Using while- Reading techniques to improve reading comprehension for the 11th form students at phan dang luu high school

ost of students were interested in reading in English (chart 1). They gave various reasons for their choice. Firstly, reading is very interesting, it can help students relax after long studying hours. Secondly, by reading they can broaden their mind and improve their background knowledge. In addition reading enables them to reinforce vocabulary and grammatical structures and develop other language skills. Through the statistics collected, a fact was improved that to both students and teachers, reading comprehension stands equal to speaking, listening and writing (Chart 2). And because both students and teachers were aware of the importance of reading comprehension, most of them accordingly think that developing reading comprehension is necessary (Chart 3). This is a great advantage in teaching and learning this skill. The next question focuses on the students’ and teachers’ opinion about reading text in the text book (Chart 4). In response to this question, teachers and students showed different ideas. 30% of teachers thought that texts in the textbook were interesting but only 15% of students shared the same view point. Most students (43%) found that reading texts were boring, 32% of them thought they were not suitable for their level. To teachers, a large number of them (40%) believe that reading texts are suitable to the students’ level, 15% of them thought they are boring, and the rest (15%) stated they are difficult to the students. This figure shows a big difference in the opinion about reading texts in the current textbook. It may greatly affect the methods on teaching and learning reading texts of students. Chart 5: Students’ purposes in reading To entertain themselves To reinforce vocabulary and grammatical structures To improve language skills To improve background knowledge All of the above Chart 5 Question number 5 for students deals with their purposes of reading. In this question, the students can choose more than one answer (Chart 5). Different ideas were provided for reading purposes. The statistics indicates that students who read in English with the combination of the mentioned purposes are the largest, accounting for 65%. Next is the number of students who consider widening vocabulary and grammatical structures as their reading purposes (27%); 15% of them read for developing language skills; 9% read for information and reading for pleasure is the least percentage (only 3%). As can be seen, the purposes of reading in English are various. Many students think that reading can help them much in reinforcing language skills and elements and improving background knowledge. Students’ difficulties in reading. Chart 6: Students’ difficulties in reading Lack of vocabulary Lack of grammatical Lack of background knowledge Lack of reading skills Chart 6 The next question (Chart 6) find out students’ difficulties in reading texts. According to the data, many students had more than one and different difficulties. Both teachers and students shared nearly the same opinion about students’ difficulties in reading. There is only a great imbalance in the last mentioned difficulty. While 30% of students thought it was difficult for them to complete comprehension exercises (lack of reading skills), only 12% of teachers recognized this. This fact may have great effect to the efficiency of reading lessons. When teachers do not recognize their students’ shortcomings, they cannot help them to overcome these problems. In this case, the teacher may not concentrate on developing their students reading skills but providing them with new vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students’ difficulties in reading are also various. How do the students overcome these difficulties? Students’ and teachers’ methods of learning and teaching reading texts. Chart 7: Students’ ways of overcoming difficulties Wait for the ring answer when the teachers correct Ask the teachers for help Discuss with friends to find out the right answer Chart 7 The statistics in Chart 7 shows that when having difficulties in reading, most of students (53%) waited for their teacher’s correction; 26% discussed with their friends to find the right answers. This reveals a fact that in reading classes, the teacher may not encourage students to work in pairs/ groups to save time and have a better result in reading. Their reading lessons, therefore, cannot be effective as the students passively depend on their help. Chart 8: Students’ ways of reading texts Focus on every word for detailed understanding Read quickly for general understanding first and then focus on other specific information and new words Chart 8 The next question (Chart 8) is to investigate how often students read a text. As can be seen, a majority of students focused on new words in reading a text, accounting for 61%. Only 39% of them skimmed for general ideas, and then focused on other specific information and new words. This fact is understandable because it is the teacher who asked the to read according to such way (55%), and only 45% directed them to read quickly for general understanding first and then focused on other specific information and new words. It proves that reading strategies applied in reading classes now are not totally appropriate. Few teachers, in fact, made use of effective techniques (skimming and scanning), but most of them still used the translation method to exploit the text. It was common practice of students to look up new vocabulary items immediately without skimming for the message conveyed in the text. Chart 9: Using extra reading exercises in reading classes A. Yes B. No Chapter 9 The next question (Chart 9) aims at finding out whether teachers provide students with extra reading exercises or not. As the result reveals, a great percentage of students (81%) and teachers (85%) said: “Yes” and the rest said “No”. It is reasonable because exercises in the texts book are sometimes insufficient and they are not very useful for exploiting the text efficiently. The teacher, therefore, may cut down on such exercises and provide their students with