T.C.
SELÇUK ÜNİVERSİTESİ
SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ
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NGİLİZ DİLİ VE EDEBİYATI ANABİLİM DALI
İ
NGİLİZ DİLİ VE EDEBİYATI BİLİM DALI
THE CONTRIBUTION of VOCABULARY
KNOWLEDGE to READING SKILL
YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ
Danışman
Yrd. Doç. Dr. Ece SARIGÜL
Hazırlayan
Bahar DİK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have supported and guided me in this thesis but most of all to Assist. Prof. Dr. Ece SARIGÜL for her enduring advice and patience from the beginning to the end.
I would also like to express my indebtedness and respects to Assist. Prof. Dr. A. Gülbin ONUR, Assist. Prof. Dr. Nazan TUTAŞ for their efforts during my master courses.
I'm also thankful to my colleagues, especially to Mrs. Yasemin GÜVEN, Miss. Celile BİLİR and Mr. Erkan AKGÖZ and to Prep A and Prep B day class students of Beyşehir Vocational School of Higher Education. I also would like to thank to the English language teaching instructors of preparation classes for their sensibility.
Finally I feel obliged to extend my deepest thanks to my husband, Burkay, for his assistance, support, understanding, and to my self-sacrificing mother for her patience and warm support she has shown during my long hours of study.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary drills to improve the reading skills on young learner’s achievement level in English lesson. Also it is important for us to show how great a problem it is to teach reading skills in a foreign language.
The study has been carried out on two groups, experimental and control including 60 students. In the experimental group, the reading lesson has been taught through extra vocabulary drills and the teacher has taught the unit by using traditional teaching methods in the control group.
Vocabulary teaching activities have been carried out by the researcher. Both of the groups have been pre-tested at the beginning and post tested at the end of the study and the data has been analysed by t-test.
In the first chapter, the general background of the study, the purpose of the study, the statement of the problem, method of the study and limitations are introduced.
In the second chapter, types of readings such as intensive and extensive reading, skimming and scanning, receptive reading and critical reading, the process of reading and reasons for reading have been introduced.
The next chapter is the review of literature section in which reading has been studied in detail. In this chapter, approaches to learning to read, vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning in context, stages of reading such as reading at elementary, intermediate and advanced level of students. Additionally, under the teaching reading title, we have presented the main procedures in a reading lesson such as selection of materials, introduction to the text, background information, reading centred activities. Problems of the readers and ways to help unsuccessful reader have been also included in this chapter.
In chapter four, the results of the data collection and interpretation of the Experimental Study have been presented with the results of the study.
Finally, in the last chapter, a detailed conclusion of the study has been given.
ÖZET
Bu çalışmanın amacı, İngilizce okuma dersinde, kelime bilgisinin ve kelime bilgisini doğru olarak kullanma stratejilerinin genç öğrencilerin okuma becerisindeki başarılarını geliştirmesindeki payını araştırmaktır.
Çalışma, 60 kişiden meydana gelen deney ve kontrol olmak üzere iki grup üzerinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Deney grubunda, okuma dersi ilave kelime alıştırmaları ve kelime bilgisinin okuma becerisine en iyi biçimde katkıda bulunmasını sağlayacak aktivitelerle beslenmiş, kontrol grubunda ise klasik yöntem dediğimiz geleneksel öğretim metotları kullanılmıştır.
Kelime öğretimi aktiviteleri araştırmacı tarafından sunulmuştur. Her iki grup da çalışmanın başında ve sonunda olmak üzere teste tabi tutulmuşlardır.
Birinci bölümde, çalışmanın genel geçmişi, amacı, problemin içeriği, çalışmada kullanılan metot ve sınırlılıklar belirtilmiştir.
İkinci bölümde, okuma çeşitleri; tanıma ve tarama, okuma süreci, anlam için okuma gibi özellikler tanıtılmıştır.
Diğer bölümde, dil öğretimi metotları ve bunların okuma becerisine verdikleri önem ile başlar ve çeşitli başlıklar altında okumanın önemi ve okuma becerilerini geliştirme aktiviteleriyle devam eder. Bu bölümde ayrıca
okuyucuların problemlerin değinilmiş ve başarısız okuyuculara yardım önerileri verilmiştir.
Dördüncü bölümde, çalışmada öğrenciler üzerinde yapılan ön ve son testlerin sonucunda elde edilen yorumlar ve analizler yer almaktadır.
Son bölümde, çalışmanın kısa bir özeti ve diğer çalışmalar için bazı öneriler bulunmaktadır.
Son olarak, en son okutulan okuma parçalarından alınan örnekler de çalışmanın “ekler” bölümünde yer almaktadır.
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Group Statistics of Pre-test... 44
Table 2: Comparison between pre-test and post test results of Experimental Group. ... 45 Table 3: Comparison between pre-test and post test results of Control
Group ... 46 Table 4: Group statistics of Post-test ... 46
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...ii ABSTRACT ...iii ÖZET ... v LIST OF TABLES...vii TABLE OF CONTENTS...viii CHAPTER-I ... 1 INTRODUCTION ... 1
1. 1. General Background to the Study ... 1
1. 2. The Purpose of the Study... 2
1.3. Statement of the Problem ... 2
1. 4. Method of the Study... 3
1. 5. Limitations... 4
CHAPTER II ... 5
THE READING SKILL... 5
2. 1. What’s Reading? ... 5
2. 2. Types of Reading ... 6
2. 2. 1. Intensive and Extensive Reading ... 7
2. 2. 2. Scanning and Skimming ... 7
2. 2. 3. Reading for Study... 9
2. 2. 4. Receptive Reading... 9
2. 2. 5. Critical Reading... 10
2. 3. The Process of Reading ... 11
2. 4. Reasons for Reading... 11
CHAPTER III... 14
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 14
3. 1. Approaches to Learning to Read... 14
3. 2. Vocabulary Learning... 18
3. 3. The Teaching of Vocabulary in Context ... 19
3. 4. Stages of Reading... 20
3. 4. 1. Reading at Elementary Stage ... 20
3. 4. 2. Reading at Intermediate Stage ... 21
3. 4. 3. Reading at Advanced Stage ... 21
3. 5. Teaching Reading... 22
3. 6. Main Procedures in a Reading Lesson ... 24
3. 6. 1. Selection of Materials ... 24
3. 6. 2. Introduction to the Text ... 28
3. 6. 3. Background Information... 30
3. 6. 5. Reading Centred Activities ... 32
3. 6. 6. Guessing Vocabulary from Text ... 36
CHAPTER IV... 39
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND... 39
INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS... 39
4. 1. Subjects... 39
4. 2. Procedures... 39
4. 2. 1. Assessment Instruments... 40
4. 2. 2. Treatment ... 42
4. 3. The Analysis and Interpretation of the Experimental Study ... 44
CHAPTER V ... 48
CONCLUSION ... 48
6. 1. Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Research... 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 51
CHAPTER-I
INTRODUCTION
1. 1. General Background to the Study
In many parts of the world a reading knowledge of a foreign language is often important to academic studies, professional success, and personal development. This is true of English because there are so many professional, technical and scientific literatures are published in English today.
