop students‟ reading comprehension skills. Its findings hopefully would help the 10th-form students find out the suitable materials for improving their reading

comprehension skills. Regarding teachers, the study would raise their awareness

concerning the topic and provide them with useful materials to better develop their

learners‟ reading comprehension skills. Finally, with regard to researchers, those

who happen to share the same interest in the topic could certainly rely on this

research to find reliable and useful information for their related studies in the future.

1.5. Methods of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the author used action research to find

out the students‟ opinion of the currently used textbook and the problems that

students face when learning English with a view to finding the solutions to their

problems based on the results of survey questionnaire for the students, teacher‟s

observation sheets. These will be discussed in detail in chapter 2, methodology.

1.6. Design of the Thesis

The study consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction – includes the rationale, aims, scope, significance and

methodology of the study.

Chapter 2: Literature review – presents literature related to the study. The focus of

this chapter is definitions of reading, reading comprehension, the place of reading

skill in teaching a foreign language, strategies for reading comprehension and

problems in reading comprehension of English foreign language learners. This part

also mentions some criterion for developing comprehension materials.

Chapter 3: Methodology - describes the participants, data collection procedures

and data collection instrument.

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion - offers some major findings, some

suggestions for improving students‟ reading comprehension skills and a sample

work for a reading lesson of the 10th-form students.

Chapter 5: Conclusion - summarizes the main research points, points out the

limitation of the study and makes suggestions for further studies.

1.7 Summary

The focus of this chapter has been on introduction of the research. It has

clearly provided an overview of the study in terms of the statement of the problem

and the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance, the methodology of the

study, and the design of the thesis.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses different issues in the theories of reading in a foreign

language. Three major features will be presented here: the definitions reading,

reading comprehension, reading in second language, and material development in

language teaching.

2.1. Definitions of reading, reading comprehension

2.1.1. Reading

Reading is often referred to as the most important of the four language skills

for EFL learners, as it enables students to gain exposure to the target language and

receive valuable linguistic input to build up language proficiency (Erten & Razı,

2003). Reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of

connecting information in the text with the knowledge the reader brings to the act of

reading. It is seen as an active cognitive process in which the reader‟s background

knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney & Pearson, 1994).

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text,

resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and

paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies

to determine what that meaning is. So far reading has been defined differently by

lots of scholars, however no single definition is acceptable to everyone.

Goodman (1971, p.135) stated that reading is “a psycholinguistic process by

which the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which

has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”. In his opinion, readers not only

learn how to read the text, to master grammatical structures…but also understand

the content expressed in the text.

Having the same point with Goodman, William (1990, p.2) says that

“reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written”.

Accordingly, in the reading process, there are also two parallel activities: looking

and understanding. Therefore, readers have to “encode” meanings of a word depend

on the context in which it appears.

One more definition offered by Harmer (1991, p.153) shows us his opinion

and two above authors have a lot of things in common “reading is an exercise

dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive messages and the brain then

has to work out the significance of these messages”.

According to Richard and Thomas (1987, p.15), reading is best described as

“an understanding between the author and the reader. Reading is much more than

just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends; it is

the process whereby the printed page stimulate ideas, experiences and responses

that are unique to an individual.

In short, each person can have a different definition of reading and we cannot

tell which is better because each of them focuses on one important matter of

reading. However, we find that there is a close relationship between reading and

understanding. Therefore, being a language teacher, we must understand the nature

of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively.

2.1.2. Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension skill plays a very important role in teaching and

learning reading a foreign language. It has the nature of communication, in which a

reading activity acts as a means of communication between the writer and the reader.

Reading comprehension results in the fact that when readers know which

skills and strategies are appropriate for types of texts and understand how to apply

them to accomplish reading purpose. Swan (1975, p.1) states that “a student is good

at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get

the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding”. It is

obvious that the student can show his understanding only by doing some tasks such

as summarizing the text, answering questions, making true or false etc.

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.

To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only

reading comprehension can appreciate how much readers understand the text.

Therefore, how to help students have effective reading comprehension methods is

considered to be the most important part in reading teaching.

2.2. Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information. Grellet,

F (1982, p.19) says “When skimming, we go through the reading materials quickly

in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone

or the mention of the writer”.

Hedge, T. (2000, p.195) points out that “skim reading is used to get a global

impression of the content of a text. An example would be previewing a long

magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and

focusing on headings and first lines of the paragraph”.

To sum up, although expressing their ideas in different ways, both authors share

the view that skimming is a process of reading in which readers go through the reading

materials quickly so that they can get the main ideas of the reading materials.

- Scanning

Scanning occurs when a reader looks quickly through the text searching for a

specific piece of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading

purpose. Hedge, T. (2000, p.195) suggest that “Scanning involves searching rapidly

through a text to find a specific point of information, for example, the relevant times

on a timetable, items in a directory, or key points in academic text”. Scanning is the

reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question.

Scanning is an useful reading skill that may at first strange to a learner who is used

to reading everything in foreign language with the same degree of attention.

- Predicting

This is an important skill of efficient readers. Predicting uses knowledge of

the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check

comprehension as well as knowledge of the text type and purpose to make

prediction about discourse structure. Next, it uses knowledge about the author to

make predictions about writing, style, vocabulary and content.

- Inferencing

Inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to

discover the meaning of unknown elements. If these are words, then word-

formation and derivation will also play an important role. When dealing with a new

text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners. Students should be

encouraged to make a guess at the meaning of the words they do not know rather

than look up them in a dictionary. If they need to look at the dictionary to get the

meaning, they should only do so after having tried to work out a solution on their

own. Hence, it is very essential to develop the inference skill.

