Designing a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for Grade 10 English Gifted Students at Tuyen Quang Specialised Upper Secondary School

7/28/2019 Designing a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for Grade 10 English Gifted Students at Tuyen Quang Specialised Upper Secondary School

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hu VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

O TH TH NG

DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE

10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT TUYEN QUANG SPECIALISED

UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

THIT K CH NG TRNH C HIU B TR CHO HC SINH LP 10CHUYN ANH TR NG THPT CHUYN TUYN QUANG


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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

O TH TH NG

DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 10

ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT TUYEN QUANG SPECIALISED UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL

THIT K CH NG TRNH C HIU B TR CHO HC SINH LP 10CHUYN ANH TR NG THPT CHUYN TUYN QUANG


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Declaration

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of

Arts. I confirm this is my own research and that has not been published or submitted for any

other degrees.

Researcher's signature

o Th Thng


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guidance that motivates me to fulfill my thesis.

I would be grateful to the teachers who taught me different courses at Vietnam National

University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies as their invaluable

lectures led me to the ideas of doing the research of the subject matter.

I also express our thanks to my colleagues and students who helped me to complete the

survey questionnaires and spent a great deal of time with me, discussing some of issuesrelated to my research, offering insights and perspectives.

Last but not the least, I want to thank my family for their understanding and untiring love.

My husband, my son and my precious daughter have been my cheerleaders through the quite

long and sometimes difficult academic path I have followed.

Many other people contributed valuable help and support. It is impossible to cite them all.

Though their names do not appear in this acknowledgement, they shall always be cherished

and remembered in my heart.


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students.

The participants under investigation are composed of grade 10 English gifted studentsand English teachers who have been teaching English classes. The results of data analysis

from the survey questionnaires, documents and from the requirements of the MOET for the

gifted and of the tests for the national examination for excellent students are the factual basis

for a proposed supplementary reading syllabus.

Hopefully, this proposed syllabus will meet the students' needs and point out the

contents that the teachers have to teach in order to fulfill the requirements of the MOET for

the gifted and of the tests for the excellent students with the aim of enhancing the students'

results of the exams.

However, this study is only conducted with the limited needs analysis and the

assessment of the students English proficiency level and their difficulties in terms ofreading skills is subjective because no tests are taken. In addition, the differences between

the teachers' and the students' perceptions in the necessity of a few topics and that of

grammatical items cannot be clearly explained. Therefore, it is hoped that further study

would be conducted with a larger needs analysis to achieve a reliable result. The estimate of

the students level of proficiency and their difficulties is more objective when tests on themare taken. It would be better to clarify the teachers' and the students' different perceptions in

the necessity of a few topics and that of grammatical items.


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Table 6 : Students perceptionof grammatical items needed in a new syllabus 32Table 7 : Teachers and the students perceptions of the students difficulties in reading exercises.33Table 8 : Teachers and students perceptions of students difficulties in reading comprehension 34Table 9 : Teachers and the Students perceptions of the necessity and the interest in reading topics 36Table 10 : Teachers and the students perceptions of the necessity of grammatical items 37Table 11 : The proposed supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students

(see Appendix 1)

List of Figures

Figure 1 : Teachers perception of students difficulties in terms of reading comprehension 24Figure 2 : Teachers attitudes towards a supplementary readingsyllabus 24Figure 3 : Students difficulties in terms of reading comprehension 29Figure 4 : Students attitudes towards a supplementary reading syllabus 30Figure 5: Teachers and Students perceptions of necessity of a Supplementary Reading Syllabus 35


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Declaration i

Acknowledgements iiAbstract iii

List of Abbreviation iv

Lists of the tables v

Part I: Introduction

1. Rationale 1

2. Aim of the study 2

3. Research questions 2

4. Scope of the study 3

5. Method of the study 3

6. Design of the study 3

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Literature review 4

1.1. Theoretical background to Syllabus design 4

1.1.1. Syllabus and curriculum 4

1.1.2. Definitions of syllabus 4

1.1.3. Steps in designing a language syllabus 5


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2.1.1. The school 14

2.1.2. The teaching staff 15

2.1.3. The students 16

2.1.4. Time allocation for English classes at TQSS 16

2.2. The study 17

2.2.1. The subjects 17

2.2.2. The instrument for data collection 17

2.2.3. Data collection procedures 18

2.2.4. Data analysis and major findings 19

2.2.4.1. Data from documents and the material 19

2.2.4.1.1. The requirements of the MOET on curriculum for gifted students 19

2.2.4.1.2. The requirements on tests for excellent students 20

2.2.4.1.3. The teaching materials 21

2.2.4.2. Data from survey questionnaires 22

2.2.4.2.1. Needs perceived by the teachers 22

2.2.4.2.2. Needs perceived by the students 272.2.4.2.3. Comparisons between the teachers and the students perceptions of needs 33

2.2.4.3. Major findings 38

Chapter 3: A proposed a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for grade 39


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In the era of integration and globalization of the world economy, one cannot deny

the role of English as a bridge to link closely the nations all over the world. English is the

language that has spread throughout the world most extensively and is dominating in a

number of important fields international commerce, communication, tourism and science

and technology. English is both a means of and the latest achievement of science and

technology. That is the reason why at present, learning English is not only the interest but

also the great and practical demand for many people, especially for students who are

anxious to explore the modern world. Therefore, English has become a compulsory subject

to all the secondary school students in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, however, English is taught and learned in a non-native environment, so

reading may be considered as the best way to help students to understand and use the up-

to-date information in their fields of study. Carrel (1984: 1) points out: for many students,reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a

second or a foreign lan guage (cited in Sao 2008). Indeed, reading is of paramountimportance in making extensive use of academic materials written in English. Reading

these materials on different subjects is one of the best ways to help students improve their

English. Therefore, developing reading skills is very essential for all the students,

especially for the gifted students.

Training and nurturing the gifted require a special education that differentiates


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requirement of the national exam for the excellent. Hence, on November 6 th, MOET issued

-a regulation No12856/BGDT- GDTrH - A guideline in the contents for specializingsubjects taught for grade 10 at specialized upper secondary schools (2006). According tothis regulation, gifted students are provided with 70 extra periods (including reading,

listening, speaking, writing and language focus) except for 140 compulsory periods in

order to enhance their level of English proficiency. This 70-period syllabus has not been

designed by MOET but it has been done by teachers themselves in each school who teach

the talents. In addition, MOET suggests that the specific time allotment for each expandedand advanced part depends on students proficiency level as well as the real condition ofeach s chool. (A guideline in the contents for specializing subjects taught for grade 10 atspecialized upper secondary schools, 2006: 6). The flexibility and openness offer teachers

at specialized school in general and at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School

(TQSS) in particular more chances to select relevant materials to their class situation.