Students of our age have very poor reading habits to transfer from their first language and thus we must teach reading skills in a very efficient way to change this poor way of learning English words and so comprehending reading passages.
As Neville said textbooks do not always provide real life reading skills which include reading for gist, reading for information and reading for study. (Grand Neville, 1991: 87)
Teachers must donate students with the ability of using these real-life reading skills during lesson.
In our study, vocabulary teaching and learning take a big part to improve students’ level of understanding reading passages. Vocabulary teaching methods and then vocabulary drills help the reader understand what really is wanted to tell to the reader in the passage.
1. 2. The Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary drills to improve the reading skills on young learners’ achievement level in English lesson.
Having comprehensible vocabulary knowledge is great importance in learning/teaching a foreign language. In addition, drills take a big part when reinforcing the newly learned words. Trying to understand a given passage without these two elements, we can say is really difficult. So, in this study vocabulary drills based teaching took a large part both in the theoretical part and in the experimental part which is at the end of the study.
However, before implementing the vocabulary part into the reading passage, we should first find the answers to the questions on the purpose of reading. So, before the vocabulary teaching part, reading skill part is given in our study. Unless we know why we do reading all studies will be in vain.
1.3. Statement of the Problem
Although English is a very commonly used and preferred language, there have been still problems in understanding it at a high level. A lot of people want to learn English for several purposes, but very few of them succeed it if it is evaluated in the scope of real learning. Some of the learners really learn English, but some of them only suppose that they learned it. English is really learnt when a written text is read and comprehended throughout by the reader. When students
give proper answers to the comprehension questions, it means that they got the idea and reading process has been successfully completed. We can verify the idea below by this statement belonging to Kenneth Chastain: ‘…Being able to write the answer to the questions indicates that the students have understood reading (Kenneth Chastain, 1988: 225).
So the teachers should find ways for reading lessons to make it more comprehensible for the students. This is the problem of many English teachers who teach the students especially between pre-intermediate and advanced level of prep classes. To make the reading lesson more interesting and worth to pay attention, teachers should present the text as a very exciting and real life related one.
1. 4. Method of the Study
For the experimental stage of the study, two preparation classrooms from Beyşehir Vocational School of Higher Education (VSHE) were chosen. The students of Prep A and B were divided into two groups as experimental and control groups during Reading-Writing lessons. Both groups are given a pre-test using 4 different parts including 40 questions related to the reading passage. Finally, the researcher taught the subject following the curriculum of the experimental group. The control group was taught according to traditional teaching methods by the researcher teacher while the experimental group was taught using different vocabulary teaching methods and drills. This study process
took four weeks (4 hours for each classroom in a week). After the teaching period, students in both groups were given a post-test.
In conclusion, the purpose of this experimental study is to evaluate the efficiency of using a variety of vocabulary drills and vocabulary teaching techniques on achievement level of prep class students in learning English.
1. 5. Limitations
This study has the following limitations:
1. This study was carried out in Beyşehir Vocational School of Higher Education. There are four prep classes, two day classes and two night classes. This study was carried out on two day classes, Prep A and Prep B. Prep A was chosen as an experimental group while prep B was as a control group. There have been 30 students in Prep A and 30 students in Prep B.
2. The students were taught by the researcher during four weeks of the treatment programme.
3. Vocabulary teaching strategies and reading centred activities were used in teaching the experimental group.
4. Another limitation was the time factor. Due to the shortage of time, neither the teacher nor the subjects had the opportunity to deal with all aspects of reading. If the teaching time had been extended to one semester, the progress of each student could have been observed more clearly and reliable results could have been obtained.
CHAPTER II
THE READING SKILL
2. 1. What’s Reading?
To say what you see in a written text loudly can be described as ‘reading’. The reading may be comprehensible to a listener, without the reader drawing much interest in the meaning. This kind of an activity is one aspect of reading, but it is a minor goal. The student must also be taught to drive meaning from the written text. This is reading for comprehension. The reader may have learned to extract meaning from text in the native language but is now faced with a different language which he or she is not familiar with. And this is called reading in a foreign language.
Sometimes reading is called a passive skill because the reader does not produce messages as a speaker or writer. In the past, reading was also considered as a passive skill in the class as the students were the receivers of the teacher’s instructions while studying a text.
Reading is also the skill which the students will have the greatest ability at the end of a course stressing the four language skills. They will also retain it longer than other skills. They will not be able to comprehend as much of what they hear due to the higher speed at which they are forced to process the message, and they will not be able to produce a message at the same linguistic level as the one at which they read (Kenneth Chastain, 1988: 219).
So as the writer says what the reader should do during the reading process is to comprehend as clearly as possible and to get the real message at the end. 2. 2. Types of Reading
People read in the real world for several reasons. Even what they read and why they read may not be entirely replicable. They read for several purposes to reach at several levels. However, language students come to class from the real world in which they read certain types of materials for very real purposes. Therefore, information about what’s and whys of reading is relevant to the goal of requiring students to read authentic materials for authentic purposes.
Readers’ purpose for reading varies the way they read. For example, they don’t read a poem the some way they would read a prose passage. They pay much more careful attention to the directions of using a new kitchen robot than they would to a popular novel when they read for pleasure.
