A Study on some possible effective pre-Reading activities to improve reading skills for the 2nd -year English Majors at the Military Science Academy

here are two basic reasons for this. First, students in most academic settings are faced with an enormous quantity of reading in English. Many ESL/EFL students take three to four times longer than native-language students to complete reading texts, which means that they have little time left to assimilate what they have read. The other reason for learning to read faster is that it leads to a better comprehension. When reading faster, the eyes cannot focus on every word; they must focus on group of words together. This makes it much easier for the brain to reconstruct meaning. Furthermore, since reading faster forces the reader to skip unknown or nonessential words, the brain can concentrate better on the general meaning of the text. Generally speaking, the book More Reading Power provides students with a wide range of different reading tasks that help them improve their reading techniques such as: Scanning, Skimming, Predicting and Previewing, Identifying Topics, etc. Besides, the reading texts in More Reading Power are of the students’ interests, for example, in unit one they have chance to get to know more about Marie Curie and Satellites. In other units, they can read about Elephants, Basketball in the United States, the Effects of Weather, and Climate, or about different subjects such as Automobiles- Problems and Solutions, Sources of Disease, Oil spill, etc. However, there are some reading texts containing many new and difficult words. Take an example of unit four-Topics, in some exercises, they can not work out what is the topic or topics for the group of words since they have to encounter many unknown words in the same group, or they are unable to figure out the word that odd one out from the whole group of words. Besides, their lack or poor of general background knowledge is also another drawback that prevents them from reading effectively. Therefore, it is the teacher’s task to select and apply suitable techniques and activities that can activate students’ basic knowledge and increase their interests in the reading lesson, especially before they read the texts. 2.3. Sample and sampling The sample was drawn from two sources: from 45 full-time teachers of English aged from 25 to 45 and 110 second-year students and they are learning the text book More Reading Power. The researcher invited 30 teachers (about 67% of the population), they all have Diploma Degree in English and twenty of them have M.A. Degree in Education, Linguistics, or International Relations and another one has Ph.D. Degree in Linguistics. The reason for choosing them was that all of them were teaching at the English Department of the MSA. Most of them have at least three years of teaching, therefore, with no doubt, they are experienced and enthusiastic teachers, they are always willing to help their students overcome the difficulties and make progress in learning English. The students under investigation are in the second term of the second year at the English Department of the MSA (both cadet and civilian students, male and female, aged from 19 to 25). They are divided into four groups and are supposed to have quite an equal knowledge of English before entering the MSA since most of them have learnt English for at least 7 years (from grade 6 to grade 12 at school). Moreover, they all passed a very challenging entrance exam in order to become a student at our academy. These students were chosen from 110 second year students during the school year of 2006-2007. They have completed their first three terms of the four-year course. Of course it was very difficult to select a random sample of individuals since the students had already assigned to four different classes. The solution to this case is that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, the researcher chooses classes for investigation. This method has two advantages: First of all, it is convenient for the researcher to observe the participants completing the questionnaire in their class; secondly, these classes have students with quite different knowledge of English (The cadets seem to be better at English than the civilian ones). Three classes chosen are 16A (cadets), 5AD1 and 5AD2 (civilians), which include 80 students (about 73% of the second year students). Hopefully these students could be representative for the rest of the students. 2.4. Instruments for collecting the data 2.4.1. Survey questionnaires Using questionnaire allows the researcher to collect the data needed in quantitative form. Besides, the researcher finds it quite easy to summarize, analyze, and report the collected data because all informants answer the same questions. Moreover, the informants are provided with an opportunity to express their attitudes towards teaching and learning reading skills openly. 2.4.1.1. The questionnaires for the students The questionnaire consists of 8 questions, which are divided into three parts. Part one (includes questions 1, 2 and 3) aims at exploring the students’ attitudes towards pre-reading techniques. In part two, by answering questions 4, 5, 6, and 7, students have chance to express their preferences for Pre-reading techniques. The final part of the questionnaire (question 8) was made to find out the students’ comment on the Pre-reading activities in the text book More Reading Power. Hopefully, it can help the researcher give suggestions for providing the students with some more Pre-reading activities. 2.4.1.2. The questionnaires for the teachers There are 8 questions in the questionnaire for the teachers and they were designed with three main purposes. Firstly, through the answers to the first 4 questions, the researcher will evaluate the teachers’ attitudes towards the role of Pre-reading activities in a reading lesson. Then the current situation of using pre-reading activities in a reading lesson will be surveyed with a view to seeing whether all teachers do the same thing in every reading lesson, which Pre-reading activities the teachers often employ and their difficulties when dealing with these activities. Question 7 is aimed at investigating the teachers’ comments on Pre-reading activities available in the book More Reading Power. The purpose of the last question (question 8) is to find out some suggestions used by other teachers in order to make pre-reading stage of the reading lesson more interesting. 