- Critical thinking

Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and significance of what

is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining

whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. Critical

thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity,

credibility, accuracy, precession, relevance, dept, significance and fairness.

- Summarizing

Summarizing involves putting the main ideas into your own words, including

only the main points. Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to

the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a

broad overview of the source material. Effective summarizing leads to an increase

in student learning. Summarizing helps students recognize how information is

structured and it will help them summarize what they read or hear.

2.3. Types of reading exercises

Grellet (1995) states that there are a number of exercise types focusing on the

formal organization and the contents of the text to develop reading skills. They are

classified into four main types named: reading techniques, the form analysis of the

text, the understanding of the meaning in the text, and the assessment of the text.

Among various exercises proposed by Grellet (1995 p.4-5), those are listed in Table

1 are believed to be used more often in reading tasks.

Table 1: Exercises believed to be suitable to develop reading skills

(Grellet, 1995, p. 4-5)

Reading techniques Form analysis Understanding of the meaning Assessement

of the text in the text of the text

Inference using Chronological Ordering sequences of Deciding

contextual sequence pictures fact or

Linking sentences Analogy and Comparing texts and pictures opinion

and ideas using contrast Matching Finding

Reference, link Classification Completing a document writer‟s

words (table,chart..) intention

Predicting Reordering events using

Anticipation tables

Skimming Comparing several texts:

Scanning note-taking

Inference using Question- types;

Multiple choice

True/Fasle

Completing summary

Completing sentences

Finding errors

The four types of exercises suggested in this book have served different

purposes. The first one relates to reading skills and strategies that play an

important part in acquiring a basic reading competence. The three other parts that

follow aim at illustrating different ways of helping students reach a better

understanding of a text, which start from overall comprehension (Function and

organization of the passage), and then move towards a more detailed one

(Understanding meaning) and end with some guidelines to help the students assess

and evaluate what they have read.

These exercise types are viewed as a guide for reading material designers to

make their materials varied, technically distinguishing and appropriate to the

teaching and learning reading skill.

2.4 Factors involved in reading comprehension process of EFL learners

According to Duck and Pearson (2001), the elements that affect reading

comprehension process include, language knowledge, background knowledge,

motivation, reading strategies, the reading materials and the amount of reading

practice.

2.4.1 Language knowledge

It has been expected that readers must acquire language knowledge first

before they can read in second and foreign language (Alderson, 2000). Word

knowledge is the most important element for reading comprehension because

readers cannot comprehend the sentence if they cannot attach the meaning of the

word (Devine, 1986). Krashen and Terrell (1998) agree that a passage with may

unfamiliar words causes difficulties in comprehension. Alderson (2000), shares this

view by adding that struggling to read because of unknown words will definitely

have impact on reading pleasure and comprehension. Therefore, the more

vocabulary readers know, the better reading comprehension they will achieve.

2.4.2 Background knowledge

Background knowledge and prior knowledge are generally used

interchangeably. For example, Stevens (1982) defines background knowledge quite

simply as what one already knows about a subject. Dochy et al., (1995) provide an

elaborate definition, describing prior knowledge as the whole of a person‟s

knowledge, including explicit and tacit knowledge, metacognitive and conceptual

knowledge. As a matter of fact, readers use background knowledge to integrate new

information from a text into their previous information. The reader brings

information, knowledge, emotion, and culture – that is schemata, to the printed

word (Brown 2001). Reading is only incidentally visual. More information is

contributed by the reader than by the print on the page. This indicates that our

understanding of a text depends on how much related schema we, as readers,

possess while reading. Consequently, readers‟ failure or confusion to make sense of

a text is caused by their lack of appropriate schemata that can easily fit with the

content of the text.

2.4.3 Motivation

It can not be denied that readers‟ motivation has effects on their reading

achievement. If readers are not interested in the topic they are reading, they may fail

to read. Alderson (2000) made a suggestion that motivation of readers can affect the

outcome of reading. In fact, readers who lack motivation to read or improve reading

abilities cannot make progress in reading comprehension. However, it has been

widely known that if readers are really interested in reading content, this interest

can outweigh other factors to a large extent in reading. In reality, interest in content

or motivation to read may be the most important factor which has influence on

reading comprehension (Krashen & Terrell, 1998). According to Grabe (2009),

positive motivation is an integral part in reading development which stimulates

comprehensions directly through greater amounts of extended reading. Moreover,

prior knowledge and reading strategies will become inactivated and useless if

readers do not have motivation to read (O‟Donnell & Wood, 2004). Hence, it is de-

motivation that leads to reading failure.

2.4. 4 Reading strategies

According to Oxford and Crookall (1989), strategies are considered as learning

techniques, behaviors, problem solving or study skills which make learning more

effective and efficient. In fact, provided that readers acquired reading skills or

strategies, they can process text efficiently (Alderson, 2000). Therefore, the lack of

reading strategies is another problem causing difficulty in reading comprehension.In

other words, it is an undeniable fact that readers will not have ability to surpass

reading difficulties and reach comprehension without reading strategies.

2.4.5 Reading materials.

It is apparent that reading materials is an integral part in improving reading

comprehension. Tomlinson (1998) states that materials are a central feature for the

achievement of successful language learning and they offer structure and

consistency in the foreign language classroom. It is through suitable reading

materials that students widen their background knowledge and build up the

knowledge of vocabulary and grammar for later use in reading process.