Because, however, the English supplementary materials specifically developed for the

gifted are inadequate, this flexibility also brings a lot of challenges to teachers of English

when making an attempt to find, select and adapt materials suitable for their studentsneeds. In order to help language teachers surmount the aforementioned difficulty and

provide students with a relevant supplementary reading syllabus, I have carried out a study

on designing a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at


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5. Method of the study.

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, a survey questionnaire is used as one

of the tools to collect information about the students' difficulties in terms of reading skills

and their needs and interest regarding topics and language items. Also, document analysis

is aimed at finding out the requirements of the MOET for the gifted students and for the

excellent students' tests. At last, informal interviews with the teachers and the students are

also touched on in order to clarify information collected from survey. In this study,

therefore, both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed.

6. Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts:

Part I is the introduction including the rationale, the aim, the scope, the method

and design of the study.

Part II is the development that consists of 3 chapters:

- Chapter 1 is about literature review of Syllabus design and of Reading theories.

- Chapter 2 gives descriptions of context, instruments, data collection and analysis

of the results.

- Chapter 3 proposes a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English

gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School .

Part III is composed of concluding ideas and limitation of the study.


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The concept of a syllabus is hardly new in education but giving an exact definition

what a syllabus is in current literature is an uneasy task. Nunan (1988: 5) states that

There are some confusing views on just what it is that distinguishes syllabus design fromcurriculum development. Therefore, showing adifference between syllabus andcurriculum is badly in need.

According to Allen (1984: 61), curriculum is a general concept. It involves

consideration of the whole complex of philosophical, social and administrative factors

which contribute to the planning of an educational program. Syllabus then refers to that

subpart of curriculum which is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught.

Curriculum as defined by Candlin (1984: 31) includes language learning, learning

process, and experience, evaluation, and the role relationships of the teachers and learners.

Syllabus, on the other hand, is based on accounts and records of what actually happens at

the classroom level as the teachers and learners apply a given curriculum.

In short, curriculum is a broader notion concerned with the planning,

implementation, evaluation, management, and administration of education programmes

whilst syllabus centers narrowly on the selection and grading of content. Therefore,

syllabus design has traditionally been seen as a subsidiary component of curriculum

design.

1.1.2. Syllabus definitions


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concerned with the selection of learning tasks and activities. Allen (1984: 49) states that asyllabus ......is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught (as distinct from

how they will be taught, which is matter of methodology). Sharing with Allen s point of view, Hutchinson and Wa ters (1987: 80) also indicate that A syllabus is a documentwhich says what will (or at least should) be learnt. Clearly, all these authors revealsyllabus in terms of the selection and grading content.

In a word, some linguists consider syllabus design and methodology as separate

options, others think otherwise. Therefore, it is essential for the designer to decide on

which view to follow when designing a syllabus. As a point of departure to design a

supplementary for the gifted, the term "syllabus" only centers on the content of learning

and its organization, which means being narrowly defined.

1.1.3. Steps in designing a language syllabus

Different stages of designing a syllabus are proposed by different linguists.

According to Nunan (1988: 75-96), all the language programs should take their form of

departure from the goals and objectives that have been derived from an analysis of

learners needs. For him, designing a syllabus is composed of such the steps as (i) needsanalysis, (ii) setting goals, (iii) selecting and grading content and (iv) selecting and grading

learning tasks. Taba (1962, cited in Brumfit, 1984: 268), however, points out seven steps

in designing a syllabus as follows: (i) needs analysis, (ii) formulation of objectives, (iii)


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1.1.3.1.1. Definitions of needs

The very concept of language needs has never been clearly defined and remains at

best ambiguous. Numerous researchers have debated definitions of needs. Berwick (1989:

52) suggests a basic definition of need: a need is a gap or measurable discrepancy between a current state of affairs and a de sired future state. According to Brindley (1984:28), the term needs sometimes refers to wants, desires, demands, expectations,motivations, lacks, constraints and requirement, while needs is defined as what theuser- institution or the society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from

program of language institution (Mountford, 1981: 27). Sharing with the twoaforementioned points of views, Nunan (1988: 14) reveals that needs analysis is not only

mentioned why the learners want to learn the target language, but also things as societal

expectations, and constraints and the resources available for implementing the syllabus.

The notion of needs here not only refers to the needs of the learners but also takes intoaccount the user-institution or the society. It is important for the researcher to take the

needs of the management into account as to what the learner needs the language for, so that

the syllabus that is designed will include both the needs of the learner and the needs of the

establishment.

1.1.3.1.2. The importance of needs analysis

Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) has a vital role in the process of


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as reasonable content in the language course, and on the positive side; what potential can

be exploited. With the share of Hutchinson s and Waters' view, Tudor (1996: 70) suggeststhat course content should be based on an analysis of the situations in which the learner will be required to use the language.

Thus, needs analysis has an importance in all kind of language learning and

teaching situations whether for specific purpose or general purposes and makes a learning

programme more relevant to the real life needs of the learners.

1.1.3.2. Goals and Objectives of the syllabus

The identification of learning goals and objectives is of great importance in the

development of a language program. These will provide a rationale for the course or

program.

Vale et al (1996: 32) draw an important distinction between goals and objectives. In

their opinions, goals are general statements from the teacher s perspective and providedirection to the teaching and learning, while objectives spell out what learners will actually

be able to do. Sharing with Vale et al s ideas, Nunan (1988: 61) suggests that goalstatements are relatively imprecise. While they act as a signpost, they need to be fleshed

out in order to provide information for course and programme planners. This can be

achieved through the specification of objectives. In other words, goals are generally statedwhereas objectives express the specific ways in which the goals will be achieved.


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- decide the amount of content in general terms

- list items in rough order of specific frequency

- group for relative difficulty

- check that both functional and notional categories are present

- check coverage of grammatical items

In this section, therefore, we are provided with some means by which we can go about

selecting content matter for a language syllabus.