2.4.2. Class observation The author of the study randomly chose 2 classes (16A & 5AD4) to observe. She watched and followed all the procedures and activities the teachers and the students were performing in the real classroom settings, which enabled the researcher to elicit reliable data. In other words, it is a means to check the reliability of the data collected for other sources - the questionnaires, informal interviews, and discussions. The observation was carried out two times at two different units and with different teachers in these classes. Each lesson lasted 40 minutes; the researcher has set a checklist for her observation including the students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities, their involvement in the activity and their interaction with each other while completing the tasks. She also observed the students’ reactions to Pre-reading activities employed in the lesson as well as their preferences for these techniques. Two reading lessons chosen to be observed belong to Part Four (Unit1, & 3). The reading texts in Unit 1 are all about the Hawaiian Islands such as Water Sports in Hawaii, Hawaiian Traditions, and Natural Disasters in Hawaii. The students read about different topic in Unit 3, the reading texts mainly focus on the Global Issues such as the Global Warming, Population Explosion, and the Disappearance of some Species. The purpose of choosing these units is that the researcher would like to observe how the teacher deal with long reading texts and what techniques the teachers used at the pre-reading stage to motivate students in reading these texts. 2.5. Data analysis. This part of the thesis is the treatment of all data collected from the survey questionnaires conducted on 80 second year students and 30 teachers of English at the MSA as well as from the author’s observation in three classes. The analysis of the data is presented in 2 parts. The first part is the results based on the questionnaires for the students and the teachers. The second part is the results of the class observation. 2.5.1. Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaires. 2.5.1.1. Students’ attitudes towards Pre-reading activities. Table 1 provides the answer to the question 1 (What do you think about the texts in the textbook More Reading Power?) and question 3 (How do you find the role of Pre- reading activities in a reading lesson?). Option Question A B C D 1 45% 10% 15% 30% 3 35% 50% 10% 5% Table1: Students’ attitude towards the reading texts and the role of Pre-reading activities For the first question, when asked about the attitude towards the reading texts in More Reading Power, a great number of students, which accounts for 45%, agree that they are interesting and 30% of them think that they are suitable for the students while 10% of them say that they are boring. It is obviously seen that most of the students have positive attitude towards reading comprehension skill. By learning reading, particularly learning More Reading Power the students are able to enrich the background knowledge, improve their reading skill, widen their source of vocabulary, grammar structures, and get pleasure and information as well. Only a small number of students find the text boring because the topic of some reading texts is unfamiliar to them, this also affects the lesson. The rest portion which accounts for 15% of the students state that the reading texts in More Reading Power are too difficult. They say that some reading texts contains too many new words and sometimes it takes them much time to look up the words in the dictionary, otherwise they are unable to carry out the reading tasks which followed effectively. Question 3 is aimed at finding out the students’ opinions on the role of Pre-reading activities. Looking at table 1 above, we can realize that the Pre-reading activities are beneficial to students in any way, so it is not surprising to find out that the biggest population of the students (50%) thinks these activities play an important role in motivating them to read, 35% of them even thinks that these activities are very important. However, 10% of the students do not highly appreciate the application of the Pre-reading activities employed by the teachers. Only 5% think these activities are not important at all. This can be explained that their teacher’ activities are not of the students interests or not suitable for their levels of language proficiency. Question 2 (What does your teacher often do to begin a reading lesson?) focuses on the necessity of the activities that should be done before reading the text. About 75% of the students state that their teachers organize some Pre-reading activities. It is obvious that the students are aware of the importance of these activities and they regard them as inevitable factor in almost reading lessons. Nearly 25% of the students report that they are asked to read the text without preparation. This may due to the teachers’ own ways of teaching or because of the time constraint. 