Williams (1983: 172) says that let to their own inclinations, readers in the real world read what they read or want to read. To make these personal choices, they spend a great deal of time scanning potential reading material. They may check the back of a paperback novel, leaf through a magazine or glance at the headlines in the newspaper before buying a copy.
According to Chastain (1988: 220), language students need to be able to read a variety of materials for various purposes just as native speakers do. In fact, due to their lack of familiarity with the newspaper and magazines in the language,
they may spend even more time than a native speaker scanning and skimming prior to making choices. This will make the reading task easier and will improve their comprehension.
2. 2. 1. Intensive and Extensive Reading
If the readers are reading an article to take just pleasure at the top of their reading speed, we can say that kind of reading is extensive reading. The readers don’t read an article or something that gives information.
On the other hand, if the readers are reading for information, especially complicated material, they are likely to read much more slowly or at a rate that permits intensive reading.
‘Language students need to be able to read a variety of materials for various purposes just as native speakers do. In fact due to their lack of familiarity with newspapers and magazines in the language they may spend more time than native readers’ (Chastain, 1988: 220).As the writer pointed out clearly, the more intensive reading the learners do, the more easily they get the intended message in the target language.
2. 2. 2. Scanning and Skimming
Readers in the real world read what they need or want to read. When choosing what kind of reading to read, they spend a great deal of time scanning potential reading material...‘Scanning serves the important purpose of giving the
reader a content preview’ (Williams, 1983). We can also call this ‘reading for gist’.
Skimming is different from scanning in that it requires the reader to read selectively to find or choose those parts of the text that are relevant. If the interested readers are not completely convinced that the contents are worthwhile, they may skim the article. They may choose not to continue reading. It is also called ‘reading for information’. Here are some examples for reading for information:
1) What was the weight of the largest mammal on record?
2) Which country will have a higher population in the year 2000-India or China (Grand Neville, 1991: 90).
All these interrogative forms intend to get a definite answer, that is, the sentences want to get information. So the examples explain what skimming really is.
Skimming and scanning are useful skills even if an actual reading doesn’t take place in the normal sense of the word, but they enable the reader to select the texts or parts of the texts that are worth spending time (Akünal, 1989: 11). And so we can say that this gives the reader the chance of differentiate what is to be read and what is to be skimmed and scanned.
2. 2. 3. Reading for Study
This is necessary in any situation where our students may have to study texts in other subjects in the English language. Previewing a text is just looking at a map before beginning a journey. We don’t need any special textbooks or other materials. According to Grand Neville (1991: 91), previewing the text involves these operations before reading a text in details:
1) Looking at any introductory material there may be; 2) Looking at illustrations or diagrams;
3) Looking at headings and subheadings, if any;
4) Reading the first paragraph and the first sentence of each of the paragraphs;
5) Reading the last paragraph. 2. 2. 4. Receptive Reading
In this kind of reading, to discover what the author is trying to convey, the reader gives attention to the supporting ideas that confirm arguments and uses such strategies as reading paragraph by paragraph, summarizing the main ideas of each paragraph, underlining, making notes and writing a summary after reading (Dubin, 1982). It is a very detailed and time taking work so we can prefer this kind of reading when we want to investigate a subject or an article for a comprehensible project.
2. 2. 5. Critical Reading
This reading style requires the student to read with a critical judgement since comprehending all the sentences or structures doesn’t mean that the reader understands the reading material. The reader must not take the author’s opinions for granted but must evaluate the issues critically. In this way the reader will be able to go beyond deciphering the author’s message and will interpret the statements further. Clarke clarifies the point in the following manner:
“In order to build critical reading skills, we need to find readings which argue a point of view or which presume certain attitudes on the part of the readers.” Examples of critical questions are: ‘For what purpose and for what audience is this intended?’ ‘What knowledge and attitudes does the author presume of the audience?’, ‘Are you convinced with the evidence presented by the author to support the claims made?’ Such questions open up for students a completely new perspective of the selection, and lead to discussion in which they must use vocabulary and information from the passage to support their opinions (Clarke, 1980: 56).
So, as we have seen above, the right choice of vocabulary is of a great importance again in this kind of reading as it should be in any kind of reading. Critical reading strategies donate the readers with more challenging ideas which make the reader think more critically and which let the reader think while reading.
2. 3. The Process of Reading
Reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information, but also as a means of supporting and extending one’s knowledge of the language. Today’s teachers of languages try to understand the processes involved in a written text which is a non-native one. Then they plan using their experiences to help their students develop their habits of reading. In this way, they will be able to lead them to direct comprehension text without consulting to a translation into the native language.
Therefore, they don’t have to be hurried while they are teaching because the teaching becomes steady but slow.
‘The reading skill, once developed, is the one which can be most easily maintained at a high level by the students themselves without further help from a teacher’(Wilga Rivers, 1981: 260).
Like Rivers said, the most important process of reading is the process in which you donate your students with the ability of do their own reading with the help of already gained reading habits.
2. 4. Reasons for Reading
In many countries foreign languages are learned by large numbers of students who will never have a chance of speaking it in its native region, but who will have a chance of having a conversation with a guest and who will have the ability to understand a foreign publish. Many of the students will need these
publications to assist them with further studies or in their work. Other students will need to enjoy reading in another language in their leisure time to keep them in touch with the wider world.
According to Grellet, (1985: 4) there are two main reasons for reading: Reading for pleasure
Reading for information
The reading skill can not be developed without teacher but it can be maintained by the students themselves. They can increase their understanding of the culture of the speakers of the language, their ways of thinking, and their activities. In this process, selecting the right material will be very helpful for the learners. These materials should be selected carefully as the students can easily read them and get pleasure at the same time. If the teachers force the students to read materials beyond their present capacity the students can lose their confidence. In the light of these ideas, some reasons for reading can be given as follows:
-To get a piece of information -To get pleasure and to relax -To take notes for further studies -To improve our own language skills
In fact, reading is a tool rather than a skill in the process of learning another language. Vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical structures are important for language learners, but they are not reasons for reading. The learners should think of their purposes before they start to read; then they will understand more easily.