1.1.3.4. Syllabus organization

Having once determined on what to teach, the next stage is to decide on an appropriate

strategy of presentation. Gibbons (in Read 1984: 137) points out that "the objective of

organizing a syllabus is not to produce an adequate description of the language, but to

promote learning". Thus the content should be organized in such a way in order to

facilitate teaching and learning. The unit organization should also be suitable for the

particular purpose of learning.

According to Allen (1984), there are three approaches which can be utilized to

sequence and organize content: the traditional structural-analytic approach in which the

highest priority is given to formal grammatical criteria; the functional-analytical approach

which defines objectives in terms of categories of communicative language use and a non-

analytic, experiential, or natural growth approach, which aims to immerse learners in


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1.2. Theoretical background to reading comprehension

1.2.1. Definitions of Reading and Reading comprehension

Along with the macro-skills, reading is also considered as the major centre of teaching and

learning a second or foreign language. This skill has received a great deal of attention as

well as investigation from a lot of researchers. Just like any other words our huge

vocabulary, reading may have a number of meanings depending on the different contexts.

We, therefore, should never expect one single definition of this term.

This is true considering the fact that in the history of pedagogy, different

pedagogists have made an attempt to define reading and reading comprehension in

different ways.

+ Reading

Rumelhart (1997) indicates that reading involves the reader, the text, and theinteraction between reader and text (cited in Aebersold & Field, 1998: 5). As can be seenthe reader and the text are two essential components of the reading process; it is, however,

the interaction between them that constitutes actual reading where meaning can be

extracted from the text. Sharing with Rumelhart s idea, Silberstein (1994: xii) states thatreading is a complex cognitive process in which reader and text interact to (re)createmeaningful discou rse. From these definitions, it is apparent that reading is a process inwhich the reader interacts with the text to achieve some kind of meaning. This meaning


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importance of building and activating the reader s background knowledge in enhancing hisreading skill.

However, reading process is not full understanding without the combination of these

approaches. Only with a combination of those two approaches can the process of reading

be adequately characterized. This combination is referred to as the interactive processing

whose advocates argue that top-down and bottom-up processes are occurring, either alternatively or simultaneously (Alderson, 2000: 18). With the share of Alderson s pointof view, Nuttall (2005: 17) suggests that bottom-up and top-down approaches are used tocomplement each other.

In short, the abilities to approach a text both top-down and bottom-up are of equal

importance as these processes cannot be separated. There, only when the language teacher

develops in students both these abilities is their reading skill to be improved.

1.2.3. Reading skills and strategies

Duffy (1993: 232) reveals that reading strategies are plans for solving problemsencountered in constructing meaning. The two terms reading skills and readingstrategies are often used interchangeably. Nevertheless, different scholars have their owndifferent opinions about them.

Munby (1987: 123-132) makes a list of reading skills as follows:

1. Recognizing the script of a language


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15. Scanning to locate specifically required information

16. Transcoding information presented in diagrammatic display

On the other hand, on talking the ways to exploit the reading texts, Nuttall (2005) has

given several reading skills which are divided into three groups: word attack skills

(Structural clues, Inference from context, Using a dictionary, Ignoring), text attack skills

(Understanding syntax, Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, Recognizing text

organization, Recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, Recognizing

implications and making inferences, Prediction) and Integration and application.

Even though the aforementioned lists of reading skills are more or less different from one

another, it is inevitable that they have some features in common such as recognitions skills,

decoding skills... For the sake of the study, Nuttall s taxonomy will be selected since it bestdescribes skills that are relevant to those required in the textbook and the national exam for

the English aptitude students, who are the objects of this study.

1.3. Summary

In this chapter, the author has revealed the literature review of syllabus design and reading

theories, which will be the theoretical background for the study. As regards syllabus

definitions, the different points of views are discussed by such linguists as Yalden (1983),

Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Allen (1984) and Been (1984). Four main steps have been

identified in the process of designing the intended syllabus namely needs analysis,


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taken into consideration. More importantly, the requirements of the MOET on curriculum

for the gifted, tests for the excellent students and survey questionnaires will also be analyzed.

2.1. The context of the study

2.1.1. The school

Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School is in the system of specialized

schools. Therefore, like other specialized schools, its major objective is to train and foster

the gifted for the province in particular and for the nation in general. Since it was

established in 1987, it has endlessly enhanced the education and training career both in

quantity and in quality. It first had only six classes with eighty seven students for two

specialized subjects math and literature and Russian was taught at school at that time.

Currently, the number of classes has increased to twenty three with eight hundred and

fifteen students for seven specialized subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology,

informatics, literature and English. After twenty three years of development and tirelessly

striving, it has become a reliable education address of students and their parents in the

province with the leading number of the students gaining the provincial and national prizes

and especially the annual number of students passing the university entrance exam. In spite

of the fact that it is the only specialized school in the province, the school still meets such

difficulties as materials, facilities and so forth.

Like many other upper-secondary schools in the province, the facilities of TQSS


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Since 2006- 2007 academic year, the English materials used to teach grade 10

students at school have been two new textbooks called the English textbook 10 (Ting Anh10), and the advanced English textbook 10 (Ting Anh 10 nng cao), which arepublished

by Education Publishing House. The former consisting of 16 units with 105 periods for

two terms is used for the students of all the classes, the latter comprising 16 units with 140

periods is used for the gifted only. Except for the aforementioned compulsory periods, the

students of the English classes are provided with 70 extra periods.

2.1.2. The teaching staff of the English group at TQSS.

Out of a total of 9 teachers of English aged from 30 to 50, two of them are male.

Four of them graduated from English Department at Thai Nguyen University with their

teaching experience from 17 to 25 and the others, their time of teaching experience from 8

to 15 years, were trained in English Department, College of Foreign Languages, and Hanoi

National University. Two of the teachers of language have taken degrees of Master of Art,

the other six hold B.A degree in English; one is studying for M.A degree. None of them

has an opportunity to study abroad or to communicate with foreigners or native English speakers.

English teachers at the school, especially those teaching English specializing

classes face up with a heavy workload such as teaching the provincial and national teams

for the excellent students. Moreover, they are always worried about how to have a

supplementary reading material required by MOET in order to teach the aptitude-students


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English, some of them are selected owing to their good results in mathematics and

literature. This will be a challenge for the school and the language teachers because having

good record in the provincial and national exams means that they need really potential

candidates who have an excellent command of English.