2.5.1.2. Students’ preferences for Pre-reading activities. Based on the students answer to question 4 (Which of the following Pre-reading activities does your teacher use in reading lesson?) we have the following table to illustrate their feedback. Pre-reading activities always sometimes rarely never 1. using games to introduce the text 15% 45% 30% 10% 2. using pre-reading questions 65% 25% 10% 0% 3. pre-teaching new vocabulary 40% 35% 5% 20% 4. explaining the instructions of the text 70% 5% 10% 15% 5. making students predict the content of the text 60% 20% 15% 5% 6. giving reading task to students 20% 45% 20% 15% 7. using visual aids to introduce the text 20% 25% 50% 5% 8. giving a brief introduction to the text 55% 25% 10% 10% Table 2: Frequency of using Pre-reading activities by the teachers Table 2 indicates that three activities such as: using pre-reading questions, explaining the instructions of the text and making students predict the content of the text are most frequently used by lots of the teachers. Others activities like using games and pre - teaching new vocabulary are also chosen at the pre-reading stage by quite many teachers. However, 50% of the students reports that their teachers rarely use visual aids to introduce the texts. Table 3 below gives the facts to the question 5 (What do you think of these activities: interesting, not very interesting, or boring?) Pre - reading activities interesting normal boring 1. using games to introduce the text 75% 15% 10% 2. using pre-reading questions 60% 25% 15% 3. pre-teaching new vocabulary 50% 30% 20% 4. explaining the instructions of the text 35% 50% 15% 5. making students predict the content of the text. 30% 45% 25% 6. giving reading task to students 20% 58% 22% 7. using visual aids to introduce the text 80% 20% 0% 8. giving a brief introduction to the text 65% 25% 10% Table 3: Students’ preferences for pre-reading activities Look at the table 3, the most noticeable thing is that (80%) of the students finds using visual aids, and (75%) of them state that using games to introduce the text are interesting, but they are rarely used by their teachers (table 2). It can be understood that the preparation for visual aids and games are time-consuming and hard for many teachers. Besides, a large number of students enjoy other activities like pre-teaching new words and using pre-reading questions, unfortunately, many of them think that explaining the instructions of the text and making students predict the content of the text are normal or even boring (based on few students’ choices). With question 6, the author intends to examine the way that the students prefer to participate in Pre-reading activities. The feedback of this question will be presented in the chart 1 below. 80 A. work individual 45% B. work in pairs 35% C. work in groups 20% 0 A B C Chart 1: Students’ preferences for participation in Pre-reading activities. The chart above shows that many students (35%) like to work in groups. It can be understood that group-work enables students to activate their existing knowledge to share experience. Moreover, students can take an active part in discussion. A greater proportion of students (45%) like to work in pairs. The reason for this may be due to the class setting (the students often sit in the table of two) so that, when working in pairs, they do not have to change the seats arrangement and can have more time as well as more opportunities to express their ideas, the rest proportion, which accounts for only (20%) of the students like to work individually. Question 7 refers to three Pre-reading activities such as: introducing the reading text briefly; pre-teaching new words and giving pre-reading questions. These activities are traditional and mostly used by every teacher in several ways. In this study, the author would like to examine how to employ these activities to attract students’ attention. 100 85% 65% 40% 0 10% A1 A2 A3 A4 Chart 2a: Students’ preferences for teachers’ ways of introduction to the text A1: by using visual aids (65%) A2: by using a short story (40%) A3: by using games (85%) A4: by using the titles, subtitles of the text (10%) Looking at the chart 2a, we can find out that almost students (85%) like their teachers to use games to introduce the reading text. They possibly consume that by using this way at the first stage of the lesson, they feel like working in non-threatening environment and more relaxing. The second way that many of them (65%) enjoy is using visual aids. Using a short story was chosen by fewer students (40%). This can be inferred that students will feel unwilling to listen to something before reading to the text except joining a game or look at the visual aids with their own eyes. Only 8 students (10%) like the teachers to use titles and subtitles before they read the text, may be because this one is boring and is not persuasive enough. 100 75% 50% 40% 25% 0 B1 B2 B3 B4 Chart 2b: The students’ preferences for teachers’ ways of introducing new vocabulary B1: by using synonyms, antonyms (75%) B2: by using definition or explanation (50%) B3: by using visual aids (40%) B4: by using games (25%) Look at the chart we can see that the biggest portion of the students (75%) would like their teachers to use synonyms or antonyms to explain the vocabulary of the text before reading, may be because they are confident with their vocabulary knowledge and are eager to revise the words they have already known and link them with the new ones through this activity. Using definition or explanation is selected by half of the students under the survey (50%). It is evident that with clear definition or explanation of the words, motivation to read the text will be increased and understanding will not be hindered any more. It is surprising that when dealing with new vocabulary only 40% of the students choose the games, may be at this stage their focus is mainly on the content of the text they are going to read. Therefore, they want the teachers to carry out activities that connect with the vocabulary rather than enjoying games which they possibly thought a waste of time. Using Pre-reading questions is very helpful because it enables students to predict the content of the text as well as increases their motivation. A large number of the students (85%) are in favor of Who-questions as they can lead them to seek for certain information, which will make it easier for the students to read and comprehend the text. Yes/ no questions are chosen by 20 students (25%). Only 8 students (10%) like multiple-choice questions. It can be inferred that this type of questions is not easy to answer or may be they are sometimes reluctant to response to this question so many of them usually choose the answer randomly. 2.5.1.3. Students’ comments on Pre-reading activities in the textbook. Question 8 was designed with the hope to find out students’ comments on the Pre-reading activities in their textbook (More Reading Power). 