extra ones. Table 1: The frequency of using while- reading activities and exercises While- reading exercises Often Sometimes Never Students’ choice(%) Teachers’ choice(%) Students’ choice(%) Teachers’ choice(%) Students’ choice(%) Teachers’ choice(%) Questions and answers 82 85 18 15 0 0 T/F exercises 72 80 25 20 3 0 Multiple choice exercises 85 85 11 15 4 0 Finding the topic sentences 7 15 30 20 61 65 Finding synonyms and antonyms 9 10 45 45 36 45 Blank filling 60 65 33 35 7 0 Reordering exercises 24 25 61 65 13 10 Completing exercises 35 35 56 60 9 5 Matching exercises 27 25 61 70 10 5 Finding equivalents 5 5 26 25 69 70 The frequency of using activities and exercises in the while- reading stage is also investigated. There are three levels (often, sometimes and never) for ten kinds of exercises. From the data, teachers and students roughly the same opinion about the frequency of using these exercises. Teachers apparently often used some common type of exercises in their reading lessons: Questions and answer, True/False questions and Multiple- choice questions. Using only such common kinds of exercises frequently may make students feel bored. It is advisable to use some other ones for a change such as Finding topic sentences, Finding synonyms and antonyms or Finding equivalents, which are rarely conducted in the reading class. Chart 10: Time allowance in doing reading exercises A. Yes B. No Chart 10 The next question is conducted to find out whether teachers limit the time of doing reading exercises (Chart 10). As can be seen from the chart, most of teachers (85%) required their students to complete reading exercises in a limited period of time. Only a small percentage of them did not, accounting for 15%. It is a good method because it may make students to try more and accordingly help to build up their reading skills. Chart 11: Classroom organization in the while- reading stage A. Yes B. No Chart 11 Teachers and students gave quite different answers when being asked about the way of organizing while- reading activities. It is evident from Chart 11 that only 20% of students gave their answer that their teachers asked them to work in pairs or groups to complete reading exercises. And a majority of them stated they did not work together (80%). 65% of teachers who did not use pairs or groups work in reading class gave no idea for their choice. 35% of them used pairs/groups work in attempt to make the reading class more relaxing and encourage students in reading to develop their reading skills. In general, the survey of both teachers and students gives findings about their attitudes to teaching and learning reading texts and their working methods. From the above data analysis, it can be stated that both teachers and students have positive attitudes to teaching and developing reading skill. Teachers have been using different activities and exercises in the while- reading stage, but they are not appropriate and effective enough. The teachers, in fact still apply traditional strategies in teaching reading. Most of them focus on presenting new words and grammatical structures rather than instruct their students to use some useful techniques such as skimming and scanning, etc. They have not made use of pairs work and groups work in the process of teaching reading. That is why their reading lessons could not be effective. Students consequently cannot develop their reading skills. It is the reason why the teacher of English should not think of more useful techniques that can work to get the best result of a reading lesson. Class observations From the factual class observation (observation sheet 1 and 2) there still exist both strong and weak points in the process of teaching reading comprehension texts, especially in the while- reading stage. In terms of strong points, the condition of learning and teaching is quite good with enough facilities such as cassettes and tapes. In the while- reading stage, teachers used some useful techniques like guiding questions and sometimes let their students work in groups. In contrast, there are numerous problems. The number of students in class was quite large, students did not pay adequate attention to the lessons. Many of them made noise; and some others studied other subjects. The teachers, they actually spent much time on teaching vocabulary, practicing pronunciation or translating the text into Vietnamese in the while- reading stage. They also used individual work in stead of pairs/ groups work. Their lesson consequently sounded boring and could not hold students’ attention. Once students lose their interest, it is impossible for them to practise and develop effective reading skills. To summarize, the teaching of reading texts still faces shortcomings. It is advisable to enrich the teaching strategies. Students should be given more exercises and activities in the while- reading stage to develop effective reading skills. Summary In short, chapter 2 has described in details the sub- steps of the survey and class observations and presented, analysed the information gathered from the survey, class observations. The results have helped the author of the study to have better understanding about the teaching and learning reading comprehension. The next chapter will suggest some while- reading techniques for teaching comprehension for the 11th form students. CHAPTER 3 SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES USED IN THE WHILE- READING STAGE TO DEVELOP THE READING SKILLS FOR THE 11TH FORM STUDENTS As mentioned above, the while- reading stage is regarded as the main part of a reading lesson. This stage often occupies most of the time in class, and accounts largely for the improvement of students’ reading comprehension skills. The students must be active and practice as much as possible. To help students understand reading texts and at the same time develop their reading skills, the teacher must play a role as a guiding person. He should give his students clear purposes while reading (for example, reading for general ideas, reading for specific information, and reading for further understanding) with clear instructions for various kinds of activities according to each purpose. Based