Since the academic year of 2007, the number of English gifted students who have

passed the university entrance exam and won the provincial exam is about 85 % - 90% on

average, the number of students gaining the achievements from the annual national exam

for the excellent students is lower than years ago. For example, in 2008, six students took

the national exam for excellent students, only two won the consolation prizes. In 2009, no

students got the prize, and only one student won the consolation prize in 2010. Apparently,

the students English proficiency level is not high, which makes school leaders andlanguage teachers express their great concern as to what should be done and how this

should be done in order to improve their students level of English proficiency and increasethe number of the students winning the national prizes, which is also one of the school smain objectives in coming years.

2.1.4. The time allocation for English classes at TQSS

As discussed in the introduction, apart from 140 periods for the compulsory

textbook, the English gifted students are given 70 extra periods for further practice by the

MOET in order to enhance their communicative competence. These are used for the whole


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investigation mainly coming from the different parts of the province have been learning

English since they were in grade 6. Although all of them are motivated to study English,

they do not have homogeneous level of English proficiency. The participants who are all

aged between 15 or 16 have just finished their second term.

2.2.2. The instruments for data collection

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 59) suggest that there are a large number of ways in

which information can be gathered about target needs such as interview, observation,

questionnaires and so on. In this study, three instruments chosen to collect information are

document analysis, interview and the questionnaires.

The documents for analysis are composed of a guideline in the contents for

specializing subjects taught for grade 10 at secondary schools issued in 2006, tests for the

excellent students from 2007- 2010 and the current textbook, are analyzed. The analysis of

documents is not only to seek for the gap between the MOET srequirements for the giftedand the current textbook, but to find out MOET s requirements for the tests in the nationalexam for the excellent students.

Informal interviews with the teachers and the students are also touched on in order

to clarify and supplement information collected from survey.

A survey questionnaire is used as one of the tools in order to collect information.

The questionnaires designed are based on a rating scale. By using this method, the author


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- write texts of 100-130 words on familiar topics based on models or prompts for

personal or basic communicative purposes.

(MOET, 2006: 114)

According to the MOET, however, apart from achieving above objectives, grade 10

English gifted students ought to enhance linguistic knowledge and master language skills

(listening, speaking, reading and writing), the contents and language items are more

complex and more difficult than those mentioned in the advanced English textbook 10

(Ting Anh 10 nng cao).With regard to topics, an emphasis the Ministry puts is that the contents of

language skills such as listening, speaking, and reading are not fixed in order to create

openness for teachers material selection. However, the scope and the complexity of topicsshould be paid attention so that their difficulty and contents are not too far from those

mentioned in the secondary educational curriculum.

Methodologically, the new curriculum is claimed to follow learner-centered

approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching is the central teaching

method, which means that communication skills is the goal of the teaching and learning

process; linguistic knowledge is the means by which communication skills are formed and

developed and students play an active role in the teaching and learning process; teachers

are only organizers and guides. Therefore, the methodology used for specializing


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grammar), testing reading skill, testing writing skill. Grammar must be at advanced level

and reading skills, used to assess excellent students being Recognizing text organization,

Guessing unfamiliar w ords in a text, Inferring, Understanding the writer s attitude,Comprehension questions, can be at intermediate or upper-intermediate levels. It is

apparent that most of these skills evaluated in the tests for the excellent students are not

defined in the guidelines by MOET. Topics covered in these years tests include:Environment, Education, English language, Natural disasters, and Cultural diversity.

In short, even though most of the topics in the tests are required by the MOET in

the curriculum, so are the grammatical points, there is still a gap in terms of reading skills.

2.2.4.1.3. The teaching material

The new textbook used for the gifted students in the school is named the advanced

English textbook 10, which comprises 16 teaching units and four consolidation units. The

teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on the

first page of each book. Each teaching unit covering a topic is taught in seven periods and

is structured into five sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Language Focus

respectively. The glossary at the end of the textbook contains both phonetic transcription

and Vietnamese translation for each entry.

This textbook is underpinned by theme-based approach to the introduction of

language input. Six themes presented respectively in the textbook are You and Me,


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Reading is chosen as the first section in each unit. Via the reading text and tasks,

language input expects to be provided for practice of other language skills . Reading passages provided in the textbook have various topics with up-to-date information. Pre-

reading often is illustrated with clear and beautiful pictures together with questions to lead

in the topic of the text. While-reading asks students to scan for specific information or

skim for general ideas. Post-reading provides useful activities which help students wrap

things they have learnt from the passages. In spite of the aforementioned strengths, reading

section has still some weaknesses. One concern is that reading tasks are not only poorlydesigned but also limited. Seven main types of reading exercises are provided in this book:

focusing on comprehension questions; gap-filling/ table-filling/ map-filling; matching

exercises; multiple choice; true-false; finding words in the text and rearrange facts.

Another drawback is that reading skills provided in textbook are not various and only three

of them are often used in the tests for University Entrance Examination and for excellent

students. Last but not the least, the contents of some reading texts in curriculum does not

meet the gifted students requirement due to their simplicity of language contents as wellas that of language structures. This may be explicitly found in such topics as school talks,

school outdoor activities, national parks and so on.

Obviously, when compared with the requirements of MOET for the gifted and for

excellent students' tests, the reading section in this textbook has shortcomings in terms of


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the teachers thought their students have no difficulty in grammar, but only 20% think so.

Obviously, the students, from almost all of the teachers points of views, are not fluentreaders. According t o Silberstein (1994: 12), fluent readers possess a large receptivevocabulary and knowledge of syntactic and rhetorical structure

Figure 1: Teachers perception of students difficulties in terms of reading comprehension

2.2.4.2.1.3. Teachers perception of students needs for a supplementary reading syllabus As can be seen from Figure 2, all the teachers showed their positive attitudes

towards the proposal of a supplementary reading syllabus. 100% of the teachers thought

that a supplementary syllabus was of great importance. Through the interviews, theteachers believed that this syllabus would help the gifted students to partly satisfy the

requirements of the MOET and partly those of the tests for excellent students


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results collected of some outstanding topics, the detailed ones of other topics are shown in

appendix 6.