2.4.6 Regular reading practice

The process of reading is the interaction between a reader and the text. During the

process, there are many things happening in the readers‟ mind when they read.

While they look at the print text, readers are decoding it, deciding what it means,

how parts relate to each other, or to things they know, predicting what to come next,

and expecting which purpose to read for. In fact, the more reading a reader does, the

more reading comprehension will improve. According to Fielding and Pearson

(1994), allocating ample time for actual text reading and ensuring that children are

actually reading text during that time are among the teacher‟s most vital tasks in

comprehension instruction. Through extensive reading, students‟ vocabulary and

background knowledge improve, which results in improved comprehension.

2.5. Material development in language teaching

2.5.1 Definition of language teaching materials and types of materials

According to Tomlinson (1998, p.2), “language teaching materials” are

defined as anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of

a language. In this sense, language teaching materials consists of not only course

books or grammar books but also videos, CD-ROMS, cassettes, dictionaries,

pictures, photocopied exercise.

He categories language teaching materials into two types: published

materials and prepared materials. Crawford (2002) shares the same point of view on

talking about classification of materials that there are two different types of

materials: pre-prepared and self-prepared materials.

According to Tomlinson (1998), materials have always been considered as

the only way to supply enriched input in the language classroom, but nowadays,

there are many changes relating methodological and other theoretical trends.

Therefore, Course books, because of their universal nature, cannot ﬁt all

circumstances. As a result, teachers should be helped to develop the reﬂecting,

analyzing and evaluating powers to create successful lessons for all the students,

needs and personalities there could be in any given situation.

2.5. 2 Processes of materials development

Tomlinson (1998) also asserts that materials development refers to anything

which is done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input

and to exploit these sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of the intake.

Therefore, language teachers become materials developers with the aims to promote

language learning. There are two steps of the process of materials development

mentioned: materials evaluation and materials adaptation.

2.5.2.1 Materials evaluation

It cannot be denied that the evaluation of materials plays an important part in

the process of language learning and teaching. It is materials evaluation that helps

language teachers to identify specific strengths and weaknesses of the material in

use. Therefore, EFL teachers need to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials as

well.

Materials evaluation is defined differently by different authors. According to

Hutchinson and Waters (1993, p 96), evaluation is defined as really a matter of

judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose. “Given a certain need, and

in the light of the resources available, which out of number of possibilities can

represent the best solution? There is no absolute good or bad- only degree of fitness

for the required purpose”.

Brown (1995, p. 218) expresses different viewpoint on defining evaluation.

As far as he is concerned, “Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of

all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of a curriculum, and

access it effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the participants‟ attitudes within the

context of the particular institutions involved”. This definition requires that

information be gathered and analyzed in a systematic manner and that only relevant

information should be included.

Nunan (1998) states that evaluation is “a process not a final product” that

means it takes place at any time of the material design. The first emphasis of

evaluation is to determine whether the goals and objectives of s language program

are being gained.

From the above definitions, it can be inferred that materials involve the

determination of the objectives and requirements for the materials, and the

judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation to the objectives

and requirements determined.

2.5.2.2 Types of materials evaluation

When talking about types of materials evaluations, Tomlinson (1998)

classified materials evaluation into three types namely pre-use evaluation, while-

use evaluation and post-use evaluation.

Pre-use evaluation is a process of making predictions about the potentials

value of materials for their uses. In fact, it is making an evaluation criterion-

referenced that can reduce subjectivity and can certainly help to make an evaluation

more principled, rigorous, systematic and reliable.

While-use evaluation involves measuring the value of materials while using

them or while observing them being used. It can measure short-term memory

through observing learner performance on exercise but it cannot measure durable

and effective learning because of the delayed effect of instruction.

Post- use evaluation is probably the most valuable type of evaluation because it

can measure the actual effects of the materials on the users. It can measure short-term

effect as regards motivation, impact, achievability, instant learning, etc., Post-use

evaluation can measure the long-term effects as regards durable learning and application.

2.5.2.3 Criteria for material evaluation

Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most important issues that

evaluators must take into consideration before any evaluation can take place.

Criteria for materials evaluation depend on what is being evaluated and why they

need to be evaluated (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998).

Sheldon (1998) suggests a wide range of criteria to be used to evaluate almost

all aspect of materials. The criteria which is given by Sheldon consists of rationale,

availability, user definition, layout, accessibility, linkage, selection/grading, physical

characteristics, authenticity, sufficiency, cultural bias, educational validity,

stimulus/ practice/ revision, flexibility, guidance, and overall value for money.

However, reading materials is the major concern of the study, therefore, a

checklist for evaluation of reading texts suggested by Hutchinson and Waters

(1993) will be specifically stated as follows.

- Offer exercises for understanding of plain sense and implied meaning

- Relate reading passages to the learners‟ background

- Select passages within the vocabulary range of the pupils.

- Select passages reflecting a variety of styles of contemporary English

2.6. Supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

2.6.1. Definition of supplementary materials

Tomlinson (1998, p.2) proposes several basic terms in which materials are

defined as “anything which is used to help teach language learner. Materials can be

in forms of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD, a photocopied handout, a

newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard, anything which represents or

informs about the language being learned”.

Tomlinson (1998, p.2) also defines the term “supplementary materials” as

follows: “materials designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a course.

They are usually related to the development of skills of reading, writing, listening or

speaking rather than to the learning of language items”.