on the nature of reading and teaching reading in addition to what is found from the survey, some useful techniques are suggested to help students to read better at the while- reading stage. All the example suggested question types are based on reading texts in “English” textbook. Reading for general understanding. Technique: Skimming After teaching new vocabulary or introducing the text, etc. the teacher asks his students to read the text silently for the first time. This activity enables them to gain the global understanding of the text, identify main ideas before going into the details of the text. While skimming the text silently, the students do not need to pay attention to every word in the text but run their eyes quickly over it, read a few important sentences and recognize certain words or expression as clues to ideas of what follows. It is advisable to ask the students to pay attention to the title, the beginning, the end as well as the topic sentence of each paragraph that usually conveys the main ideas of the text. Suggested question types To make this task more efficient and know how well the students understand the text, the teacher had better encourage them to get involved in some activities while they are skimming. Information questions While the students are reading, they are given some questions which help them know what they are expected to read. Information questions used while students are skimming direct them to the general idea of the text. The teacher can use the questions in the text book, change or replace the poor ones, or he can design some extra questions. It is worth using Wh- questions to draw the students’ attention to the whole text. If Yes/ No questions are used, he must his students to explain their answers. For example, in Unit 4: “Volunteer work ” (English 11: 46), the students may be asked to answer the questions after skimming the text: What is the main idea of this passage? What do young volunteers work in the homes of sick or old people? Is there a voluntary organization called Big Brothers? Multiple choice questions This is one of the most common types of exercises used in reading comprehension. It can be used to focus on the whole text and enables students to understand the text by giving them clues. His kind of questions certainly contains a statement and a set of possible answers. Students’ task is to select the best one form the answers depending on the text. For instance, in the text “Friendship” (English 11: 13, the students may be asked to answer the question: Which of the choices A, B, C or D most adequately sums up the ideas of the whole passage? A friend in need is a friend indeed Conditions of true friendship. Features of a good friend. Friends and acquaintances. When doing the multiple choices exercises, the students need to understand the stem of the item as well as the options. It is necessary to help the students immediately when they have problems with the question stems. True/ False questions True/ False questions may be used to draw the students’ attention to the main ideas of the text. The students are given a list of statements about the text and they must decide whether they are true or false according to what they read. There are several possibilities of this kind of questions. In all the provided statements, some of them are right, some are wrong, and some are not mentioned in the text. The students must write true (T) or (F)or not given (NG) next to each statement according to what they get from the text. For example, in the text “Celebrations” (English 11: 90), the students have to decide if the following statements are T, F or NG according to the text. Decide whether the statements are true (T), (F) or (NG) Tet is always on 20th February on the Western calendar. According to the text, for people anywhere in the world the beginning of spring is the start of a new year. Tet used to be longer than it is nowadays. According to the text, “lucky money” is given to everyone at Tet. Kimquat trees are popular both in the North and in the South of Vietnam. People try to be nice and polite to each other because they want to have good luck on New Year’s Day. When asking the students to answer the multiple choice questions and the True/ False questions, the teacher needs to be aware that the students can guess the answer rather than base on the text. To exploit the text efficiently, it is plausible to ask the students to discuss their answers in pairs or in groups, and give reasons for their choice. Finding topic sentences One of the useful activities which helps students understand the main points of the text is finding the topic sentence for each paragraph in the text. That key sentence is often at the beginning of each paragraph. The students can look for it to get the idea of what follows. For example, for the text “Hobbies” (English 11: 146), the teacher may ask his students to skim the text and underline the topic sentence in each paragraph. Paragraph 2: The hobby I like most is playing my guitar. My uncle, who is an accomplished guitarist, taught me how to play. Now I can play a few simple tunes. I have even begun to sing while playing the guitar, but I have not been very successful at this. My uncle tells me that all I need is to practise regularly and I should be able to do it. He is very good at accompanying people singing with his guitar and I admire him very much. Paragraph 3: Another hobby of mine is keeping fish. I have a modest little glass fish tank where I keep a variety of little fish. Some of them were bought from the shop while some others were collected from the rice field near my house. They look so beautiful swimming about in the tank. I love watching them and my mother loves watching them, too. Matching heading In this activity, the students are provided with a list of headings which is the summary of each paragraph in the text. Their task is to glance quickly at the entire paragraph and match the suitable heading for each. If they can find out the right title for each paragraph, they may understand efficiently all the main points conveyed in the text. For example, for the text “Space conquest” (English 11: 166), ask the students to read