It can be seen from the table that 100 % of the teachers found Nature, Environment

and Cultural diversity the most interesting and necessary. Topics (Education, Books,

English language and Learning languages, Sports, Technology, Women, Daily life and

Recreation) interested 80% of the teachers, but their necessity was estimated differently by

the teachers. Among them, Education and English language and learning languages were

No Level of interest Topics Level of necessity


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2.2.4.2.1.4. Teachers perception of the necessity and interest in reading topics Table 2: Teachers perception of the necessity and interest in reading topics

V e r y

i n t e r e s t

i n g

I n t e r e s t

i n g

N o r m

a l

B o r i n g

V e r y

n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r

l y

n e c e s s a r y

U n n e c e s s a r y

N P N P N P N P N P N P N P N P

1 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 Education 1 20 4 80 0 0 0 0

2 1 20 4 80 0 0 0 0 Environment 0 0 5 100 0 0 0 0

3 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 Sports 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 04 0 0 1 20 2 40 2 40 Famous people 0 0 1 20 2 40 2 40

5 1 20 4 80 0 0 0 0 Culturediversity

1 20 4 80 0 0 0 0

6 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 nglish language-learning language

1 20 4 80 0 0 0 0

7 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 Recreation 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 08 0 0 3 60 1 20 1 20 Music 0 0 0 0 2 40 3 609 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 Daily life 0 0 3 60 2 40 0 0

10 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 Technology 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 011 2 40 3 60 0 0 0 0 Nature 1 20 4 80 0 0 0 012 0 0 2 40 1 20 2 40 Hobbies 0 0 1 20 2 40 2 40

13 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 Women 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 014 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 Books 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0


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phrase and Prepositions of time and places with 40% of the teachers who regarded them as

fairly essential ones and 60% unnecessary. This suggested that they should not be included

in the syllabus. The results showed that most of the teachers believed their students should

be taught the most difficult grammatical items in grade 10 although this perception did not

accord with objectives specified by the MOET. However, it has been proved that their

students have a good command of English grammar (see Figure 1)

Table 3: Teachers' Perceptions of their students' ranking of their grammatical items

No Grammatical items V e r y

n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r l y

n e c e s s a r y


N o t

n e c e s s a r y a t

a l l

N P N P N P N P N P

1 Sequence of tenses 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 0 0

2 Special cases of passivevoice 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 0 0

3 Phrasal verbs 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 0 0

4 Word-formation 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 0 0

5 The order of adjectives in

adjective phrase0 0 1 20 1 20 2 40 1 20

6 Prepositions after nouns 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0 0 0

7 Prepositions after verbs 1 20 3 60 1 20 0 0 0 0


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The overall results of survey about difficulties in terms of reading exercises

perceived by the students were shown in appendix 8, Table 4 below merely deals with the

important results of some reading exercises. According to the table, the majority of the

students found Guessing unfamiliar words in a text via a context, Inferring and Choosing

the option that best describes the writer's attitude most difficult with 91,4% and 94,3%

(for the two last items) respectively, and only 8,6% considered the former as a normal

exercise and 5,7 % saw the latter, too. The second level of difficulty was focused on

Identify the main ideas within paragraphs or in reading texts and Choose and put the

phrases / sentences to where they fit in a text with 74,3 % and 25,7 % of the students

considered it as normal reading exercises. Rearrange the paragraph, Summarize the text

and Long answer questions were ranked the third, among which 68,6 % of the students

regarded two first exercises as difficult and very difficult ones and 31,4 % found them

normal . The rest was perceived as 'difficult ' and 'very difficult exercise by 65,7 % of thestudents and 34,3 % saw it normally. According to the students perception, three exerciseschosen as easy ones by over a half of them (57,2% to 60%) were Filling in the table with

the information from the reading passage, Short answer questions and True or False . Only

one third (12/35) found them normal and difficult. From the analysis, it can be clearly

realized that the students often met the greatest difficulty in Recognizing text organization,

Inferring, and Understanding the writer s attitude, which seemed to be permanently test-


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No Reading exercises Easy Normal DifficultVery

difficult

N P N P N P N P1 Skimming Identify the main ideas within paragraphs or in reading texts. 0 0 9 25,7 19 54,3 7 20,0

2 Scanning Scan the text for specificinformation 5 14,3 10 28,5 17 48,6 3 8,6

3Guessingunfamiliar words in a text

Guess unfamiliar words in atext via a context 0 0 3 8,6 21 60,0 11 31,4

4Recognizingtextorganization

Rearrange the paragraph 0 0 11 31,4 19 54,3 5 14,3

Choose and put the phrases /sentences to where they fit in atext.

0 0 9 25,7 20 57,2 6 17,1

5 InferringIdentify the information that isnot explicitly stated in a

paragraph / text0 0 2 5,7 22 62,9 11 31,4

6 Utilizing textinformation

Filling in the table with theinformation from the reading

passage21 60,0 9 25,7 5 14,3 0 0

7Understandingthe writer'sattitude

Choose the option that bestdescribes the writer's attitude 0 0 2 5,7 23 65,8 10 28,5

8 Comprehensionquestions

Short answer questions 20 57,2 10 28,5 5 14,3 0 0

Long answer questions 0 0 12 34,3 21 60,0 2 5,7

9 Other exercisesSummarize the text 0 0 11 31,4 20 57,2 4 11,4

True or False 20 57,2 10 28,5 5 14,3 0 0

( N: The number of the Students, P: The percentage of the Students)

2 2 4 2 2 2 S d diffi l i i f di h i


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students, they also explained that their limitation of vocabulary made it impossible for

them to understand the text quickly. In addition, they were not used to guessing the

meanings of new words in contexts. When meeting unfamiliar words, they usually used a

dictionary, which required a lot of time to read the text. Another problem almost all of the

students had encountered was background knowledge. 71,5% found it difficult, among

which very difficult made up 14,3%. The rest found it normal. Further more, they alsoexplained that their little social knowledge prevented them from reading well the texts and

made them understand it dimly and even they could not speak out the main ideas of the

reading texts, especially unfamiliar topics. At last, Grammar seemed the easiest item for

them. 65,7 % considered it easy and normal, only five (34,3 %) found it difficult.

2.2.4.2.2.3 Students perceptions for supplementary reading syllabus Optimistically, from the data shown in Figure 4, all the students saw the importance

of a supplementary material. 69 % of the students chose very necessary and 31% selected

necessary. No ticks were placed for the rest. The results expressed the students positiveattitudes towards the proposal of a supplementary reading syllabus.

