INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study. Nowadays, English is the most popular language in the world. As an effective means of international communication, it is used as the official language in many fields of life such as economics, politics, science, technology, sports and many others. This leads to an increasing demand of learning English. There are more and more people who learn English and consider it as an inevitable factor in their work and life. In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a compulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to. When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage. And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate in English successfully. Among these four skills, reading plays an important role in enriching the students’ general knowledge and in helping them with their further study later. Owing to the importance of reading itself, the growing interest in learning English in Vietnam creates a wide learning environment. It can be seen that the teaching of reading of reading comprehension has been paid in increasing attention to its different aspects. As time goes by, many experts and methodologists have come to understand that reading comprehension is important not only at schools but also afterwards. That is reading helps students as readers develop their language ability in general and comprehension skills in particular at schools as well as gives them other benefits to avoid cultural and language bias, etc. in daily communication. Recognizing the importance of reading, I decide on choosing “Using While- Reading Techniques to Improve Reading Comprehension for the 11th Form Students at Phan Dang Luu High School ” 2. Aims of the study The specific aims of the study are as follows: - Clarifying the nature of reading comprehension in accordance with some important points in teaching this skill. - Investigating the present situation of teaching and learning reading comprehension of the 11th form students to find out advantages as well as problems facing both teachers and students in reading lessons. - Suggesting useful techniques to develop the reading comprehension skills in the while- reading stage for the 11th form in Phan Dang Luu high school. 3. Scope of the study Due to the limitation, all the techniques suggested are used in the while- reading stage. And the object of this study is the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school. 4. Methods of the study To implement this study, the following methods are used: - Consulting related materials: For the sake of getting knowledge and useful ideas, I read many books and other materials in addition to earlier researches about reading and teaching reading comprehension. - Delivering survey questionnaire and observing reading lessons: To fulfill this thesis, two survey questionnaires, one for students and another for teachers and some reading class observations were carried out to find out the teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward teaching and learning reading as well as their working methods. 5. Significance of the study. The findings of the study are believed to be useful for reading teachers to be aware of the essential role of while- reading stage in a reading lesson. Furthermore, the suggestions for while- reading techniques hopefully can help the students to improve their reading skills as well as the teachers. 6. Design of the study. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is the Introduction which includes rationale aims, scope, methods, significance and design of the study. The second- Development is the main part which consists of three chapters. Chapter I is about review of literature relating to reading comprehension. Chapter II investigates the present situation of learning and teaching reading to the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school. Chapter III gives some suggested techniques used in the while- reading stage to develop the reading skill for the 11th form students. Part III is the Conclusion of the study.