CHAPTER III
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, we have given a special part to the views of outstanding authors on the process of reading into the language classes. Also, in this chapter, we have shown the great relationship between vocabulary teaching and reading skill. The contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading skill has been pointed out.
3. 1. Approaches to Learning to Read
Bernhardt (1984) describes the typical classroom reading scenario as follows:
1-In the introduction students read aloud while the teacher corrects faulty pronunciation, a process that Bernhardt believes actually interferes with understanding of the passage.
2-Students read the passage.
3-They write the answers to questions given in the text (Bernhardt, 1984: 90).
We should add the following procedures to Bernard’s scenario of reading lesson: the text should contain the grammar to be learned; it should be accompanied by a vocabulary list of the longer words and drills and also be followed by a list of comprehension questions. We can say that, the typical
classroom approach to learning to read is one based on the goal of reading to learn language.
For others, the purpose of reading is to learn to comprehend the author’s message. They focus their attention not on forms and structures, but instead on seeking to again understanding from the written material. However, a difference of opinion exists as to how meaning is derived from the written material. Some theorists believe that meaning resides in the text it self; others maintain that meaning is the product of the reader’s interacting with the text. In short, some believe that text-based factors determine meaning, while others believe that inside-the-head factors determine meaning (Bernhardt, 1984).
We think that not the language forms but the background knowledge helps reader to comprehend the passage. That is, students should read materials that their background knowledge permits them to comprehend (inside-the-head factor).
Anderson (1984: 186) summarizes the contrast between the two principal approaches to comprehension in the following comparison:
Skills Model Psycholinguistic Model 1. Reading is made up of separate skills. 1. Reading is an integrated
process.
2. Reading has a hierarchical skills sequence. 2. Reading has no one
sequence of skills
3. Applying reading skills leads to meaning. 3.Reading is meaning centred. 4.Reading is a passive process. 4.Reading is an active process. 5. Reading is a precise process. 5. Reading is an inexact
process.
6. Form precedes function in reading. 6. Function proceeds form in
reading.
Chastain assumes that the reader’s task is to activate background and linguistic knowledge to recreate the writer’s intended meaning (Chastain, 1988: 222).
He goes on his sentence with the following ideas: “Theoretical support for this view of communication comes from ‘schema theory’”.
According to Anderson (1984), this theory envisions an information-processing model of the mind in which knowledge is stored in related units that can be recalled and activated to operate on incoming information. According to Perkins (1983), schema theory assumes that readers use a process of semantic constructivism to create meaning from a written or spoken text, which itself has no meaning. In this theory, meaning does not reside in the written materials, so
reader tries to get the meaning in his head based on the background knowledge. We also support this idea.
The process of reconstructing meaning from a text is in fact in the field of semantics. Perfetti (1984: 44) maintains that lexical access is important in reading because it is the central recurring reading process.
Schema theory also predicts that as readers read they are able to go beyond the word and sentence level to the overall organization and discourse level of the reading because their background knowledge or schemata enable them to expect and to predict the way in which the writer has organized the material. (Carrell, 1984)
Based on the results of research studies, Byrnes (1985: 80) concludes the situations as in the following sentences: “the act of comprehending is essentially meaning-driven, holistic, top-down behaviour that is highly selective in the features it incorporates.” Grellet (1981) states that proficient readers do not concentrate on sentences and words. Instead, they start with global understanding and then work toward comprehension of detailed aspects of the reading. She maintains (p.8) that “reading is an active skill…it constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking one-self questions”. We also agree with the writer that without these activities, reading would be only a time consuming process rather than an active and educating process.
3. 2. Vocabulary Learning
Vocabulary knowledge is one of the most important elements of reading comprehension. Once you have got the fundamentals of a language (pronunciation and basic grammar), the learner can concentrate on learning vocabulary. It is a time-consuming period so the learner should be patient in this process. Below are a few techniques with this task belonging to Rivers (Wilga Rivers, 1981: 461):
a) Associate the familiar with the unfamiliar
In this task, student tries to find word or phrases in their L1 which sound like and if possible have a similar meaning to words in their L1-2.
b) Genders
To remember genders try picturing a Spanish-speaking region, divide it into two and place masculine nouns on one side and famine words on the other.
c) Avoiding language mix ups
Associating words from each language you learn with places where they are spoken will help you to avoid getting your languages mixed up.
d) Testing and Revision
To ensure the words stick in your memory, test yourself on them at regular intervals. If you learn some new words in the morning for example, check that you can still remember them later that day, the next day and a month later.
Those techniques will be helpful in the process of vocabulary learning. In addition, vocabulary learning will be easier and more interesting during the implementation.
3. 3. The Teaching of Vocabulary in Context
Vocabulary is most commonly taught in a spoken or written context, and we have already seen that there are several techniques for this approach. “What we are going to do is look at contexts at various levels, and discuss ways in which they can be exploited for vocabulary teaching purposes (Michael Wallece, 1982: 48).
A word may have more than one meaning.
To determine for which meaning the writer uses a word, you should pay attention to how it is used in a sentence. In other words, you should read the words, phrases and even the statements that come before and after it (Sevgi Yücel, 2001: 210). Here are some examples for what Yücel says:
Examples;
He must be a very orderly burglar; he got everything square in the room before he left.
The word “square” is a noun, a verb and an adjective. You should first decide on which part of speech the word is. In the example above “square” is an adjective. If we look at the definition of the square as an adjective into the dictionary, we will see this: square (adj.):1. Having four equal sides and four right
angles; having the shape of a square. 2. Having or forming a right angle.3. Properly arranged; tidy. 4. Balanced. As we see, there are a lot of definitions for the word “square” while we need only the 3rd one. The word “orderly” helps us.
In this example, we have also seen that knowing about parts of speech of a word is very important when trying to get the meaning of a word from the context. Dictionary work will help us in this kind of vocabulary study.
3. 4. Stages of Reading
The process of teaching reading can be divided into various stages such as elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Although three of these stages are equally important in language teaching classes, we will deal with especially the intermediate stage as our final application will be on the students of this level. 3. 4. 1. Reading at Elementary Stage
Elementary stage is the very early stage of the language teaching which is suitable for the beginners .The mastery of the spoken form of the language is the purpose of this level. The reading passages must be clear and be read carefully with necessary explanations. At the end of the reading process, students must be questioned in detail about the text in order to make them understand well. New vocabulary items, pronunciation points and all the new grammar should be introduced before reading is done.