80 55% 50% 43.7% 20% 15% 0 0 A B C D E Chart 3: Students’ comments on Pre-reading activities in their textbook A. boring (43.7%) B. unsuitable for students’ needs (55%) C. unable to motivate students (20%) D. interesting (15%) E. others (50%) From the chart we realize that almost the students in the study are not in favor of the pre-reading activities available in their books. 40 students which accounts for (55%) think that the activities are not suitable for their needs. Another 35 of them (43.7%) suppose that the activities are boring. However, 16 students (20%) claim that they are unable to be motivated by the activities provided in the textbook and only 12 students (15%) even state that these activities are interesting. May be because of these reasons 40 students (50%) prefer the choice others which means they want more activities should be provided at the Pre-reading stage. 2.5.2. Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaires 2.5.2.1. Teachers’ attitude towards the reading texts in the textbook and towards the Pre-reading activities (Questions 1 and 2) Option Question A B C D 1 10% 10% 30% 50% 2 50% 30% 10% 10% Table 4: Teachers’ attitude towards reading texts and Pre-reading activities Question1: What do you think about the texts in the textbook More Reading Power? A. interesting: 10% B. suitable: 10% C. difficult: 30% D. boring: 50% Question 2: What do you often do to start a reading lesson? A. present some new words in the text: 50% B. give a brief introduction to the text: 30% C. organize some other lead-in activities to the text: 10% D. nothing: 10% The score of the question 1 in table 4 above shows the teachers’ attitude towards the reading texts in the textbook they are teaching and the things they often do to create their students’ interest and motivation before reading. Generally speaking, most of them have negative attitude towards pre-reading activities introduced in the textbook. That is why for the first question about their comments on the reading texts in More Reading Power, a great number of the teachers, which accounts for 50% suppose that the reading texts are boring, 12 of them (30%) even think that they are difficult. Only 8 of them- which make up 20% in total, think that they are suitable and interesting to teach. May be because the topic of some reading texts is unfamiliar and not interesting or they may contains too many new words that require much time to look them up in the dictionary. As the result, the preparation for the lesson sometimes is time-consuming. Question 2 is about the activities that the teachers often do to motivate students before a reading lesson. In general, most of the teachers are well-aware that these activities are crucial important and necessary for both the teachers and the students since they help the students focus on the reading text immediately at the beginning of the lesson. Replying to this question, 9 teachers (30%) say that they often give a brief introduction to the text as they could save time to lead their students directly to the reading text’s requirements, or they are worried that without which the students are not well-informed and might get confused when dealing with the reading text. Surprisingly, 15 teachers (50%) state that they often present some new words in the text as they suppose that these words may become an obstacle that causes difficulty to the students in understanding the text and carrying out the tasks that followed. Other 3 teachers (10%) say that they often organize some other lead-in activities (such as providing some lead-in questions, using visual aids, etc,.) to the text in order to create the students’ interest. According to them, by giving some lead-in questions to the text, their students find it easier to understand and they can better concentrate on it as they read. When the author had an informal interview with those teachers about the activities they often used, she found that the activities which were mostly employed by the teachers were using pre-reading questions to introduce the topic of the text, making students predict the content before reading, etc. However, there are still 3 teachers (10%) claim that they do nothing before a reading text, these teachers explain that there is no time for these activities, and that their students’ level is already at the intermediate, they understand thoroughly what they have to do, and that there is no need to waste time on unnecessary activities. They want their students to read the text at once and to exploit the text themselves before checking for the feedback later. Question 3 is aimed at finding out what the teachers think about the role of the Pre-reading activities. 80% 70% 26.7% 3.3% 0 A B C Chart 4: Teachers’ attitude towards the role of Pre-reading activities. A. very important: 26.7% B. important: 70% C. not important at all: 3.3%. It can be seen form the chart above that most of the teachers (70%) are aware of the importance of Pre-reading activities. Other 9 teachers which account for (26.7%) even think that these activities are very important and necessary to be employed at the first stage of every single reading lesson. However, one teacher (3.3%) still claims that the activities are not important at all, that indicates she does not recognize the importance of motivation in a reading lesson so she often asks students to read the text and carry out the tasks at once. Question 4 is designed to explore the teachers’ frequency of using Pre-reading activities in a reading lesson. When answering to the question 4 (How often do you use pre-reading activities in a reading lesson?). The researcher realizes that about 30% of the teachers under investigation often use pre-reading activities to start the lesson. These activities are even always used by other 3 teachers (10%) and the rest portion which makes up 60% of the population state that they sometimes employ them at the beginning of the lesson. 2.5.2.2. Teachers’ purposes and difficulties in applying Pre-reading activities in teaching reading. Question 5 concentrates on exploring the teachers’ purposes of using Pre-reading activities in a reading lesson. The researcher has the feedback to be shown in the following table: Purposes Strongly agree Agree Not agree A. to increase the students’ motivation. 