VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ==== ==== A STUDY ON COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH READING CLASSES FOR THE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG BÀI ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Student: VŨ HẢI YẾN, 47A1_ENGLISH Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN LAM, M.A. VINH, 2010 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has been finished with the support and encouragement of many people to whom I am grateful. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A. With her profound knowledge and experience in teaching English as well as great enthusiasm, she has given me a lot of valuable advice, suggestion and encouragement during my researching process. I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all my teachers from the Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University for their lectures and advice which are very useful for me to finish this study. I am fully grateful to the help of all the teachers and students at Thach Thanh II High School so that I could finish the survey for my study. Finally, I wish to thank my family and my friends who have encouraged and supported me during the time of doing this study. Though the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitations of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the study. Therefore, I would like to receive any regard and comment from you on my study. Vinh, May 2010 Vu Hai Yen 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKOWLEDGEMENTS i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii ABBREVIATION .v PART I INTRODUCTION1 1. Reasons for Choosing the Study 1 2. Aims and Objectives of the Study .2 3. Scope of the Study 2 4. Method of the Study 3 5. Design of the Study .3 PART II DEVELOPMENT .5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .5 1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) .5 1.1.1. Aims of CLT .5 1.1.2. Teacher Roles and Learner Roles in CLT .6 1.1.2.1. Teacher Roles .6 1.1.2.2. Learner Roles 6 1.2. The Communication Continuum 7 1.2.1. Characteristics of Communicative Activities 7 1.2.2. Purposes of Communicative Activities 8 1.2.3. Types of Communicative Activities in Language Teaching .8 1.3. Reading Skill .9 1.3.1. Definition of Reading 9 1.3.2. The Importance of Reading 10 1.3.3. Principles for Teaching Reading in a CLT Classroom 11 1.3.4. Types of Reading Activities in Language Classes 13 1.4. Summary 15 3 CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THACH THANH II HIGH SCHOOL .16 2.1. Characteristics of the 10 th Form Students .16 2.2. Characteristics of the New Textbook “Tieng Anh 10” .17 2.3. Design of a Reading Lesson for the 10 th Form Students .19 2.4. Situation of Teaching and Learning English Reading Skill at Thach Thanh II High School .21 2.5. The Survey on the 10 th Form Students and Teachers of English at Thach Thanh II High School .22 2.5.1. Aims of the Survey 22 2.5.2. Description of the Survey 22 2.5.3. Result of the Survey 23 2.6. Summary 31 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTED COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS FOR THE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS .32 3.1. Introduction 32 3.2. Suggested Communicative Activities to Improve English Reading Skills for the 10 th Form Students 34 3.2.1. Out of Ten .34 3.2.2. Finding Synonyms .34 3.2.3. Get it wrong .35 3.2.4. Role Play36 3.2.5. Students Interview 36 3.2.6. Completing Network .37 3.2.7. Crossword Puzzle .38 3.2.8. Lucky Number .38 3.3. Sample Reading Communicative Activities .39 3.4 Summary .48 4 PART III CONCLUSION 49 3.1. Recapitulation 49 3.2. Suggestions for Further Studies .50 REFERENCES Appendix 1 Appendix 2 ABBREVIATIONS 5 CLT: Communicative Language Teaching A: Answer Q: Question 6 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Reasons for Choosing the Study Language is the most important means for people to communicate to each other. Nowadays, with the non-stop development of society and the tendency of integration among the countries over the world, English becomes an official and effective international communicative language. English is widely used in many fields of life such as science, technology, education, etc. As a result, more and more people are studying English with the hope that they can meet the requirements of society in general and of their jobs in particular. In education, especially, for High school grade, English now is a compulsory subject not only in teaching and learning but also in many important examinations. It is, therefore, comprehensible why nowadays students learning English with a great concern. They not only study English because it is compulsory but also because they are interested in English and they are aware well of the importance of English for their job in the future. As a matter of fact, it is not easy to master a foreign language at all. Learning English is not an exception. It requires many sub-skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Being a receptive skill, reading also has some certain requirements to the students, not just a process of understanding grammar structures mechanically. In fact, many students are very good