2.6.2 Criteria for selecting supplementary materials

It is obvious that materials play a crucial role in language teaching, so

selection of criteria of extra materials should be considered carefully.

According to Nuttall (1996, p. 170), there are three major criteria influencing

the selection of texts: suitability of the content, exploitability and readability. In his

point of view, suitability of the content means the text‟s ability to address the

student‟s needs and the course‟s objectives. Reading texts should interest the readers

by providing new interesting information that suit the course‟s objectives. A text with

interesting content makes the learners‟ task far more rewarding and the classroom

more effective. This requires the teachers of English to find out what their students

like reading and select text for classroom study. Some classroom texts should

represent the kinds of materials students need to handle after they leave the foreign

language class. It is better to begin on materials chosen chiefly for enjoyment.

Exploitability means facilitation of learning. When you exploit the text, you

can make use of it to develop the students‟ competence as readers. A text which

cannot be exploited is no use for teaching even if the students enjoy reading it.

Therefore, different kinds of tasks should be designed to best exploit the text so that

the course‟s objectives could be obtained. Also, the focus in the reading lesson is

neither language nor content, but the two together. An ideal reader would be able to

extract the content from any text at all. If the reader exploits the text effectively,

he/she will develop his/her strategies that can be applied to other texts.

Readability refers to the combination of structural and lexical difficulty. That

means the text must be suitable with students‟ English proficiency levels in terms of

vocabulary, syntax and style. The teacher must know what their students‟ language

proficiencies are to find out what vocabulary and structures the students are familiar

with so as to choose texts at the right level and balancing different level of

proficiencies. If the students have varied backgrounds, a period of trial and error is

unavoidable. However, a series of cloze tests can give you an idea of their level.

Once you know the students‟ vocabulary level, you can count the new lexical items

(words or phrases) in a text, including new uses of familiar words and new

idiomatic combinations. Then you have to decide what proportion of new items is

acceptable. This partly depends on the purpose: if you only want students to get the

gist of a text, they can skip unfamiliar words, on the other hand, for intensive

reading which is slow and careful anyway. It may be acceptable to have quite a lot

of new words. The nature of new items, and whether they are well spread out, is

also relevant.

2.6.3 How to use supplementary materials

Material adaptation

Material adaptation is considered as one of the two important issues in the

process of materials development. As the materials have been evaluated, potential

problem areas can be identified: What the materials offer cannot be exactly what our

learners‟ need; the material methodology may not match our own; the general aims

may not be suitable with the aims of the materials; the aims of a specific unit in the

materials may not match our lesson. We have to select, make changes to materials so

as to improve them to make them more suitable for a particular type of learners.

There are five major ways of adapting materials:

Adding

The notion of addition is that materials are supplemented by putting more

into them, while taking into account the practical effect on time allocation. First, we

can certainly add in this quantitative way by the technique of extending “This

means that the techniques are being applied within the methodological framework

of the original materials: in other words, the model is not itself changed” (Mc

Dough & Shaw, 1993, p. 89). We can do this in the following situation: A second

reading passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in reinforcing the key

linguistic features- tenses, sentence structures, vocabulary, cohesive devices – of the

first text. Second, more far-reaching perspective on addition of materials can be

termed expanding. This kind of addition is not just extension of an existing aspect

of content. They go further than this by bringing about a qualitative as well as a

quantitative change… This can be thought of as a change in the overall system”

(McDonough & Shaw, 1993, p. 90).

Deleting or Omitting

Deletion is clearly the apposite process to that of addition. As we saw in the

previous section that materials can be added both quantitatively (extending) and

qualitatively (expanding), the same point applies when a decision is taken to omit

materials. The most straightforward aspect of reducing the length of materials is

subtracting.

Addition and deletion often work together. Material may be taken out and

then replaced with something else. The methodological change is greater when, for

example, grammar practice is substituted after the omission of an inappropriate

communicative function, or when a reading text is replaced by a listening passage.

Modifying

Modifying‟ can be sub-divided under two related headings. The first of these

is rewriting, when some of the linguistic content needs modification, the second is

restructuring, which applies to classroom management.

Simplifying

The technique of simplification is a type of modification, namely a “rewriting”

activity.

The elements of a language which can be simplified are: The instructions and

explanations that accompany exercises and activities, and even the visual layout of

materials so that it becomes easier to see how different part fit together. However,

texts, most often reading passages are applied this technique. Usually, the emphasis

has been on changing various sentences- bound elements to match the text more

closely to the proficiency level of a particular group of learners.

Re-ordering

This procedure refers to the possibility of putting the parts of a course book

in a different order. This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a

unit, or taking units in a different sequence from that originally intended.

2.7. Summary

The chapter has so far presented the relevant literature, which has helped to

form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study.

Firstly, definitions of reading comprehension, the place of reading in

teaching foreign languages, the strategies for reading, the problems in reading

comprehension of English foreign language learners and the types of reading

exercises are mentioned in this part.

Secondly, theory of material development has been given so as to provide

not only useful way to evaluate the currently-used textbook but also the criteria to

help teachers and learners of language develop suitable reading materials.

In the next chapter, the researcher describes the background to the study,

instrument and procedure of data collection. The findings of the research will be

presented clearly under the light of the above theories.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the setting, action research, participants, data collection

procedures, data collection instruments will be presented.