3. 4. 2. Reading at Intermediate Stage
At this level, the students are still learning new things about grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. However, the emphasis is different. It increasingly falls on skills development. By this, we mean both reading comprehension skills and real life skills come together so that students can make use of in real situations. Besides, the purpose of intermediate reading is not only recognition of the written symbols for the spoken form but also getting information from what is read. For silent reading more time is spent. The teacher asks questions to the students on every sentence using the words in the passage to see if they understand what they have read. This kind of reading is for exact information as we stated before, so we can say that it is intensive.
On this subject, Grand Neville (1991: 79) says that at intermediate level, many textbooks give advice on how the reading text should be handled, others live it to you. In either case, it is our job as teachers to decide how to proceed. 3. 4. 3. Reading at Advanced Stage
Students are subject to advanced level of materials in this stage. Advanced level is used for getting information from what has been read as in the intermediate level. At intermediate and advanced levels of reading, some kinds of supplementary reading can be assigned.
3. 5. Teaching Reading
The purpose of teaching reading is to donate readers with abilities and skills needed for obtaining information, developing interests and deriving pleasure by reading through understanding or “comprehension”. Comprehension doesn’t mean to get the meaning from the printed page, but it is a mental process. A person reads the printed and comments it in the mind. It means that meaning is in the mind of the person, it is not on the printed page. If the reader’s background is similar to the writer’s he can interpret and understand the text with no difficulty. The reader wants to understand other people’s ideas, so this is one of the reasons for reading.
Reading is a complex area. In Brindley (1994: 89) it is defined as;
‘Reading is much more than the decoding of black marks upon a page: it is a quest for meaning done which requires the reader to be an active participant. It is a prerequisite of successful teaching of reading…’
Nowadays, students do not need to know all the vocabulary and grammar to understand the passage, but it doesn’t mean that they can understand perfectly. They only get the general meaning or intended meaning in the passage. If they don’t know any of the words, it is very difficult to comprehend the passage in mind. To increase the student’s level of comprehension, teachers can initiate activities. In the following there are some recommendations to language teachers by Tierney and Pearson (1985) in Chastain (1988: 224);
-Be sure to find out student’s prior knowledge of a topic or text before beginning to read.
-Encouraging reading.
-Give students more opportunities to evaluate their own ideas, to consider others’ views, and to recognise how their past experiences and reasons for reading influence what they understand.
-Spend more time helping students develop strategies for reading to understand and to accomplish various tasks and assignments.
-Help students develop story maps (a time line or flow chart of key events) for stories before they read.
-Encourage students to consider why and to whom an author is writing. -Develop links between what students read and what they write.
-Revive the small discussion group as a way to accomplish all these goals. The recommendations above are very important elements of encouraging students to tolerate ambiguity, to link ideas and to summarize so that they will not have difficulty in understanding the isolated words. They can also be helpful when discussing the title, theme and cultural background before starting to read.
3. 6. Main Procedures in a Reading Lesson
The purpose of this chapter is to show a certain way of teaching foreign language in classrooms for foreign language teachers to follow during teaching. Let’s see which procedures to follow.
3. 6. 1. Selection of Materials
It is a big problem for language teachers to decide which material is the best for the students. Almost every teacher faces this problem at the beginning of the teaching term. It is an important decision because it is the content of the materials which determines the amount of vocabulary, language structures and concepts which form a reading program. It is a fact that the materials are the best tools to direct the students in the right way of learning. So they must be suitable for the students’ needs. A good teacher is the one who can adopt the material to the student in the most efficient way.
Unfortunately, it is a very obvious reality in reading classrooms that many of the teachers are slave of the course-books and they only make small changes in the textbooks to adept it to the students. What they should do to let children benefit from reading lesson at the most is not trying to change the textbook for the needs of students but to select proper materials which will free the teacher to work more efficiently to reach the aim of the course. ‘Selection of suitable reading materials is a crucial component in the establishment of an effective reading programme. Given good reading materials, capable students can manage to compensate for inadequate reading instruction and inappropriate past reading
activities.’(Chastain, 1988: 231).Some points should be taken into consideration when selecting the materials as in the below.
3. 6. 1. 1. Interest and Goals
It is an important criterion for the selection of materials. It is a widely accepted idea that to develop reading skills and to encourage the students to read extensively, the material should be suitable for them.
Rivers (1981) suggests that development of fluent reading will only be possible if the subject matter interests the readers and also suitable for their age level. It must be similar to the type of material employed by the student in their mother tongue.
Similarly, Krashen and Terrell agree that ‘‘interest in content may be the most important factor in selecting appropriate texts”(1983: 134).They state that the main point is to attract students interest totally into the text so deeply that they should forget they are reading in another language.
3. 6. 1. 2. Readability
Readability of the texts shapes the student’s comprehension. Blau (1982), for example found that students do not necessarily understand better materials with a lower readability score. In her study she compared the comprehensibility of reading materials in which the vocabulary and content were held constant while sentence complexity varied from simple sentences to complex sentences. She takes the attention to the fact that the order of the sentences, even, from simple to
complex is vital for the students’ comprehension. Bernhardt (1984: 324) points out that “syntactic simplicity may decrease text cohesion and there by hinder comprehension.” That is, to which level of students you are teaching and the level of the comprehension passage should be fixed perfectly for the perfect comprehension.
3. 6. 1. 3. Authentic Materials
Another criterion for the selection of materials is the authentic materials. We mean the culturally suitable texts; passages taken from magazines, articles, essays, play, etc.…which the reader will be familiar with. On this subject, Byrnes (1985) says that “…due to problems students have with such texts because they are unfamiliar with the culture, one may think of material written by native speakers for language students as being authentic.”(1985: 77) In fact any text that an author writes to communicate is authentic because it has an authentic purpose. 3. 6. 1. 4. Length
Language teacher usually prefer choosing short items to read. This tendency is perhaps because they desire not to overload the students with much information, but it is in fact a wrong idea because these kinds of readings have its own complexity and the reader must know all the grammar and vocabulary to understand.