69 %31 %


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Recreations, Books and Women. All of them were regarded as exciting and important

topics by over 70% to over 80% of the students. Hobbies and Famous people were two

topics which had the lowest percentage of interest and necessity, (14,3%-11,4% for the

former and 34% - 25,7% for the latter, in turn). Almost all of the students (80%) found

Music gripping, but only 25,7% perceived it as an important topic. Therefore, it cannot be

included in the syllabus.

In short, the majority of the students found the topics required by the MOET

gripping and necessary, except for two topics, Hobbies and Famous people. No topics were

considered to be very dull and 'not necessary at all'.

Table 5: Students perceptions of the necessity and interest in reading topics

No

Level of interest

Topics

Level of necessity

V e r y

i n t e r e s t

i n g

I n t e r e s t

i n g

N o r m a l

B o r

i n g

V e r y

n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r l y

n e c e s s a r y


N P N P N P N P N P N P N P N P

1 5 14,3 20 57,2 10 28,5 0 0 Education 18 42,9 14 40 3 17,1 0 0

2 11 31,4 19 54,3 5 14,3 0 0 Environment 16 45,7 14 40 5 14,3 0 0

3 4 11 4 21 60 9 25 7 1 2 9 Sports 8 22 9 16 45 7 5 14 3 6 17 1


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of necessity were The order of adjectives in adjective phrase with 20% and Prepositions of

time and places with 14,3%. To sum up, the appropriate grammatical items are of great

necessity to be revised again in the syllabus.

2.2.4.2.3. Comparisons between teachers and students perceptions of needs 2.2.4.2.3.1. Comparisons between teachers and students perceptions of the studentsdifficulties in terms of reading exercises.

Table 7: Teachers and students perceptions of the students difficulties in terms of reading exercises

No Reading exercisesEasy Normal Difficult Verydifficult

T%

S%

T%

S%

T%

S%

T%

S%

1 Skimming

Identify the mainideas within

paragraphs or inreading texts.

0 0 20 25,7 60 54,3 20 20

2 Scanning Scan the text for specific information 0 14,3 80 28,5 20 48,60 8,6

3Guessingunfamiliar words in a text

Guess unfamiliar words in a text via acontext

0 0 0 8,6 80 60 20 31,4


Rearrange the paragraph 20 0 40 31,4 40 54,3

0 14,3

Choose and put the phrases / sentences towhere they fit in atext.

0 0 20 25,7 80 57,2 0 17,1

f


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from the table that three skills (Understanding the writers attitude, Guessing unfamiliar words in a text and Inferring) were considered as the most difficult ones by 100% of the

teachers and more than 90% of the students, only a few of them (3/35) found them normal.

Both of them also saw Identify the main ideas within paragraphs or in reading texts,

Choose and put the phrases/ sentences to where they fits in the text, Long answer questions

and Summarize the text be difficult only after the aforementioned skills. Short answer

questions, Fill in the table with the information from the reading text and True or False

were found easy. However, there was a small different view between teachers and students

on such reading exercises as Rearrange the paragraph and Scan the text for specific

information. The former was found normal and difficult by the same number of the

teachers (40%) whereas 68,6% of the students considered it as a difficult one and only

31,4% regarded it as a normal one. The latter was perceived as a normal and difficult

exercise by 80% - 20% of the teachers respectively while only 28,5% of the students

thought it was normal and 57,2% found it difficult. No reading exercises were supposed to

be 'Very easy' and 'Not necessary at all' by both the teachers and the students. In short,

skills in the curriculum required by MOET seemed easy for students, whereas those

causing students a lot of problems were only found in the tests for excellent students.

Hence, it is necessary to provide them with more reading exercises in order to help them

develop their reading skills and do well in the national examinations.


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Prepositions following nouns, Prepositions after verbs, Prepositions following adjectives,

Subjunctive, Inversions and The structure of emphasis should be included in a

supplementary syllabus. Neither of them chose The order of adjective in adjective phrase

and Prepositions of time and places as important ones that should be included in the

syllabus. However, there was a minor difference between the teachers' and the students'

view about Linking words. Most of the teachers ( 80%) thought the students should learn

this grammatical item, but only half the students (57,2%) found it necessary to learn. This

proved that the students would like to learn the grammatical items at advanced level.

Table 10: Teachers and students perceptions of the necessity of grammatical items

2.2.4.3. Major findings

( T %: The percentage of the teachers; S %: The percentage of the students)

2 2 4 3 M j fi di


n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r l y

n e c e s s a r y


N o t

n e c e s s a r y

a t a l

l

T%

S%

T%

S%

T%

S%

T%

S%

T%

S%

1 Sequence of tenses 0 25,7 80 45,7 20 22,9 0 5,7 0 0

2 Special cases of passivevoice 0 22,9 80 51,4 20 17,1 0 8,6 0 0

3 Phrasal verbs 20 40 60 34,3 20 20 0 5,7 0 0

4 Word-formation 0 34,3 80 48,6 20 17,1 0 0 0 0


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unfamiliar words in a text, Choose the option that best describes the writer s attitude,Identify the information that is implicitly stated in a text, Summarize the text and Choose

and put the phrase/ sentences to where they fit in a text and grammatical items they hoped

to be taught were the ones at advanced level. To sum up, the analysis of the students' needs

became the factual basis for this supplementary material, which the author would describe

in the next chapter.


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A proposed Supplementary Reading Syllabus for grade 10

English gifted students at TQSS

In this chapter, based on the theoretical background in chapter 1 and the analysis of the

students' needs in the chapter 2, aims and objectives of the syllabus, the content, time

schedule and syllabus organization will be

3.1. Aims and Objectives of a reading syllabus for the English gifted students at TQSS

Based on the students needs analysis, the requirements of the MOET and the factualdemand for the national exam for the excellent, the aims of the supplementary reading

syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at TQSS are set as follows:

- To help students to develop reading skills in order to fulfill the requirements of the

MOET and the level required in the test for the excellent students.

- To assist students in enriching their knowledge as well as vocabulary of cultural and

social topics.

Objectives, as mentioned in the previous chapter, spell out what learners will

actually be able to do. At the end of the course, students will be able to:

+ skim to get the gist and scan a text for specific information.

+ understand the writer s intention and make inferences. + organize ideas in what is read and guess unfamiliar words in a text.