3.1 Setting

The study was conducted at a high school in Bac Ninh province. Students at

this school follow the same curriculum of learning English at this school. There are

42 classes at this school, with 14 classes for each grade. In each class, students are

oriented to study three main subjects to help them pass the GCSE exam and get

permission to University. Most of the students at this school take priority to study

Maths, Physics and Chemistry as their main subjects to take part in the GCSE test (15

classes). There are 9 classes in which students choose English, Maths and Literatue or

English, Maths and Physics as their major subjects to get permission to a university.

And the rest of the students (18 classes) only try to pass the GCSE test to get high

school deploma and they have no intension of attending university after graduating.

Although English is a compulsory subject in the GCSE test, most of the students

do not pay much attention to learning English. The average score in English test in the

yearly GCSE test is quite low (about 3,9 per student).

In the 2018-2019 academic year, the researcher has taken charge of two classes of grade 10th students. Most of the researchers‟ students choose English, Maths and

Literature as their main subjects. In this school year, it is the second time, the new set of textbook for grade 10th students has been used at this school.

3.2 The participants

The subjects of the study were 40 students coming from class 10A8 at a high

school in Bac Ninh province, all of them were born in 2003, and they are both male,

and female. Most of them have already learned English for 6 years at primary

school and lower secondary school and they choose English, Maths and Literature

as their main subjects to get permission to a university, but many of them are at the

low level of English proficiency. Another fact is that most of the students are from

rural areas in Bac Ninh province. Consequently, they have little chance to practice

their English outside class time, which makes their knowledge of English still poor

and limited.

3.3 The course book

The course book is the new text book by author Hoang Van Van, published

by Vietnam education publisher. It consists of ten units and four reviews. Each

unit includes eight parts: Getting started, Vocabulary and grammar, reading,

speaking, listening, writing, communication and culture, looking back. Each part

is taught in 45 minute in class. At the end of the academic year, students are

supposed to take the achievement test to evaluate how their language proficiency improves. There are two big tests (Final 1st term test and final 2nd term test)

designed for this book and followed by many progress tests (summative tests,

vocabulary tests, and grammar tests).

After observing in the first semester, the researcher realizes that 10th – form

students of class 10A8 at this school are getting some troubles with reading skill.

Most of the students are afraid of doing reading tasks and their reading

comprehension is at low level.

With the above setting, the researcher expects to intervene with a new way of

providing reading materials to see whether students of class 10A8‟ reading skill can

be improved as expected.

3.4. Research Design

Action research design was selected in this study. According to Burns (2009,

p.2) “Action research is part of a broad movement that has been going on in

education generally for some time. It is related to the ideas of “reflective practice”

and “the teacher as researcher”. Action research involves taking a self-reflective,

critical, and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts”.

Moreover, according to Mettetal (2001), Classroom Action Research is a research

designed to assist teachers in figuring out what is happening in his or her classroom,

and then make use of that information to make changes for the future. The selection

of action research may have a significant contribution to improving students‟

performance and even suggest open-ended outcomes. Moreover, action research can

promote “teachers‟ growth as an empowered professional”, “teachers‟ confidence in

their teaching ability”, and their “problem-solving skills as well” (Briscoe and

Wells, 2002, p. 429). In particular, when being engaged in action research, teachers

can be more aware of the gaps between their beliefs and practices and of what their

pupils are thinking, feeling, and learning.

An action research was applied to this current study with the teacher as the

researcher. Action research is a suitable chosen research method for the study for

some reasons. First, learning and teaching reading skill and improving students‟

reading comprehension have noticeably concerned both educational people and

students. Second, action research is often carried out both outside the classroom and

inside the classroom. Hence, that is very suitable for the current setting of the study.

Third, action research is aimed at changing things as well as suggest a reference

source for other research. From the findings of the effects of using supplementary

materials to develop students‟ reading comprehension skill, some constructive

suggestions will be given so that teachers can facilitate students‟ reading skill.

The below diagram illustrates the phrases of action research

Figure 1: Action research spiral (adapted from Kemmis, 1983)

Adapted from Kemmis (1983), the figure outlines the four steps in action, the

movement from one critical phrase to another, and the way in which progress may

be made through the system. It can be seen clearly that in an action research, the

researcher does not stop after getting the result from his actions. He must evaluate

the effectiveness of his actions as well as the limitations of the methods. After that,

he should revise the plan, make some changes and implement it again to get better

result. These stages are not separate but are embedded within action and reflection.

The below diagram demonstrates the action research model

Figure 2: Detailed Action Research Model (adapted from Susman, 1983)

Figure 2 presents detailed action research model, according to Susman

(1983), the five steps in this model can be described as follows:

3.4.1 Diagnosing

In light of the model, the study started when the researcher realizes that there is a need to improve reading skill for 10th – form students of class 10A8 at a high

school in Bac Ninh province. In other words, step 1 was implemented to figure out

the problem. The demand for supplementary materials in order to help students

improve their reading skill was identified and then investigated.

3.4.2 Action planning

In this step, the researcher did a literature search before beginning the action

research. The literature review allowed the researcher to strengthen the validity of

the research by giving the theoretical framework for future findings.

After having a quite clear literature review, the researcher refined the question for the research. Participants of the study were 10th – form students of class 10A8 at

a high school in Bac Ninh province and the material is the current use text book for 10th – form students published by Vietnam education publisher.

3.4.3. Taking action

Firstly, in order to measure students‟ comprehension level prior to the treatment, 10th – form students of class 10A8 at Thuan Thanh 2 High School took the

pre-test within 15 minutes (APPENDIX 4), the teacher marked the pre-test, classified

the scores into different levels of students and kept the result for later usage.