the text and match the headings for paragraphs. Paragraph 1 A. The tragic accident Paragraph 2 B. The lift- off Paragraph 3 C. Congratulations Paragraph 4 D. A view on Earth Paragraph 5 E. Uncertainties In itself, this is not entirely an exercise in skimming because the students sometimes need to read some paragraphs carefully to choose an appropriate heading. However, the students should be encouraged to do it as quickly as possible to see how quickly they understand the gist of the text. To avoid the obviousness of the final item, it would be better if the teacher give more headings than needed. The students, as a result will read more carefully to find out the correct title for the last paragraph. Finding paragraph topics Finding paragraph topics is more difficult than the previous activities. Instead of finding the topic sentences and underlining them or looking at a list of headings and matching to suitable paragraphs, the students have to read the whole paragraph and figure out the topic revealed in each. For instance, in the text “Nature in danger” (English 11: 115), the teacher may ask students to skim over the text and write down a phrase that expresses the topic of each paragraph. Paragraph 1 was done as an example. Paragraph 1:....................................... Paragraph 2:....................................... Paragraph 3:....................................... Paragraph 4:....................................... Completing summary This activity directs the students to the main points of the text for a full understanding. The students’ task is to read the text and use the information to complete the summary passage by filling in the blanks with a single word or group of words. The teacher may provide them with a list of words to choose from. For example, the teacher asks her students to fill in each blank with a proper word from the list after reading the text “ World population” (English 11: 80) Does the Earth have enough......... to support this many people? Others say that we must ......... population growth because our resources are limited. Research has shown that the ......... Third World woman has more children than she wants. Safe ......... control methods for family planning are not available to them. It is necessary to notice that the passage used for this type of exercise must be based on the reading text and focus on the general message on the text, so that the students can make full use of what they have read. In general, skimming is an important technique in reading comprehension directs students to a global understanding of reading texts. Depending on the text, the teaching and learning condition or the students’ language level, students are asked to answer information questions, multiple choice questions or True/ False questions, to look for topic sentences, match the headings or find out paragraph topics for each paragraph in the text. In reading some texts another task is to complete the summary. Reading for specific information Technique: Scanning After the students compete some exercises focusing on the main point or general understanding of the text, they read the text again and search for or locate some particular pieces of information in the text. The teacher should remind his students that when they are trying to locate specifically required information, they do not need to read the whole text carefully but pay more attention to the paragraph in which the information they need is likely to be embedded. It is advisable to limit the time of scanning since this can save the time and make the students try their best to develop the scanning skill. Suggested question types The students can be instructed to complete some tasks which focus them on the specific points in the text. Information questions The information questions can be used to focus the students on specific information of the text. For example, in the text “Recreation”, the teacher may ask his students to answer the following questions Why are recreation and entertainment important to people? What sports do the British like watching? What sports do they like taking part in? Why do many British people take weekend courses? Multiple choice questions This kind of question is also widely used to draw the students to “just one word of the text” or specific information of the text. For example, for the text “Volunteer work”, students may be instructed to choose the best answers for each sentence according to the text. Volunteers usually help those who are sick or old in their homes by.......... mowing the lawns, doing shopping and cleaning up their houses cooking, sewing or washing their clothes telling them stories, and singing and dancing for them taking to the baseball games Big Brothers is .......... the name of the club a home for children the name of a film on organization for boys who no longer have fathers. Most of the boys’ and girls’ club use many high school and college students as volunteers because they.......... have a lot of free time can understand the problems of younger boys and girls know how to do the work are good at playing games Volunteers believe that .......... in order to make others happy, they have to be unhappy the happiest people are those who make themselves happy the happiest people are those who are young and healthy bringing happiest to others makes them the happiest people. True/ False questions Similar to reading for general understanding, while asking the students to scanning for pieces of information in the text, it is useful to provide the students with True/ False exercises. For instance, for the text “A party”, the students will read the following statements and decide if they are true, false or not given in the passage. Lisa’s family and friends are at her eighth birthday party. Everyone makes cake and ice cream at the birthday party. Lisa opens birthday cards and food from her family and friends. Many Americans over the age of 30 don not like to talk about their anniversaries. Fifty months ago, Rosa and Luis got married. People call the 5th wedding anniversary the “golden anniversary” Rosa and Luis are happy to be together for their silver anniversary. Blank- filling The teacher uses this kind of activity to focus his students on specific information in the text. The students have to use information in the text to fill in the provided blanks by inserting a single word or a group of words. Filling in the blank is generally used in the section of scanning for detail in the textbook English 11. For example, in “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124) one environment alternative limited unlimited sources energy fuels We need energy to live and work. Our major source of (1)........ is oil. Oil is (2)........ kind of fossil fuel. The amount of fossil (3)........ in the world is (4)........ Therefore, we must save it, and at the same time, we must find new sources of energy. Geothermal heat and nuclear power are (5)........ sources of energy. They can give us electricity. Other alternative (6)........ are the sun, waves and water. These sources are not only (7)........ and available but also clean and safe for the (8)........ People should develop and use them more and more in the future. Completing tables Completing tables is one form of the completing exercises along with completing notes, completing summary or completing sentence. In reading for specific information, completing tables seems to be the most often used techniques among the others. For example, in the text “The Asian Games” (English 11:136), the students read it quickly and complete the table: Year Events (1)............ The 1st Asian Games began in New Delhi, India. 1954 Boxing, shooting and wrestling were added at (2) ............ (3) ............ Tennis, volleyball, table tennis and hockey were added at the 3rd Asian Games held in Tokyo, Japan. 1998 (4) ............ were introduced at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. (5) ............ The 14th Asian Games were held in Busan, Korean. In conclusion, scanning helps students exploit information of the text in a short period of time. To achieve this purpose, the teacher must involve his students in certain activities as mentioned above, and limit their working time. Reading for further understanding The students may do some other activities for further understanding. Understanding the organization of the text. In reading for detailed understanding, the teacher can ask his students to pay attention to the organization of the text. This task can also be used in skimming or reading for general understanding. Indeed, if the students grasp the method used to present the information, they can recognize the pattern that is being used so that they can apply their reading strategies to exploit the text and predict what is likely to follow. Furthermore, carefully looking at the way in which information is organized, the students can understand the relationship among ideas or perceive the structure that ties a group of sentences together. This enables them to think about the ideas in the text and get closer to the writer’s thinking. Technique: Identifying the relationship among sentences. To understand the organization of the text, the students need to pay an adequate attention to the relationship among sentences- that is how idea go together. The teacher’s job in this case is to help his students to identify the types of text organization. There are some common types of organization that the teacher should instruct his students to recognize. Paragraph in the text can normally be organized by main ideas and supporting ideas and supporting ideas, by chronological sequence, in comparison and contrast way as well as enumeration expression, etc. Notably, the writer can combine some ways of expression in one text, for example, main ideas and supporting ideas with chronological sequence. Main ideas and supporting ideas. This is the most commonly used of the text organization. The author introduces the main ideas first for the whole text, or for each paragraph in the text, which is then developed throughout. The text “Hobbies” (English 11: 146) is one of a good illustration. “I keep stamps, too. However, I would not call myself an avid stamp collector. Actually, I just collect the stamps from discarded envelopes that my relatives and friends give me. Mostly, I get local stamps. Once in a while, I get stamps from places like Russian, the USA, Britain, Australia, China and others. I keep the less common ones inside a small album. The common ones I usually give away to others or if no one wants them I simply throw them away.” In the above paragraph, the writer stated the main idea first i.e. “I keep stamps” Chronological sequence The text with its ideas organized in a chronological sequence seems to be easy for students to follow. The ideas are put in order according to the time in which events happen. For example, in the text: “Illiteracy” (English 11: 56), the writer used chronological sequence to talk about illiteracy. “In the summer of 2000, the Vietnam Society of Learning Promotion started a campaign for illiteracy eradication. In the campaign, six hundred ethnic minority students from the northern highlands were asked to provide reading and writing skills to 1200 illiterate people living in their home villages. In 2001, eight hundred volunteer students took part in the campaign. The number of people receiving reading and writing lessons reached 4623. this was an effective way to help people in remote and mountainous areas to read write ” Comparison and contrast. For this kind of text organization, the ideas are conveyed in comparison or contrast to each other. If the students can recognize this, it is much easier for them to understand the writer’s message. Let take the paragraph in the text “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124) as an example. “... The wind turns windmills and moves sailboats. It is a clean source of energy, and there is lots of it. Unfortunately, if the wind does not blow, there is no wind energy. When water moves from a high place to a lower place, it makes energy. This energy is used to create electricity. Water power gives energy without pollution. However, people have to build dams to use this energy. And as dams cost a lot of money, so water energy is expensive.” The students can notice that the ideas of wind power are