3. 6. 1. 5. Difficulty Level
Obviously, a text should be at the right level of difficulty for the students. A text which is not suitable for the reader will certainly be full of so many unknown items and this will make the reading comprehension very boring, complex and impossible to understand.
Krashen and Terrel argue that “too many unfamiliar words in a passage can render if incomprehensible” (1983: 132).
On the other hand, Nutall (1982) anticipates situation from another point of view. According to him, inclusion of new words depends on the reader’s purpose. If the student only wants to get the gist of the text, she/he can skip unfamiliar words. But for intensive reading, which requires a slow and careful reading, a lot of words may be included. Furthermore, she defends the idea that “…to pursue the extension of vocabulary by choosing texts with a high proportion of new lexical items will defeat the aims of the reading programme, and is not an effective way of teaching vocabulary either”(1982: 26).
As we have seen, vocabulary is not the only criterion in selecting the right reading text. However, if the teacher wants the students have a long-term reading habits, the selected reading material shouldn’t be too complicated linguistically.
3. 6. 2. Introduction to the Text
After selecting the most suitable material fort he level and interest of the students, our next duty is to introduce the text to the students.
We believe that it is very important for reading students to know about the general content of the reading text which they one going to deal with during the lesson. Before starting to read the whole text, teachers should give clue words about the content and therefore prepare students to the real passage. There is no doubt that students whose interest has been drown and who have some background information related to the content of the selected subject will read the selection with a better comprehension rate and will be able to kip unfamiliar words that might block them. Consequently, they will start making guesses about the content of the passage and will not worry about every detail.
Every teacher has his/her own way of preparing students for their reading practice. The most common is to give the meanings of the words or phrases which may be problem in the next phase of the reading lesson. Teachers explain particular lexical items and special expression that students can not overcome by them. After learning how to deal with the problematic items and expression and vocabulary, in the rest of the lesson students can do most of the subject.
Another way teachers employ is the direct translation of the given text which we not approve in language classrooms. Translation method is helpful if
the primary objective of the teacher is to enrich vocabulary or to expose to new structural items. However, as we stated above, such a procedure will have no contribution in terms of developing reading comprehension skills. Knapp agrees with this argument and states that;
…the two activities that we spend most time on in a reading lesson are introduction, particularly the introduction of new words and phrases, and later the comprehension checking questions deal primarily with the understanding of that passage and the remembering of its content in detail as if these were the main purpose of our reading lesson. They do not directly deal with skill development, with helping the student develop more effective reading practises, with the skills that would help the student deal well with any other reading selections. Instead, they are focused on helping the reader learn and retain the information in that particular selection (1980: 350).
Apart from the points mentioned above, another way teachers use in reading lesson while introducing the text is monologue. This kind of introducing doesn’t involve the students actively in the curiosity of the students into subject as a discussion or questioning would do.
We suggest interest in the text and involve them in reading. To achieve this, a very well known questions such as: “Have you ever …?” or “What would you do if you …?” will be helpful. In this way, students will put themselves into the place of the characters in the text and they will have shared the same experiences.
To sum up, Nutall (1982) points out the qualities of a good instruction: 1) It is usually short.
2) It does not tell the student anything that he can find out himself by reading the text.
3) It makes the student want to read the text.
4) It helps the student to relate the text to his own experiences, interests and aims.
5) It involves the student actively, by means of different techniques such as questioning.
3. 6. 3. Background Information
Another important point to take into consideration during the reading lesson is to provide background information about the content of the reading material. Gephard (1987) claims that teachers can facilitate successful reading comprehension by providing background information. Therefore, they will have the chance to recall the information they had already collected while they are learning new things. He suggests three ways that background information can be provided: Through the use of previews, pre-test and class discussions.
Background information is also supported by James Coandy (1980). He emphasizes on the benefit of providing background information from the point of compensation when the syntactic control is weak. He also says that if the subject of the reading material excites and interests the student and also relates well to the
background of the reader semantic input will enable the student to comprehend the material in spite of its syntactic difficulty. To him, “the benefit of such reading will be twofold: confidence in oneself and exposure to the very syntactic patterns which must be learned” (1980: 12).
Background information is very necessary during the reading process in foreign language classrooms as the writers above emphasized for the fruitfulness of what has been comprehended during the lesson and therefore, a permanent reading activity will have been performed.
3. 6. 4. Non-Text Information
In this part, we will deal with how the information provided by the text itself contributes to the total understanding of reading materials.
When we start a reading text, we get feedback from different sources in the text. In many cases, the from of the passage itself, choice of print, punctuation and such things as maps, diagrams and illustrations give us clues as to the function and content of the reading material. So, when we think about the contribution of this kind is considered, it is worth devoting time to activities which will encourage students to make use of these non-linguistic elements. In this context we can define non-text information as in the below: such thing such as maps, diagrams, illustrations etc.… one called non-text information.
Recently it has been widely accepted that non-text information is often of great importance and assistance in interpreting the text. What is important here is
that we include here the non-text information such as illustrations, diagrams, graphs or maps that facilitate effective reading. In other words, all kinds of information concerning the text are included.
Although the information obtained from the maps and graphs is not textual, they are rather helpful in interpreting the text because the text and text elements support each other. Therefore, ability to make effective use of non-text information is really worth training. Besides, students will be able to look beyond the words and interpret diagrams without any knowledge in foreign language contexts.
3. 6. 5. Reading Centred Activities
Activities for a reading lesson are divided into three; 1.Pre-Reading Activities. 2. While (during) Reading Activities. 3. Post-Reading Activities. 3. 6. 5. 1. Pre-Reading Activities
The purpose of pre-reading activities is to motivate the students to read the text. Before the students begin to read the text, the reading teacher can engage the students in different activities that will facilitate the reading task and generate excitement with regard to the assignment. Moreover, the students need to know what kind of a task they are supposed to deal with. They should also have a feeling of confidence which will let them judge what they can skim over and why they are going to read the text. In this way, they will be convinced that they don’t have to understand the text completely in a reading task.