+ read and comprehend English materials at intermediate level about some topics


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skills/exercises are selected because they are really necessary for the tests for the excellent

students, but they are not required by the MOET.

3.2.1. Topics in the syllabus

From the results of the surveys, the requirements of the curriculum and tests for the

excellent, the following topics must be taken into account in the supplementary reading

syllabus.

1. Cultural diversity 6. Recreation

2. Education 7. Sports

3. Technology 8. Books

4. Nature 9. Women

5. Environment 10. English language and learning languages

Of all the aforementioned topics, Environment, Cultural diversity and Nature get

the highest percentage of the interest and necessity (see Table 10). Women is not regarded

as a gripping topic, but it has a high percentage of necessity. Perhaps because it has

appeared in the tests for the excellent students. Moreover, all these topics also belong to

themes covered in the curriculum. 'English language and learning languages' is not

required in the curriculum by MOET, but it should be included in the supplementary

syllabus because it is one of the topics appearing in the test for the excellent students.

There will be 15 units with 15 reading passages for 10 topics. This means that 5


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7. Comprehension questions: Multiple choice questions, Long answer questions

8. Summarizing the text

3.2.3. Grammatical items

The results of the survey and the requirements of the MOET and of the tests for the

excellent students, the following grammatical items are selected for a reading syllabus.

1. Sequence of tenses 6. Prepositions after verbs

2. Special cases of the passive voice 7. Prepositions after nouns

3. Phrasal verbs 8. Emphatic structure

4. Word-formation 9. Subjunctives

5. Prepositions following adjectives 10. Inversions

These items are commonly covered in the national exams for the gifted.

Furthermore, this syllabus aims at supplementing the textbook in terms of types of

exercises and improving the students' reading skills and language so that they can perform

well in the national exams. Hence, in spite of being taught in grade 11 and 12 by MOET,

these items will be included in this syllabus content.

3.3. Time schedule

According to the requirement of the MOET, this syllabus must be taught in two

terms, so the 30-period syllabus takes at least 30 weeks to finish. Each term has 15

periods, which will be arranged from week 2 to week 16 in the first term and from week 19


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Part III: Conclusion

With the aim of helping the gifted at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary Schoolread effectively and get prizes in the national exam for the excellent, providing them with a

supplementary reading syllabus is of great importance.

As clearly illustrated in the introductory part, this study implemented is due to such

reasons as the requirements of the specialized education, the mismatch between the

requirements of the MOET on testing the national excellent students and those of the

current curriculum. Moreover, a supplementary material specifically developed for the

gifted has apparently been insufficient. For all these reasons, we have carried out a study

on designing a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at

Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper secondary School.

Considered as the point of departure of the study, the literature reviews on syllabus

design and needs analysis have provided concepts and steps for designing a syllabus.

Moreover, the literature review on reading comprehension has also been supplied with a

remarkable insight into reading approaches, reading process and reading strategies/skills,

which assist the author to select appropriate skills for the syllabus. The teaching and

learning situation has been analyzed thoroughly. More importantly, the study of the current

textbook based on the requirement of the MOET indicates that it has limited types of

reading exercises which are too easy and give no stimulus for gifted students. Only two


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No matter how much attempt has been made, the study cannot avoid certain

limitations. The first shortcoming is attributed to the limited needs analysis. As presented

in chapter 2, the study involves a group of 35 grade 10 English gifted students and 5

English teachers teaching in English classes. Although their needs were demonstrated, this

limitation somehow prevented us from getting a full idea of students' needs at varying

degrees of proficienc y. Another limitation is that the assessment of the students English proficiency level is subjective because no tests are taken. Last but not the least, there are

differences in the teachers' and the students' perceptions in the necessity of a few topics

and that of grammatical items but within the scope of the study they cannot be clearly

explained. Therefore, it is hoped that further study would be conducted with a larger needs

analysis including experts opinions and even grade 11 students ideas to achieve a reliableresult. The estimate of the students level of proficiency and their difficulties is moreobjective when tests on them are taken. It would be better to clarify the teachers' and the

students' different perceptions in the necessity of a few topics and that of grammatical

items.


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ReferencesAebersold, J. A. & Field, M. L. (1998). From reader to reading teacher .USA: Cambridge

University Press.

Alderson, J.C., Urquahart, A.H. (1984). Reading in a foreign language . Longman Group

Limited, Essex.

Alderson, J.C. (2000). Accessing reading . UK: Cambridge University Press.

Allen, J.P.B. (1984). "General -Purpose Language Teaching: a Variable Focus Approach" in

Brumfit, C.J. (ed). General English Syllabus Design . Pergamon Press Ltd. and TheBritish Council.

Anh, T & Phuong, M.V. (2006). Ting Anh 10 Nng Cao. Hanoi: NXB Giao Duc Berwick, R. (1989). "Needs Assessment in Language programming: From Theory to Practice"

in Johnson. K. (Ed). The second language Curriculum . Cambridge University Press.

Bo Giao Duc va Dao tao. (2006). Ti liu bi dng gio vin- mn ting Anh- Lp 10. H Ni: NXB Giao Duc.

Bo Giao Duc va Dao Tao. (2006). Hng dn ni dung dy cc mn chuyn- Lp 10 cctrng THPT Chuyn. ( Adapted since 2006-2007 academic year)

Brassell, D & Rasinski, T. (1997). Comprehension that Works : Taking Students Beyond

Ordinary Understanding to Deep Comprehension. Shell Education.

Brindley, G. (1984). Needs Analysis and Objective Setting in the Adult Migrant Education Program . Sydney: Adult Migrant Education Service.

f ( ) h l f h ll b d ( d) d


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Language Centre.

Nunan (1988). Syllabus design . Oxford University Press.

Nunan (1988). Learner- centred curriculum. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Nuttall, C. (2005). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language . (3rd ed) Thailand:

Macmillan Education.

O Neill, R. (1982). Why use textbooks? ELT Journals. Oxford University Press. Richards, J.Q (1984). Language Curriculum Development. RELC Journal, Vol.14, No.1,June 1984.

Sao. L.M. (2008). Students perceived difficulties in reading comprehension withreference to new Tieng Anh 10 textbook at Nghi Loc IV High School . An M.A thesis

University of Language and International Studies. Hanoi.