expressed by making a comparison between advantages and disadvantages of wind power. They can pay attention to some common signals such as “unfortunately, however, as”. Enumeration Another commonly used way of organization is enumeration, in which the ideas are presented in turn. Students take some signals as “first, second, or, next, then, etc.” into consideration in dealing with this kind of text. This way of organizing ideas is applied in the text “Nature in danger” (English 11: 114) “It can be said that human are changing the environment in all respects through their actions and by their habits. This has resulted in two serious consequences. The first is that many kinds of rare animals are killed. The second is that the environment where these animals are living is badly destroyed. As a result, the number of rare animals is decreasing so rapidly that they are in danger of becoming extinct.” In general, there are many different ways of organizing the reading text. A suitable way to help the students follow organizational patterns is to make them think about the content in the way the text is constructed. This may be done providing them with different types of questions that emphasize the relationship among sentences in the text. Suggested question types Distinguish main ideas and supporting ideas In attempt to direct students to the text organization, the teacher can ask them to distinguish main ideas and supporting ideas. For instance, read the following statements from the text “Friendship” (English 11: 12). Which ones are main ideas and which ones are supporting ideas of the text? A friend in need is a friend in deed. The first quality is unselfishness. Constancy is the second quality. Loyalty and trust are important features of true friendship. Reordering information or events This type of activity can b most commonly used with the text organized in chronological sequence. For example, with the text “Celebrations” (English 11: 90), it is useful to ask the students to put the following things in the right order. Homes are often decorated with plants and flowers. Many people go to the pagoda to pray for a happy year for themselves and their family. Tet marks the beginning of spring and, for a agrarian people, the start of a new year. Streets are decorated with colored lights and red banners. Completing tables and diagrams Completing tables and diagrams is often used for texts with the ideas organized in numeration or in comparison and contrast. For instance, the students have to complete the diagram after reading the text “Nature in danger” (English 11: 114) Human beings have a great influence on the world changing affecting destroying .............. .............. .............. As a result.......... Understanding liking sentences and ideas Techniques It is undeniable that text is not made up of independent sentences or clauses but a web of related ideas that are announced, introduced and taken up again later throughout the passage with the participation of references. In reading for detailed understanding, it is possible to ask students to pay attention to linking sentences and ideas. It is one of the useful tasks which helps them understand more about the text. The students may be instructed to recognize and understand reference or understand the value of linking words. Recognizing reference Using reference is a common way of linking structurally independent sentences for a meaningful text. In reading texts, the author may use reference such as this, that, it, etc., to repeat something mentioned or to refer to something which is going to be mentioned. To understand the text thoroughly, it is useful for students to recognize and understand the reference in the reading text. In fact, failing to understand the reference probably leads to a serious misunderstanding of the text. For example in the text “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124) “At present, most of our energy comes from fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas). However, such reserves are limited. ...When water moves from a high place to a lower place, it makes energy. This energy is used to create electricity. ...The sun releases large amounts of energy every day. This energy can be changed into electricity” In the above paragraph, the students should notice that “such” is used to refer to “fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas)”, “this” (in paragraph 2) is used to refer to “water”, “this” (in paragraph 3) is used refer to “solar”, which are already mentioned in the previous sentences. Such “such, this” are called references. They are used to link sentences and ideas in the paragraph aiming at creating a meaningful passage. Considering linking words Understanding linking words or logical connectors is one of the key factors which enables students to understand more about the text. It is worth drawing students’ attention to linking words because they are not only essential to the understanding of the ideas and facts mentioned in the passage, but they also indicate the rhetorical value, such as reinforcing and explaining of what follows. For example in the text “Celebrations” (English 11: 90) “On the days of Tet everyone tries to be nice and polite to each other. People believe that what they do on the first day of the year will influence their luck during the whole year. Thus, only positive comments should be made.” “Thus” is a linking word which joins the ideas of the previous sentences. It signals a consequence for the previously mentioned idea. Because the first day of Tet influences people’ luck during the whole year, they only say positive comments. Suggested question types In reading for understanding linking sentences and ideas, the teacher may provide his students with some questions or exercises focusing on reference and linking words. Finding equivalence and completing text with missing linking words are strongly suggested in this case. Finding equivalents In these types of exercise, the teacher may ask his students to find the equivalents for the reference used in the whole text or a short paragraph of the text. For instance, in order to get a detailed understanding of the 1st and the 2nd