After that, the researcher delivered the survey (APPENDIX 1) in order to

find out students‟ opinions of the currently used text book and their difficulties in

improving their reading comprehension.

The intervening program lasted 8 weeks (2 months). The researcher based on

the students‟ opinions of the currently-used textbook and their difficulties in

learning reading skill to design supplementary materials (APPENDIX 3) for

practicing reading skill in targeted units (Unit 7,8,9 ). The researcher followed the

the basic content of each reading lesson in the textbook. However, in this program,

in order to improve students reading comprehension, students are required to do

supplementary materials with the same topic at home every day. The detailed plan

and activities are mentioned below.

- Firstly, the researcher asked her students to read about that topic in their

mother tongue so that they could get necessary background knowledge for

their reading topic.

- Secondly, the researcher taught the first two parts of this unit with a view to

providing students with necessary vocabulary and grammar structure to

understand the reading passage. (APPENDIX 2)

- Thirdly, the researcher taught reading lesson in the text book so that she

could suppy necessary strategies for her students to improve reading skill.

(APPENDIX 2)

- Last but not least, the researcher designed her own supplementary reading

materials on the same topic for her students to do daily reading practice at

home with different types of reading comprehension questions, after that she

would collect and mark the supplementary reading papers every day and then

analyse the students‟ result base on types of reading comprehension

questions with an aim of observing whether her students made any progress

with the help of the supplementary reading materials. (APPENDIX 5)

3.4.4 Evaluating

The results were analyzed in step 4. About the quantitative data, the analysis was

carried out after 40 students of class 10A8 did the final test at the end of the

project. Students‟ scores of the two tests: pre-test and post-test were categorized and

then analyzed. The results of both diagnostic test and final test were analyzed to

figure out to what extent the supplementary materials contribute to learner‟s results.

The researcher took a close look at the descriptive statistics among three different

levels of students to see which group make better progress.

With qualitative data, the researcher based on the observational data to make

comment on students‟ progress during and after the intervening program. The

researcher focused on the students‟ improvement in terms of reading speed, reading

comprehension ability and their interest in doing reading practice.

The researcher analyzes the data to find out the consequences of a taken action.

Specifying learning: The researcher presents the general findings, what can be

solved and what remains problematic, from which he adjusts the plans to act again.

Another cycle in an action research begins.

3.4.5. Specifying learning

Finally, in step 5, the study was summed up, how using supplementary

materials helps to improve learners‟ reading comprehension was stated.

3.5 Data collection instruments

The data for the study was collected by three techniques: the diagnostic test

and final test, observations, questionnaire for students.

3.5.1. Dianogstic test và Final test

In order to obtain the necessary information to diagnose the problem, a

diagnostic test will be used. This instrument will be used to obtain data related to

reading comprehension of students.

At the end of the intervention process, the researcher will apply the final test

with a view to collect data about reading comprehension of students, and then make

the comparision between the two tests in order to find out the differences after the

intervention process.

3.5.2 Questionnaire

The author used survey questionnaire as another source because it is one of

the most effective instruments for collecting data in research. According to Gillham

(2000), using questionnaire has some advantages, such as less pressure on

respondents, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answers is

straightforward. One set of questionnaire was designed to collect students‟ opinion

of the reading texts, the exercises and the topic listed in the textbook and the reason

why students at her school are at low-level of reading comprehension skill and their

expectation of the supplementary materials.

The questionnaire for students include 6 questions. Question 1,2 are designed

to find out the students‟ opinion of reading activities in the text book. Question 3,4

aim at figuring out the reasons why students‟ reading comprehension is poor.

Question 5,6 are to find out the ways to adapt a suitable material set which is better

suited to their reading context.

3.5.3 Teacher’s observation

In addition, the author also uses class observation as one source of data. During

the time of doing research, the researcher will observe her students to see whether they

make progress or not when she applies the supplementary materials in her lessons base

on students‟ correct answer in terms of overview reading questions, reference

questions, inference questions, vocabulary in context questions, and students‟ attitude

when doing extra reading practice.

3.6 Summary

In this chapter, the researcher has tried to describe the context of the study,

the method of the study, data collection procedures and data collection instruments

which help to find out the result of the study.

Firstly, the context of teaching and learning English at Thuan Thanh 2 High

School has been specifically described, which helps provide overall information for

the study.

Secondly, it is action research that is mainly used in the study as a

fundamental method to help researcher improve the current state of education at her

school.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will present the findings from the study. Data were presented

according to the action research cycle, followed by a discussion and further research

is raised in the following parts of the study.

Data analysis

4.1. Phrase 1: Diagnosing the Research topic

After the first term of the academic year, the researcher is really worried because of

the fact that most of her students get bad marks in the end of the first term test. She

concerns the way to help improve her students performance in English test. In order

to know more about her students reading ability, she asked them to do the

diagnostic test. The test was applied the second week of the second term. Each

student was asked to read a short reading passage (APPENDIX 4) to answer the

comprehension questions.

4.1.1 The result of the dianogstic test

After asking her students to do the dianogstic test with 10 different questions, the

author marked and classified the results into four different scales. Good students are

students who get more than eight correct answers, pretty good students are students

who get seven or eight correct answers, average students are those who get from 5

to 6 correct answers and below average students are those who get lower than 5

corrects answers.

The following table shows how the students responded to the diagnostic test applied

into the researcher English class.