70% 30% 0% B. to help students predict content of the text. 40% 50% 10% C. to provide background knowledge on the topic of the text. 30% 50% 20% D. to teach new, difficult vocabulary or structures in the text. 40% 40% 20% E. others 30% 60% 10% Table 5: Teachers’ purposes of using Pre-reading activities From the table, we realize that most teachers are highly appreciate the role of Pre-reading activities, that is why many of them (50%) agree that they use these activities in order to help students predict the content of the text or provide them with background knowledge on the topic of the texts. There is an equal number (40%) between the teachers who strongly agree that Pre-reading activities can help them teach new, difficult vocabulary or structures to their students. Surprisingly, 21 teachers (70%) even strongly agree that these activities are able to increase their students’ motivation before reading. Besides, 18 teachers (60%) agree that they use the Pre-reading activities not only to serve these purposes but also other ones. When the researcher has an informal talk with them, they explain that these activities help them to draw students’ attention and can get them involve in the text. The portion of disagreeing is very modest, ranged from 0% to 20%. Question 6 is designed to find out the difficulties the teachers have to cope with when applying the Pre-reading activities in their teaching situation. 100% 70% 60% 50% 30% 0 A B C D Chart 5: Teachers’ difficulties in applying Pre-reading activities. A. designing them is time–consuming (70%) B. designing them is difficult (60%) C. sometimes the activities can not motivate the students (30%) D. handling them sometimes is out of control (50%) Most of the teachers at the MSA agree that Pre-reading activities provide many advantages in warming up the students before reading. However, 70% of them have to admit that designing these activities is time-consuming, and 60% find this work difficult, it requires a great effort form the teachers if they wish this activities work well in their real teaching situation. Half of them (50%) claim that handling these activities sometimes is out of control, since they occupy much time or when carrying out the games the students may cause noise that affect the surrounding. Some teachers (30%) state that they usually apply Pre-reading activities, but sometimes these activities can not motivate their students. It can be understood that these activities are not of the students’ interest or the way the teachers use to introduce them is not clear or persuasive enough. 2.5.2.3. Teachers’ comments on the Pre-reading activities in the textbook and their suggestions for future improvement. Question 7 is designed to find out the teachers’ comments on the Pre-reading activities in the textbook More Reading Power which they are currently teaching at the MSA. 60% 40% 27% 20% 13% 0 A B C D Chart 6: Teachers’ comments on the Pre-reading activities in the textbook. A. interesting 20% B. unsuitable for the students’ interest 40% C. ineffective in motivating the students 27% D. unable to enhance the students’ motivation for reading 13% From the data showed in chart 6, we learn something about the teachers’ comments on the Pre-reading activities available in the textbook. In general, most of them are not in favor of these activities. The biggest portion (40%) of the teachers think that the Pre-reading activities in the textbook are unsuitable for the students’ interest, only 6 of them (20%) suppose that they are interesting which means that these teachers often take a lot of advantages from the Pre-reading activities and are successful in exploiting them in teaching reading to the students. Meanwhile, 8 teachers (27%) comment that these activities are ineffective in motivating their students at the first stage of the reading lesson. Four teachers (13%) complain about the Pre-reading activities in the book are poor and sometimes rather boring. Therefore, they are unable to enhance the students’ motivation and encourage them to read and complete the tasks followed. The purpose of question 8 is to find out the teachers’ suggestions and recommendation on the Pre-reading activities that can be added to improve the reading lesson in general and the first stage of the lesson in particular. Most of the reading lessons in the textbook include Pre-reading activities of some kinds. However, many teachers remarked that these activities were boring, poor and repetitive, since they were mainly followed the same types of activities such as: providing pre-reading questions; giving brief introduction to the text before asking the students to practice, it is also the main reason why some of the teachers chose choice D for question 7. Therefore, when answered question 8 (In your opinion, what should be done at pre-reading stage in order to make a reading lesson more interesting). None of them chose choice D (nothing, there is no need). It can be inferred that all of them discovered the drawback of the textbook they are teaching, and were willing to provide suggestions to improve these weaknesses. Based on the selection of choices A, B, and C all of them suggested that more various kinds of Pre-reading activities should be added and more activities that are of the students’ interest should be provided. 