According to Ringler and Weber (1984: 70) Pre-reading activities are called “enabling activities because they provide a reader with the necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material. These activities are necessary to understand the purpose of the reading and to deal with content and the structure of the material”.
Actually, pre-reading activity vary from teacher to teacher. Every teacher can use different ways of preparing students for the text. For example, one teacher can bring real materials to the classroom relevant to the content of the text to make the students in the atmosphere of the text while another teacher asks a number of questions which let students feel in the same place of the characters of the text. The second is a more common used method in foreign language classrooms and we call these questions “pre reading questions”. The purpose of these questions is to focus readers on the essential message of the text and help students develop reading strategies.
On the other hand, the choice of pre-reading questions plays a strategic role in this process. The questions should direct students to think carefully and they should require thoughtful answers. They should challenge the students to make predictions about the content of the selection. If well-chosen questions are discussed before the reading material is read, the students will have some idea of what they are going to read in advance.
3. 6. 5. 2. While-Reading Activities
These activities are performed after finishing the pre-reading phase of the lesson and just during the reading. For example, the students read the given assignment in or out of the classroom. If they at least read it in the classroom, she can help the intended meaning. As class time is more valuable for communication practice that students can not achieve on their own, it will be better for them to read the reading material at home at least once.
During this while-reading process, the teacher introduces the students to the topic and the related vocabulary. They make predictions about what may happen and they tell their own expectations. This process of guessing continues until the students understand the passage.
Students also need to be aware of their level of comprehension. To do this, they can create definite question forms and if they can not, compensatory stages should be started.
In Chastain (1988: 277), Sanacore (1985) offers a constructive technique for students to practice while reading;
- Teach students to generate questions as they read and study the text. - Teach students to create a story-specific questions such as; “Is this story more about the officer or the barber?” from general questions such as “Who is the leading character?” during the structure of textbook chapters, guiding them to use strategies that increase their comprehension.
- Teach students to learn and recall valuable information by adhering to the next structure.
Another idea for while-reading activities belongs to Poustay (1984). He recommends that the teacher ask students to underline the main ideas and supporting facts. He suggests that the teacher implement this idea by first giving them a reading that has already been underlined. The students read the underlined parts and predict the rest of the reading based upon this skeleton of information. In fact, it is an easier method for the students to get main idea of the reading passage, but we would prefer change our students with other activities.
3. 6. 5. 3. Post-Reading Activities
It is the lost step of our reading lesson activities. In this process, the teacher should encourage students to ask any questions that they may have about the reading to clarify the meaning of any unclear points. The students should realize that the only way to show that they have understood the message the author wanted to give in the passage that is they have fully comprehended the message is to participate in the subsequent activities. Without any attention to grammar and vocabulary, the teacher’s task is to clarify problems about the passage by focusing on meaning. There are examples of same post reading activity questions below;
(1)What do you think? (To make student think)
(3)Prove it or “How?” (To force them to show a present evidence for their conclusions)
Ringler and Weber (1984) divide post reading activities into two basic categories: those in which students recall information from or react to the text and those designed to develop greater communicative fluency in the four language skills. These activities may include dramatizations, role-plays, simulations, reports and debates.
In post reading activities, students also have the chance to have some fun participating in communication activities. These activities facilitate their own thoughts and feelings. The teacher shouldn’t start another reading until the students have completely understood the reading passage and gave their ideas in different communicative context. It will in a certain period of time without taking students’ abilities and interests into consideration. Only by this way the real purpose of comprehension will be achieved.
3. 6. 6. Guessing Vocabulary from Text
The teaching of vocabulary is of a great importance of foreign language reading which can not be handled without the help of contextual clues. In spite of the fact that the real purpose of a reading lesson is reading is on understanding individual words in the reading passage. We don’t mean that students can guess all the vocabulary from the context, but they should do their best to get the meaning from the context, and looking up in a dictionary should be the last step
for the problematic words which they can not overcome themselves ever if they make use of the context.
Using contextual clues to guess the meaning of the words during the reading process is a universal strategy. Native speakers of all languages benefit from these clues as they read or listen. For this reason, teachers should make the students be aware of the language clues available to them. Students should know that looking up into a dictionary for each word during studying the reading passage prevent them from making use of natural reading strategies and also flues comprehension.
Giving the students a very long list of unknown words will discourage them to comprehend the given text. They will have a prejudice about comprehending the passage. Instead of this, the teacher should ensure that all the words are familiar with the words in previous units before reader is confronted with a reading passage.
According to the explanations above, the teacher’s role during the reading lesson is crucial because students’ ability to develop their skills in the second language depends on him/her from the point of view of foreign language teaching. The teacher should help the students utilize whatever resources a textbook provides. Moreover, students must be taught that the meaning of a word or phrase is not crucial for adequate comprehension. If students fell that it is impossible for them to understand the rest of the passage without knowing the meaning of a
word, the use of a dictionary can be recommended. However, this time a dictionary work is necessary to select the proper definition for a given text.
Finally, the emphasis in teaching vocabulary in context should be on guiding students in the right way to let them discover contextual clues to comprehend the passage instead of giving them the list of unfamiliar words.
CHAPTER IV
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS
Presentation
This chapter aims to present the analysis and interpretation of the collected data about the show the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading skill. The data obtained from the students by means of the results of the experimental group and control group students’ pre-tests and post-tests will be analysed in the section of this chapter. The analysis and interpretation of this experimental study will be examined depending on the statistical calculations.
4. 1. Subjects
The subjects of our study are 60 (prep. classes) students in Beyşehir Vocational School of Higher Education who are observed in two separate classrooms. There are 30 students both in experimental group and control group. Since there are four preparation classrooms, two of these classes have been randomly chosen as Prep B (Control Group).
4. 2. Procedures
During the experimental study, the steps followed are as follows:
1. Data collecting materials are prepared and its reliability is measured by an authority.
2. As the content of the unit was ready, only extra needed materials such as dictionaries from English to English which is suitable for the intermediate level of preparation classes, hand outs which are prepared before coming into the classroom and reading centred activities such as pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities are gathered to achieve the expected behaviours of the unit.
3. Experimental Group and Control Group students are randomly chosen from the preparation classrooms of Beyşehir Vocational School of Higher Education.