Table 1: The result of the diagnostic test

Levels Number of students Percentage

Good students 2 5%

Pretty good students 10 25%

Average students 25 62,5%

Below average students 3 7,5%

From the table above, we can see that 2 students (5%) are in the scale of good one,

10 of them (25%) are in pretty good, 25 (62,5%) are average and 3 (7,5%) are

below average, which means that most of the students are in a very low level of

comprehension.

4.1.2. The result of the survey questionaire

After, analysing the result of the diagnostic test, the researcher decided to do

a servey (APPENDIX 1) to have deeper understanding of students‟ opinion of the

reading text in the currently-used text book, the reasons why students have poor

reading comprehension performance, and their expectation of the supplementary

reading materials.

4.1.2.1. The students’ opinions of the current text book for grade 10th

students

Question 1 is to investigate the teachers‟ and students‟ evaluation on level of

language difficulty, content and length of reading texts in the currently-used text

book for year tenth students.

Table 2: The students’ opinions on level of difficulty, content and length of the

reading texts in the textbook

Opinions on Students’ percentage

a.Level of difficulty

+) too difficult 77,5%

+) too easy 10%

+) relevant 12,5%

b. Content

+) interesting 72,5%

+) boring 0 %

+) familiar 72,5%

+) unfamiliar 27,5%

c. Length of the reading texts

+) too long 27,5%

+) too short 10 %

+) relevant 62,5%

As illustrated in the above table, the majority of the students say that the

current text book is not easy. 77, 5% of the students think that the reading text in the

text book is too difficult.. Only 10 % of the students claim that the textbook is too

easy. And the percentage students think that the text book is relevant to the students

proficiency is 12,5%. The reason for various evaluations of students on the level of

difficulty is that the students‟ language competence is different.

Also, when being asked to give evaluation on the content of the reading text,

72,5 % of the students claim that the textbook is interesting and familiar. 27,5 % of

the students asked say that the content of the textbook is unfamiliar. It is noticeable

that none of the students says that the content of the texts is boring.

In terms of length of the reading texts, 62,5% of the students‟ state that the

length of the reading texts is relevant. The percentage of the students who propose

that the reading texts are quite long is 25 %.

From above analysis, the researcher can come to conclusion that most

students find the reading texts difficult but interesting and of appropriate length.

Table 4: Students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook.

Students „percentage (%) Reading exercises

a. of various types 42,5%

b. of few types 22,5%

c. very difficult 65%

d. very easy 7,5%

e. quite few exercises 10%

f. many exercises 57,5%

As described in the table 4, the highest portion of students (65 %) is for the

idea that reading exercises in the textbook are too difficult. Besides, 7,5% of the

teachers answer that reading exercise are too easy. Similarly, only 7,5 % of the

students find reading exercises too easy. When being asked to give comment on the

types of exercises, 42,5% of the students think that reading exercises are of various

types. Furthermore, 22,5% of the students support the idea that reading exercises are

of a few types.

The table also shows that the percentage of students who answer that there

are too many exercises for each reading text 57,5 % in contrast with 10% of the

students say that they there are too few reading exercises for each reading text.

4.1.2.2. The reasons for students’ low level of reading comprehension

4.1.2.2.1 Students’ lack of regular reading practice outside the classtime

Question 1 is designed to figure out whether students often do reading

practice or not?

Table 2 : The frequency of doing reading practice outside the classtime

Frequency of practicing Number of students Percentage

reading

Very often 5% 2

Often 7,5% 5

Sometimes 25% 10

Rarely 57,5% 23

As illustrated in the above table, 23 out of 40 students (57,5%) said that they

rarely do reading practice outside the classtime, which is a great number.

Meanwhile, only seven students said that they practice reading very often or often .

Some other 10 students (25%) said that they sometimes do reading exercise outside

the class.

From the above statistics, the researcher can come to a conclusion that one of

the reasons leading to her students‟ poor reading comprehension is the lack of

practice.

4.1.2.2.2. Students’ lack of suitable reading materials

This question is designed with a view to finding out the reasons why students

do not practice reading outside the classtime.

Table 3: Students’ lack of suitable reading materials

The reasons for students’ lack of The number of the Percentage

reading practice students

Students don‟t like reading in a foreign 30 75%

language

Students don‟t like the topic 5 7,5%

Students don‟t have time to practice 5 7,5%

reading

Students don‟t have suitable reading 38 95%

materials to practice reading everyday

From the above table, it is apparent that most students like the reading topic and

they have time to practice reading at home. However, the ablove table illustrates

that most of the students ( 75%) do not like reading in foreign language. And the

most remarkable point is that most students (95% of the students ) said that they

could not find suitable reading materials to practice reading outside the classtime.

4.1.2.3 Students’ expectation of the supplementary reading materials

4.1.2.3.1 Kinds of reading exercise in the text books that students prefer

This question is designed in order to find out the types of exercises in

reading tasks that students prfer doing so that the researcher can apply suitable

types of exercises in the supplementary materials to improve their students‟ reading

skill.

The number of students

45

40

35

30

27

25

20

15

10

5

0

Others

Completed exercises

Jumped sentences

Summary writing

Gap filling Multiple choise

Matching True False No information

Chart 1: The kinds of exercises that students prefer

Various types of exercises are mentioned in this question. The result in chart

3 show that most of the studetns choose multiple choice questions (40 out of 40

students and the second highest number belongs to true/false/no information

because of the fact that these two types of exercises are familiar to them and

especially, it is these exercises that can help them do better in their GCSE

examination. It can be seen easily from the chart that four next types of exercises

selected by the teachers are matching, gap-filling and completion exercises (27,25,

and 20 students respectively). It is believed that with these exercises students can

comprehend the reading texts thoroughly and enhance their reading ability

remarkably. From the students‟ viewpoint, only there is a small number of students

(15 students) like doing jumbled sentences/ jumbled paragraphs in their reading

materials because of the fact that this kind of question is quite difficult for them to

practice due to their low level of proficiency.