2.5.3. Data analysis of the class observations The author of the study randomly chose 2 classes (16A and 5AD4) with different teachers to observe. The researcher watched and followed all the procedures and activities the teachers and the students were performing in the real classroom settings, which enabled her to elicit reliable data. The first thing she noticed was that all these teachers used some lead-in activities at the Pre-reading stage. This proved that the teachers were highly appreciated the impact of these activities to the students’ motivation. The observation was carried out two times at two different units and with different teachers in these classes. Each lesson lasted 40 minutes; the researcher provided a checklist for her observation including the students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities, their involvement in the activity and their interaction with each other while completing the tasks. She also observed the students’ reactions to Pre-reading activities employed in the lesson as well as their preferences for them. The first observation took place in class 16A with Unit 1-Part Four, the reading texts in this unit are all about the Hawaiian Islands such as Water Sports in Hawaii, and Natural Disasters in Hawaii and Hawaiian Traditions, etc,. Hawaii nowadays, in fact, rather familiar to many students, however, many of them are still lack information about this name. Therefore, the teacher employed the techniques of using visual aids (photos) as well as provided some Pre-reading questions related to Hawaii and Water Sports in Hawaii asked students to work in groups to discuss the pictures and teacher’s questions. The teacher checked for the feedback with the whole class, these activities lasted in 15 minutes. From the researcher’ observation, the students were willing to take part in teacher’s activities and eager to read the text to get more information about Hawaii. The second observation was taken in class 5AD4 with Unit 3, in this lesson the students read about another topic, the reading texts are about Global Issues such as the Global Warming, Population Explosion, and the Disappearance of some Species. The purpose of choosing this lesson is that the researcher would like to observe how the teacher deal with long reading texts and what activities the teacher used at the Pre-reading stage to motivate students. The teacher was quite well-prepared for the Pre-reading activities and used up 15 minutes to exploit them. First of all, she introduced the topic of the reading text. Then, she divided students into groups to brainstorm the words or ideas related to the topic of the lesson she had introduced beforehand. Next, the teacher provided some lead-in questions, asked the students to discuss in pairs before checking for the feedback with the whole class. In general, the observations help the researcher confirm the fact that Pre-reading activities applied by the teachers have a great impact to students’ motivation before they start reading. However, the activities employed by the teachers were not varied since they seem to prefer using pre-reading questions and giving introduction. 2.6. Summary Chapter 2 has presented the situation of the study, in which the author would like to focus on the setting, the reading material, and the characteristics of the students and teachers participating in the study. Besides, the contents and the aims of two survey questionnaires and class observation are also presented in this chapter. The data analysis from the questionnaires and class observations help the author have an overview of teaching and learning reading at MSA. With more details about students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards Pre-reading activities, students’ preferences for these activities as well as students’ and teachers’ comments on Pre-reading activities in the textbook are also investigated. The following chapter will deal with major findings and suggestions of some possible Pre-reading activities applied to teach More Reading Power to the second-year English students at the MSA. Chapter 3 Major findings and suggestions of some possible Pre reading activities applied to teach More Reading Power to the Second-year English Majors at the MSA 3.1. Major findings 3.1.1. The role of using Pre-reading activities to the Second-year English Majors at the MSA The findings of this study showed that that both teachers and students at the MSA are highly appreciated the important role of Pre-reading activities. For the teachers, the application of Pre-reading activities enables them to activate students’ existing knowledge, to teach more words as well as to arouse students’ motivation in reading to the texts. On the other hand, for the students, the Pre-reading activities are obviously useful since they are more motivated, they can understand the texts better while reading and the most important thing is that these activities help them improve their reading skills as well. 3.1.2. Frequency of using Pre-reading activities in reading lessons As mentioned above, nearly all the teachers in the study are aware of the importance of the Pre-reading activities, so they usually employ these activities with the hope to motivating students as well as helping them deal with the reading texts more easily. From the teachers’ and students’ survey questionnaires, the author finds out the order of frequency for using Pre-reading activities in a reading lesson at the MSA. * The most frequently used activities: - explaining the instructions of the text - using pre-reading questions - making students predict the content of the text Actually, the first and the second activities are regarded as traditional ones and they are mostly employed in every reading lesson by the teachers. What is more, it does not take the teachers much time to design or prepare. Making students predict the content of the text is another familiar activity. According to the teachers, this activity encourages students to use their existing background knowledge and vocabulary to guest the content and incidents that may be occurred in the new reading text. It also helps students more concentrating in the coming stages. * The activities that are sometimes used: - pre-teaching new vocabulary - giving reading task to students Pre-teaching new vocabulary in a reading text is a popular activity that sometimes provided by the teachers since they considered words and structures are the key roles in helping students avoid confusion or misunderstanding. Moreover, this activity is very useful for the second year-students at the MSA because many of them consider the lack of vocabulary is a great barrier which makes it difficult for them to read and comprehend the reading text. As mentioned above, sometimes teachers give the reading task without warming them up by using any Pre-reading activities. The reason to this may be because they suppose that their students are at their intermediate level, they know how to, so there is no need to waste time on unnecessary activities, just only let them read the text and exploit it themselves * The activities that are rarely used: - using games to introduce the text - using visual aids to introduce the text All students of the second-year at the MSA are in their teens or early twenties, so perhaps they still enjoy taking part in what are called “just for fun” activities like taking part in game or enjoying visual aids which were provided by the teachers. However, these activities need careful preparation and time consuming, so the fact that they are rarely used in reading lessons is understandable. 