paragraph in the text “The wonders of the world” (English 11: 178), the students may be asked to find the equivalent for reference. “The Great Pyramid of Giza was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu around the year 1560 B.C. The purpose of this huge stone pyramid was to serve as a tomb when he died and to protect the burial chamber from the weather and from thieves who might try to steal the treasures and belongings here. The Great Pyramid is believed to have been built over a 20- year period. First, the site was prepared and then the huge blocks of stone were transported and put in their places. When it was built, the Great Pyramid was 147 meters high on a base of 230 meters square. It ranked as the tallest structure on earth for more than 43 centuries, only to be surpassed in height in the nineteenth century A.D. The structure consisted of approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing about 2.5 tons.” 1. he............. 2. who ............. 3. it............. 4. it ............. 5. each............. Completing texts with missing linking words Linking words may be taken out of the passage and the students are made to choose between several possibilities (three or four) to complete each blank. This will lead them to look at the context carefully for the function of the missing linking- word. By doing this, the students not only understand the general ideas but also more detailed information of the text. For instance, in the text “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124), the students may be asked to complete the passage below by choosing from the provided linking words “At present, most of our energy comes from fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas). ..., such reserves are limited. ... power demand is increasing very rapidly, fossil fuels will be exhausted within a relatively short time. ..., people must develop and use alternative sources of energy.” 1. A. However B. Although C. As a result of 2. A. As a result of B. Because C. Because of 3. A. On the contrary B. Therefore C. Despite A more difficult variant of this type of exercise is that the teacher does not provide them with some alternatives to make choice. They have to find the appropriate linking words to complete the paragraph or the whole text. Deducing the meaning and use of new lexical items in the text. Techniques In fact, in reading lesson, it is advisable to teach students to use some clues to ascertain word meanings to provide them with opportunities for vocabulary growth. There are two often- used clues, i.e. contextual clues and word formation and derivation. Looking for contextual clues Contextual clues are words that come before or after a word, phrase, or statement, etc., which help to show its meaning. It may also be the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used. To make use of contextual clues, students should be taught to recognize the common kinds which help them to recognize the words meanings more easily. The four following kinds of contextual clues can be used. Clues of definition: The author will sometimes precede or follow a word with a definition, synonym or illustration: Clues of explanation: This relates to clues of definition. It offers the information in a longer form that often includes the whole sentences: Clues of comparison and contrast: Sometimes, students can work out the meaning of the words they do not know by seeing words or expressions that are similar or opposite in meanings. In teaching students to look for contextual clues, the teacher must warn his students that contextual clues might not allow them to deduce the exact meaning of a word. Their experiences in this case will play as a decisive factor. Contextual clues may also be so far removed from the unknown words. The students, therefore, must be ready to search for clues elsewhere in the paragraph, even in other paragraphs. Understanding word formation ad derivation. The meanings of words are deduced not only from the contextual clues around them, but also within the words themselves. It is the reason why the students need to understand word formation and derivation. It is true that being aware of how words are formed and of the value of prefixes, suffixes, roots and the parts of compound words will enable students to discover the meaning of a great number of unfamiliar words: In teaching the students how to use prefixes, suffixes to deduce the meaning of words, it is unreasonable to ask them to memorize long lists of prefixes, suffixes, roots and their meanings. It would be more productive if the teacher let his students practice it first through familiar words. The knowledge they acquire can be applied later to other unfamiliar words. In short, deducing meaning of the new words is one of effective way to understand more about the text. Students can use contextual clues and the rules of word formation and derivation as a means to achieve the purpose. To make this activity efficient, the teacher must ask his students to do some types of exercises relating to unfamiliar items in the text. Suggested question types Recognizing synonyms and antonyms This activity can be done through some kinds of exercises such as: multiple choice exercises, finding equivalents and matching exercises. For example, in Unit 9 “The post office” (English 11: 100), the students can do the multiple- choice exercise. Circle the letter A, B, C or D before the word that has the opposite meaning to the italicised word Thanh Ba Post Office has a spacious and pleasant front office. large B. beautiful C. cramped D. open Our well- trained staff are always courteous to customers helpful B. rude C. friendly D. open This speedy and secure service of transferring money can be useful rapid B. hurried C. careful D. slow If you want to send a document and do not want to lose its original shape, send it by a fax machine A. unique B. outdated C. changed D. imaginative In the case of finding equivalents, the students may be asked to find not only equivalents for words but also phrases or expression. For instance, in Unit 5 “Illiteracy” (English 11: 56), students are asked to find the words or phrases which mean: Universalization of Primary Education The Vietnam Society of Learning Promotion Illiteracy eradication farming techniques family planning The third possible type of exercise in finding synonyms and antonyms is matching exercises. The students are provided with a list of new words parallel with a list of definitions, and they have to match the words from this list with their definitions. The text “Competitions” in Unit 6 (English 11: 66), match the words or phrases on the left with their definitions on the right. 