4.1.2.2.2 Kinds of the reading passage

Table 7: The students’ expectation of the supplementary reading materials

Options Students’ percentage

Reading passage of different topic 12,5%

Reading passage of related topic 90%

Reading passage of higher level of difficulty 2,5%

Reading passage with the same form of the 82,5% GCSE reading test

Vocabulary exercises 37,5%

Vocabulary test 22,5%

Vocabulary games 0%

Reading skill practice 82,5%

Grammar exercises 10%

Grammar test 17,5%

Critical thinking questions 5%

Others 5%

As depicted in table 5, the highest percentage students, which account for

90% say that the supplementary materials should include a reading passage of

related topic. Moreover, when asked about the types of exercises in supplementary

materials, the students all say that there should be a reading passage with various

type of exercises in the supplementary materials. In addition, 82 % students suggest

that supplementary materials should be in the same form of the reading test in the

GCSE test. Grammar exercises are suggested by 10% of the students. What can be

seen clearly from the table is that 37,5 % of the students say vocabulary exercises

should be used in the supplementary materials. One thing should be noted here is

the vocabulary games and critical thinking questions are selected by 0% of the

students. It is very easily understood that vocabulary games are not suggested by

students as they do not have much time to deal with these types of exercise.

Furthermore, critical thinking questions are too difficult for the students because of

their low level of proficiency.

4.2. Phrase 2: The effects of using supplementary reading materials on

improving students’ reading comprehension.

After the researcher administered the diagnostic tests to assess students‟

comprehension, did the analysis of the results, and did a servey to find out the

resons why students did not do well in reading test, she made a reading plan to

improve student‟s performace in reading comprehension. The researcher designed

supplementary reading materials based on the topic of Unit 7,Unit 8, Unit 9 in the new text book for grade 10th students and asked her students to do regular reading

practice at home. The researcher paid much attention to students‟ reading

performance in terms of factual questions, vocabulary in context questions,

inference questions, reference question and overview questions.

Observation sheets were taken during the intervention with a view to getting

direct feedback from students and observe the students‟progress. The reseasercher

took notes on how students react to the released activities. Fortunately, the

observation sheet indicates that most of the inserted reading materials in class draw

the attraction of the students in her class and they played an important role in

getting positive outcomes.

Thanks to the observational data, the effects of using supplementary reading

materials on improving students‟ reading comprehension skills will be illustrated in

terms of five main types of reading questions: factual questions, vocabulary in

context questions, inference questions, reference questions and overview questions.

For example, after teaching getting started, language and reading

(APPENDIX 2) of Unit 7, the author designed 4 reading passage of the same topic

with different types of multiple choice questions for her students to do regular

practice at home. The author collected all the 4 reading passages respectively to

mark and give comment on each reading material and took note of the

students‟result of the reading passage according to types of reading questions,

which is illustrated in the following chart.

The number of correct answers

Reference questions

Overall questions

Vocabulary questions

Factual questions

Inference questions

Types of reading questions

Reading passage 4

Reading passage 2

Reading passage 1

Reading passage 3

Chart 3: The result of Unit 7

a. Factual questions

Basically, each reading passage contains a lot of facts, fingues, etc, so

it is important that reader scan the text to find specific information so that he/she

can have better understanding of the text. Therefore, in every reading passage, the

author selected some factual questions to help her students practice and improve

scanning skill. For example, in Unit 7, when teaching students about cultural

diversity, the researcher designed 4 passages (APPENDIX 3), of the same topic

with 7 questions, including 2 factual questions in each passage. After collecting and

marking the first passage, the author find out that the number of students who get

the correct answer of factual questions is quite low (only 5 out of 40 students get the

correct answer). After that, the researcher instructed her students to do the factual

questions again and asked her students to pr actice more at home. Day by day,

this activity has tremendous effect on stundent‟s ability to do factual questions.

Actually, at the end of the lesson, it is amazing that her students could do factual

questions quite well ( 38 out of 40 students get the correct answer). Later on, in the

next lesson, most of the students can do factual questions in the reading passage

quite well, which can be inferred that students‟ scanning skill has been improved.

b.Vocabulary in context questions.

It is apparent that predicting skill is one of the most important skills of

efficient readers. Predicting uses knowledge of the subject matter to make

predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension as well as

knowledge of the text type and purpose to make prediction about discourse

structure. Next, it uses knowledge about the author to make predictions about

writing, style, vocabulary and content. In fact, students‟ predicting skill was

evidently improved thanks to regular reading practice. For instance, when designing

reading passages of Unit 7, the researcher required her students to do 2 vocabulary

questions in each passage. In reality, after checking the first reading passage, the

researcher interpreted that most of her students whose language competence is low

can not do vocabulary questions (only 3 out of 40 students get the correct answer),

so the researcher instructed her students to guess the meaning of the words in

contexts and asked her students to practice regularly at home. After checking four

passages (APPENDIX 3) on the topic of cultural diversity, the researcher realized

that most of her students have improved predicting skill (30 out of 40 students get

the correct answer).

c. Inference questions and reference questions