3.1.3. Students’ preferences for Pre-reading activities It is noticeable that students’ preferences for Pre-reading activities differ from what the teachers often do in reading lessons. As mentioned in chapter 2, many students enjoy such activities as using games or using visual aids to introduce the text, meanwhile, they are sometimes or even rarely used by the teachers. In fact, almost the teachers at the MSA are well aware that these activities are motivational ones. However, it is obvious that preparing visual aids or designing games possibly are tough for a lot of teachers. Fortunately, both students and teachers share the same view in using such pre-reading activities as providing pre-reading questions and giving brief introduction to the text. Perhaps they all find these activities interesting and motivational. 3.1.4. Students’ preferences for participating in Pre-reading activities From the data collected in chapter 2 the researcher realized that a large number of students enjoy working in groups, actually, group-work encourages students to display their existing knowledge to share experience together. However, more students prefer working in pairs, since doing pair-work provides them more time as well as more opportunities. What is more, pair-work also enables them to express their point of view more freely in non-threatening environment. 3.1.5. Teachers’ difficulties in designing and applying the Pre-reading activities As mentioned in chapter 2, many reading lessons in More Reading Power include Pre-reading activities. However, these activities are boring and repetitive so the teachers always add more activities for each lesson to arouse the students’ motivation. Obviously, to create a motivated atmosphere for the students, teachers should employ appropriate activities or the activities of their interest. Based on the data collected from the survey questionnaire for the students the researcher discovered that majority students are in favor of such activities as using games and visual aids. However, most of the teachers have to admit that designing these activities is difficult and time-consuming. It requires a great effort if they wish these activities work well in their real teaching situation. Besides, handling these activities sometimes is out of control because they often occupy much time and they may cause noise to the surrounding environment. 3.1.6. Teachers’ and students’ comments on Pre-reading activities available in the textbook More Reading Power From the data collected in the previous chapter, the author found out that almost the students and the teachers in the study are not in favor of the Pre-reading activities available in the textbook they are using currently. In general, most of them comment that these activities are not suitable for their teaching and learning reading, some of them even suppose that these activities are boring. According to them, these activities are poor, repetitive, and sometimes rather boring. Therefore, they all think that more activities should be added at the Pre-reading stage. 3.2. Suggestions of some possible Pre-reading activities applied to teach More Reading Power to the Second-year English Majors at the MSA For developing skills to the second year students at the MSA, reading comprehension is one of the most difficult but important academic tasks facing second year students at intermediate level. To improve reading skills can positive impact many aspects of second year students’ performance. Disinterest in reading may result in poor reading comprehension, creating students’ interest, enhancing their motivation and improving their concentration in the textbook More Reading Power are indispensable steps. In this study, the researcher offers several suggestions for the teachers to create their students’ interest, to enhance their motivation as well as their concentration before reading. 3.2.1. Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation Ways for creating interest and enhancing motivation for the students at the MSA will vary significantly according to personal preferences, experiences, background, and subject matter. For second-year students of English at the MSA it would be helpful to suggest some ways for creating the students’ interest and enhancing their motivation before reading. Group discussion is an activity that can be appropriate for situations in which texts are difficult, sometimes contain unfamiliar concepts or words that may be not exist in the students’ minds. Group students in three or four with an efficient reader to create an exciting reading atmosphere since reading alone is conventional and sometimes rather boring and not effective. 3.2.2. Using visual aids It is very important for the readers to have something to look at is eye-caching and relevant to the task in hand. There are many advantages of using visual aids in a reading lesson that the teacher can use. First of all, using visual aids can focus attention on meaning and help to make the language, using visual aids in the class in general and in the reading lesson in particular can bring students back to real life. Secondly, having something to look at can keep the students’ attention and make the class more alive and interesting. Moreover, using visual aids at pre-reading stage can help the teacher much in presenting new words or introducing a topic, as part of language practice, and when reviewing language that has been presented earlier. Good visual aids are not just used once, but again and again and can be shared by different teachers and with different groups of students. 