1. representatives a. without problems or difficulties 2. annual b. enthusiasm and energy 3. stimulate c. altogether or as a total 4. in all d. a person chosen or appointed on behalf of another person or a group 5. spirit e. encourage or make something more active 6. smoothly f. happening or done once every year. Cloze exercise In deducing the meaning and use of the new words in the text, it is effective to provide students with cloze exercises. Students have to fill in the blanks in separated sentences or in a passage with the words from the text. For example, in Unit 11 “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124), students are asked to fill each lank with a suitable word alternative limited energy released exhausted Six hundred balloons were ......... at the ceremony. They are looking for ......... methods of making it. People use ......... to run machines, heat and cool their homes. The food in the restaurant is cheap, but the choice is rather ......... Fuel supplies are nearly ......... In summary, how to find out the meaning of new lexical items in the text is very important. In doing exercises relating to this aspect, the students can put the new words in context or pay attention to their forms to make out their meanings. Depending on each particular text, the teacher can provide suitable activities or exercises for his students. He can ask them to recognize synonyms and antonyms, do close exercise or complete tables. Summary To sum up, there have been a number of activities in the while- reading stage presented in this chapter. In an attempt to develop different sub- reading skills such as skimming or scanning, the teacher should direct his students to some certain techniques. In the process of teaching reading, it is necessary to take notice of some points. There are no fixed reading techniques. A technique can be used separately or integrated with others. More importantly, because teaching is a creative and artistic process, the teacher must be flexible when using different activities in the while- reading stage for a particular text. Depending on teaching and learning conditions, the reading text and the students’ level it is effective to choose the most suitable and effective techniques to help students develop their reading skills. The teacher may ask his students to complete every reading task in a limited period of time since it will force them to try more, accordingly help them build up and develop their reading skills. What is more is that a reading lesson would be better if the teacher asks his students to discuss their answers and opinions in pairs or groups eliciting their responses. Reading in this way actually makes them feel more relaxed while- reading and help them read effectively. PART3: CONCLUSION Results obtained The teaching and learning of reading comprehension has become more and more important in secondary schools. Teachers of English are, therefore, trying their best to find more useful techniques to help the students develop their reading skills. This study is conducted to find effective techniques in the while- reading stage to teach the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school. The thesis has presented some useful techniques accompanied by a number of activities to develop certain reading skills for students in the while- reading stage, i.e. reading for general understanding, reading for specific information and reading for further understanding. Students can skim for the gist, and then scan to locate for specific information or read more for further understanding. For each technique, the teachers may ask students to find topic sentences when skimming, complete tables while scanning or guess meaning of unfamiliar words in context for further understandings. All these techniques and activities are suggested basing on the theory of reading and teaching reading comprehension. It is also based on the present situation of teaching and learning reading in the secondary schools at Phan Dang Luu high school, especially in the while- reading stage. The actual teaching and learning status was clarified through the two survey questionnaires and some class observations at Phan Dang Luu high school. The statistics indicate that both students and teachers have positive attitudes toward teaching and learning reading, but the while- reading activities the teachers used were not sufficient enough to develop their students reading skills. It is advisable for them to apply more techniques in their reading lessons. There are actually a lot of activities in the while- reading stage but teachers must be flexible in using them. They should depend on the reading texts, their students’ level or the learning condition to provide their students with suitable and useful activities to exploit the text efficiently and develop their effective reading skills. In conclusion, from what have been presented, the thesis is hoped to be useful and referred to by secondary school teachers for the while- reading activities in their reading lessons. Suggestion for further study. Due to the shortage of time and the lack of practical experience, all the issues of the teaching process cannot be covered as a whole. It is expected that the further studies will be the continuance for this one, which suggest techniques to the remained stages, the pre- reading and the post- reading stage. The quality of teaching and learning reading in English as a result can be step by step improved. Furthermore, mistakes are also inevitable in the thesis because of the limitation of time, references and ability. Comments and recommendations would be highly appreciated to better the thesis both in content and in the form.