at grammar and vocabulary but they cannot finish the reading tasks successfully. Of course, there are many ways to teach reading skill, however, the given question is that which way is the most effective for the students. Nowadays, we are trying to teach English in a communicative way. Communicative activities, therefore, are becoming an essential part in language learning. In real teaching in high school, not many teachers use communicative activities in English classes, especially in reading lessons. They only teach students reading skills through mechanical drills in the textbook. Thus, the author carries out a study on the communicative activities in English reading classes to somewhat help students to improve their reading skill in particular and their language competence in general. 7 For the reasons above, the author decides to choose the topic “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10 th Form Students” as the study of her graduation thesis. 2. Aims and Objectives of the Study The aims and objectives of the study are as follows: - To provide some basic knowledge ranging from CLT, Communicative Continuum to Reading Skill. - To make an investigation into the real situation of using communicative activities in teaching and learning English reading skill at Thach Thanh II High school. - To provide some suggested communicative activities to partly improve reading skills for the 10 th form students. To fully achieve these aims, the study has to answer the following questions: * What are Communicative Activities? What is “reading”? * What is the real situation of using communicative activities in English reading lessons for the 10 th form students at Thach Thanh II High school? * What kinds of Communicative Activities can be applied in English reading classes to improve reading skill for the 10 th students? 3. Scope of the Study The study concerns about communicative activities and reading skill. However, “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10 th Form Students” is a broad topic and it cannot be exploited in the study due to the limitation of a graduation thesis. Therefore, within this study, the author just mentions about some background knowledge about CLT and reading skill as well as some communicative activities in language classes. Furthermore, in this study, the author also attempts to carry out the research on the situation of teaching and learning English reading skill at Thach Thanh II High School. From these, the author’s purpose is to give some suggested communicative activities as a technique to partly improve reading skills for the 10 th form students. 4. Method of the Study 8 To finish this study, the author has used quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the author collects and analyzes the materials which refer to CLT, Reading Skill and Communicative Activities in English reading classes. Then, she conducts a survey to get information about the real situation about teaching and learning English reading at Thach Thanh II High School. After that, the author analyzes and synthesizes the collected data. Finally, the author discusses about some suggested communicative activities in English reading classes for the 10 th form students. 5. Design of the Study The study has three main parts. Part I is “INTRODUCTION” which consists of the author’s reasons for choosing the study, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study. Part II entitled “DEVELOPMENT” includes three chapters. Chapter 1, “Theoretical Background”, provides some background knowledge about CLT, the aims of CLT, learner roles and teacher roles in CLT. This chapter also gives an overview on the Communicative Continuum, characteristics, purposes and some types of communicative activities in language teaching. In addition, the author briefly introduces reading skill with definition of reading, the importance, the principles for teaching reading and types of reading activities in CLT classroom. Chapter 2 is titled “Real Situation of Teaching and Learning Reading Skill at Thach Thanh II High School”. In this chapter, the author mentions about some characteristics of the 10 th form students and the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, the design of a reading lesson for the 10 th form students as well. This chapter mainly focuses on the situation of using communicative activities in English reading classes for 10 th form students at Thach Thanh II High School. Chapter 3 entitled “Suggested Communicative Activities” presents some criteria for selecting communicative activities in English reading classes for the 10 th form students. In addition, the author also provides some suggested communicative activities to improve reading skills for the 10 th students and some sample communicative activities that she has applied in her real teaching at Thach Thanh II High School. 9 Part III is “CONCLUSION” in which the author summarizes the main points in the study and suggests some topics for further studies. The study ends with the “REFERENCES” which lists all the materials and sources of information used in this study, and the “APPENDIX” in which the samples of questionnaires for teachers and students are mentioned. PART II: DEVELOPMENT 10