4. The study is carried out in a four week-5 hours for each week-period. 5. Students in both groups are pre-tested before the teaching process. 6. Different reading activities and drills are used in experimental group by the researcher. However, no special treatment has been carried out to the students in Control Group.
7. At the end, both groups are post-tested, and the results are analysed. 4. 2. 1. Assessment Instruments
Pre-tests and post tests are used for the experimental study as assessment instruments. Before beginning to the experimental study, students in both control and experimental groups are given a reading test which is formed of two parts: Pre-reading Activity Part and Post Reading Activity Part. The first part, that is Section A, contains a world map which is about the reading passage.
In the first part of section A, students are required to find three titles for the passage using the clues on the map. This will improve students guessing ability and the teacher can understand how much they can guess about a passage by simply looking at a map. It is also way of preparing them for what they are going to read.
The second part of the section is designed for ‘pre-questioning’ type of items in which students are asked to look for some relevant information. The aim is to encourage students to read and create a scenario for what is going to happen.
Section A is followed by the reading passage of three paragraphs.
The section B is overloaded with tasks and questions. In the first part of this section students are asked to skim the text quickly to find out some specific events in the text. The second part of the questions requires them to put the events in their chronological order. The next part contains a list of events and students are asked to write the letter (a,b,c,d) for the event in the passage. And the questions in the last part are to elicit more detailed answer.
If we think about the whole test, it requires the testers to apply different reading strategies unlike the classical reading comprehension test. In this test a reading passage is followed by comprehension parts to decide on whether the students understood the whole passage both in general and in detail. This was the main reason for us to prefer such a test instead of a standard one.
This proficiency is prepared by the researcher and its reliability is measured by an expertise, and it is used as a pre-test and post test in the study. The purpose of the study is to see whether the levels of the students are the same or not. In the experimental process, reading centred and vocabulary centred activities are used in the experimental group: on the other hand in the control group, the classical reading lesson techniques and activities are taught. After the treatment, students in both groups are post-tested and the results are analysed by using “t-test”.
4. 2. 2. Treatment
During the experimental study, the steps followed in a reading lesson are as follows:
1. During the application period the Control Group has had no other treatment than what we call 'the classic approach'. The teacher has followed the procedure of reading the passage first, then explaining unknown words and answering comprehension questions that the book involves.
2. During the implementation of the Experimental Group, a different procedure has been followed. Before starting to read the reading passage, a few pre-reading questions which includes the vocabulary of the text and which is related to the content at the end to prepare the students for the real passage. For example, we are going to have a passage the title of which is “Organic Produce” and the teacher asks the following pre-reading questions to get the children to be familiar with the content of the real reading text:
1) Where do you buy fruits and vegetables?
2) How do you choose the fruits and vegetables you buy? What do you look for?
3) Look at the title of the unit. What do you think it means?
3. After the pre-reading questions, the teacher gives pre-reading activities such as drills or a questionnaire about the subject. For example, the teacher makes a list of fruits on the board and write down some criteria for them as in the below.
The teacher asks the students to put a tick to show how they choose their fruit. In this way, while enjoying themselves they will have learned some vocabulary such as softness, hardness, size which will be included in the passage later on.
4. Just after the questionnaire, the teacher writes down at least five sentences on the board. There are underlined words in these sentences, so the teacher wants the students understand the meaning of those words without looking
FRUIT - COLOR - SIZE - SOFTNESS/ - SMELL - PRICE HARDNESS Apples Bananas Oranges Pears Melons Strawberries
them up in a dictionary. That is, she wants the students to guess the meaning from the content of the sentences. These underlined words will be included in the real passage, therefore, when the students face the passage, they won’t get surprised and could comprehend the passage easier. The sentences may be as in the followings:
1) Sometimes bananas are green and hard. To ripen them, put them in a paper bag. In one or two days, they should be yellow and soft.
4. 3. The Analysis and Interpretation of the Experimental Study
In this section, the results of the experimental study will be analysed in the light of comparison of the pre-test scores of both experimental and control group students.
Group N Mean Std. Deviation t p
Experimental 30 34,83 2,1
Control 30 42,23 2,8
1,042 0,050
Table 1: Group Statistics of Pre-test
The differences between the experimental and control groups are tested by using t-test. In table-1, t-test results of the experimental and control group students’ pre-test are shown. The average score of the experimental group is
found 34, 83 ± 2, 1; and the average score of the control group is found 42, 23 ± 2, 8. According to the accounted value, t value is 1,042 and p value is 0,050. So the final situation is t = 1,042 < p = 0,050, and no significant difference is found. It can be said that the groups are homogeneous at the beginning of the study.
Test Mean Std. Deviation t p
Pre-Test 34,83 2,1 Post-Test 71,33 8,93
2,054 0,050
Table 2: Comparison between pre-test and post test results of Experimental group.
The table above shows the comparison of the experimental group students’ pre-test and post-test scores. While the average score of pre-test is found 34, 83 ± 2,1, the average scores are quantified by t-test to find out whether they are significant or not; and t-value is found as 2,054. It can be easily understand from the average scores that there is a considerably big difference between the pre-test and post-test. When we compare the (t) value with the (p) value the result will be as t = 2,054 > p = 0,050 difference in the level of ∝ 0, 05. In other words, experimental group students’ achievement is high at the end of the study.
Test Mean Std. Deviation t p
Pre-Test 42,23 2,8 Post-Test 41,53 2,5
0,049 0,050
Table 3: Comparison between pre-test and post test results of Control Group
In table 3, the control group students’ pre-test and post-test score are compared. While the average score of pre-test is found 42, 23 ± 2, 8, the average score of postest is found 41, 53 ± 2, 5. These average scores are quantified by t-test to find out whether they are significant or not; and t-value is found as 0, 049; that is t = 0, 049 < p = 0, 050. It means that there is no significant difference between two tests.
Group N Mean Std. Deviation t p
Experimental 30 71,33 8,93
Control 30 41,53 2,50
2,24 0,050
Table 4: Group statistics of Post-Test
This table represents the statistics of both experimental and control group students’ post-test results. These results are compared by using t-test, and while the average score of the experimental group students is found 71, 33 ± 8, 93, the