3.2.3. Pre- questioning Pre-questioning involves presenting students with a set of written questions (Royer et. al., 1983) or having students generate their own questions on the topic of the reading passage (Taglieber et.al., 1983). The aim of this activity is to motivate students to read what follows for a purpose, that is, to gain the requisite information to answer the question. (Carrell, 1988:247) Being motivated is one of the most important factors that can help students in the process of reading. “The more students look forward to reading and anticipate in their minds what the text could hold in store for them, the easier it will be to grasp the main points of the passage” (Grellet 1981:62). Providing pre-reading questions also “functions to get students to predict within a context area what the text will be about” before studying the text (Carrell 1988:247). They make students “aware of what they wish to learn about the topic” (Grellet 1981:62), since these questions set purposes for reading. 3.2.4. Brainstorming One very popular kind of Pre-reading activities is “Brainstorming.” Students are given a particular key word or key concept and then invited to call out words and concepts they personally associate with the key words or words provided by the teacher. It has many advantages, since it requires little teacher preparation, allows learners freedom to bring their own prior knowledge and opinions to bear on a particular topic, and involves the whole class. No one need feel threatened when any bid is acceptable and can be added to the framework. The results of this kind of activity resemble what has been called “semantic mapping” (Wallace 1993:92). 3.2.5. Role- playing Role-play is a way of bringingsituation from real life into classroom. When the teacher carries out role-play, he or she asks the students to imagine themselves to be a farmer, a doctor, a teacher or a scientist, etc,. In general, role-play increases motivation, it gives students a chance to use the language in new contexts and for new topics. The students can imagine themselves in defferent situations when they do role-play. In addition, by using role-play in the class, the teachers is building on something that the students naturally enjoy, because through the role-play, the students can express their own natural expressions, intornations and gestures as well. 3.3. Summary Chapter 3 has presented the author’ major findings about students’ attitudes towards Pre-reading activities, students’ preferences for these activities, teachers’ difficulties when designing and applying Pre-reading activities as well as students’ and teachers’ comments on Pre-reading activities in textbook More Reading Power. More importantly, these findings enable the researcher to provide suggestions on some possible Pre-reading activities which are thought to be appropriate for motivating students at the first stage of the reading lesson in particular, and for developing reading skills to the second year students of English at the MSA in general. In a single lesson, it is not possible for the teacher to use all these suggested activities presented in this chapter, therefore, the teacher should choose different activities for different reading lessons with different purposes. It is hoped that with the application of this advice, the teachers can help the students at the MSA learn the textbook More Reading Power more effectively. PART C: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study This study was conducted with the hope to find out the role of Pre-reading activities to second-year students’ motivation in reading at the MSA. It is obvious from the previous chapters that the importance of reading in foreign language learning is undeniable and appropriate techniques are also important to improve the students’ reading abilities. As the result, the suggestions of several appropriate activities to help second-year students better in their reading skills at the MSA appears to be necessary. This study entitled “A study on possible effective Pre-reading activities to improve reading skills for the 2nd-year English majors at the Military Science Academy” consists of three parts: the introduction, the development, and the conclusion. The first part presents the rationale and scope of the study, aims, methods, significance, and the design of the study. The second part-development includes three chapters: Chapter 1-theoretical background reviews the relevant literature on reading and reading comprehension. Besides, concepts and ideas about motivation in general and in second language learning in particular have been mentioned. Moreover, the importance of motivation, the factors affecting the students’ motivation in learning reading skill as well as definitions and the importance of Pre-reading activities have also been reviewed in this chapter. Chapter 2-the study presents the situation of the study, in which the author would like to focus on the setting, the reading material, and the characteristics of the students and teachers participating in the study. The data analysis based on the questionnaires for the teachers and the students as well as class observations are also presented in this chapter. Chapter 3 deals with major findings through data analysis in chapter 2. In addition, the author provides suggestions of some possible Pre-reading activities which can be applied to teach More Reading Power to the second-year English students at the MSA. The last part of the study-conclusion, in which the limitations and suggestions for further study are presented. 2. Limitations and suggestions for further study In most research projects, limitations are inevitable. The study presented in this thesis is of no exception. Due to the shortage of time and knowledge, the study can not cover all the factors affecting the students’ motivation in learning reading at the MSA. This study merely focuses on motivational activities for the Pre-reading stage to the second-year students major of English at the MSA. Thus, further study on motivational while-reading and post-reading activities for the second-year students and for the students of other years seem to be of great usefulness.