Shaw, A.M. (1975). Approaches to a Communicative Syllabus in Foreign Language

Curriculum Development . Ph.D.thesis, University of Essex.

Silberstein, S. (1994). Techniques and resources in teaching reading . Hong Kong. Oxford

University Press.

Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School. Report on the results of three

academic years ( 2008- 2010).

Tests of the national examination for the excellent students from 2007 to 2010 provided by MOET

Tudor, I. (1996). Learner-centeredness as language teaching education . Cambridge:

Cambridge University PressVale, D., A.Scarino, and P. McKay. (1996). Pocket all . Victoria, Australia: Curriculum

C i


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Appendix 1:

Table 11: The proposed Supplementary Reading Syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students

Week Topics Skills Grammar Vocabulary Tasks/ Activities

1 + 2 Cultural diversity - Skimming- Comprehension questions

- Word- formation :the formation of

adjectivesText- based lexis

- Identify the main ideas within paragraphs- Complete the sentences with correct answers- Word Webs

3 + 4 Cultural diversity - Recognize text organization- Summarizing

- Sequence of verbs- The formation of

adjectivesText- based lexis

- Rearrange each paragraph- Combine the root words with the suffixes.

5 + 6 Education- Inferring

- Comprehension questions - Subjunctive Text -based lexis- Making an inference- Reading comprehension

- Look for words whose meanings are similar tothe words provided7 + 8

Education- Scanning for specificinformation- Skimming

- The formation of nouns- Prepositions after

verbs

Text- based lexis - Choose the title that fits the texts best- Reading comprehension- Combine the root words with the suffixes.

9 + 10 Technology - Inferring- Comprehension questions- Special cases of

passive voice Text- based lexis- Making an inference- Reading comprehension-Combine the root words with the prefixes

11+12 Nature- Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words - Phrasal verbs Text- based lexis

- Choose the words or sentences relating to

paragraph- Summarizing

13+ 14 Nature - Recognize text organization- Comprehension questions

- Emphaticstructures Text- based lexis

-Choose and put the phrases/ sentences to wherethey fit in the text.- Multiple choice questions

15+16 Environment

- Skimming-Understanding the author'sattitude

- Subjunctive- Prepositions after

verbs Text- based lexis

- Choose the best option that best describes thewriter's attitude.- Summarizing- Grouping words

56


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Week Topics Skills Grammar Vocabulary Tasks/ Activities

17+ 18 Environment- Guessing a word via acontext- Inferring

- Inversions Text- based lexis

- Choose the words or sentences relating to paragraph- Look for words whose meanings are similar tothe words provided- Making an inference

19 +20 Recreation- Recognize textorganization- Scanning

- Inversion- Phrasal verbs Text- based lexis

- Rearrange the paragraph- Scan a text for specific information- Multiple choice

21+ 22Books -Guessing unfamiliar words

via a context.- Comprehension questions

- The formation of

Nouns- Prepositions after adjectives

Text- based lexis

- Choose the words or sentences relating to paragraph- Reading comprehension- Look for words whose meanings are oppositethe words provided

23+24 Sports- Scanning- Understanding the writer'sattitude

- Prepositionsfollowing verbs Text- based lexis

- Choose the best option that best describes thewriter's attitude- Scan for specific information

25+ 26 Women - Comprehension questions- Inferring- Prepositions after

Nouns Text- based lexis

- Reading comprehension- Making an inference- Look for words whose meanings are oppositethe words provided

27 + 28 English language -Learning languages

- Skimming- Scanning for specificinformation

- Phrasal verbs Text- based lexis - Identify the main ideas with the paragraph.- Summarizing- Reading comprehension

29+ 30 English language -Learning languages

- Understanding the writer'sattitude- Comprehension questions

- Phrasal verbs Text- based lexis - Choose the best option that best describes thewriter's attitude.- Summarizing


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what some may think, taboos are not universal; they tend to be specific to a culture or

country, and usually form around a group s values and beliefs. Therefore, what isconsidered acceptable behavior in one country may be serious taboo in another.

Verbal taboos usually involve topics that people believe are too private to talk

about publicly, or relate to one s manner of speaking. In many cultures, for example, it isconsidered bad manners and is often offensive to discuss subjects such as sex or religion

in public. In some countries, the volume of one s voice may offend people. In Japan, for

example, people tend to be more soft-spoken, and might think that someone who isspeaking or laughing loudly is rude or aggressive.

Nonverbal taboos usually relate to body language. For example, one of the biggest

differences among many Western, Asian, and African cultures is the use of eye contact.

In the U.S, people make eye contact when they talk to others. If a person avoids eye

contact, others might think they are being dishonest or that they lack confidence. If two

people are having a conversation and the listener is not interested. In many Asian

cultures, however, making direct eye contact with someone is often considered bold or

aggressive. In many African cultures, making direct eye contact with an older person or

a person of higher social rank or status is considered rude and disrespectful. In many

Asian and African cultures, children are taught to lower their eyes when talking to their

elders, or those of higher rank, as a way to show respect.

Certain actions, especially with the hands and feet, can cause offense in many


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Behavior that is acceptable and non-offensive in one culture can be highly offensive

in another. When visiting a foreign country, be aware of some of the basic differences, as

this will help to ensure a more enjoyable trip.

I I . After you r ead

Task 1: Skim the reading quickly and underl in e the main i dea of each paragraph. Then,

match each sentence below with the paragraph it describes. Write the number of the

paragr aph n ext to each sentence.

_____ Actions made with the hands have different meanings around the word. _____ All cultures have types of behavior that are considered good or bad manners.

_____ In some cultures, there are topics that are not okay to discuss publicly. The

volume of one s voice can also be taboo. _____ Nonverbal taboos relate to messages we send with our bodies.

_____ Taboos are not the same everywhere, they are usually culture-specific.

_____ Remember that something that is okay in one culture may not be okay in another.

_____ Somebody language using the hands or feet can offend others.

Task 2: Read the passage again . Complete each sentence with the corr ect answer , then

discuss your answers with a par tner .

1. Before traveling to another country, it s often a good idea to................................... 2. The word taboo meansand comes from the............language.


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2. violation

3. insult

4. forbidden

5. value

6. aggressive

7. offensive

8. unseemly

9. obscene.

a. inappropriate, not suitable or proper. f. very forceful or threatening with words

b. not allowed, to be avoided. or behavior.

c. to be rude another with words or actions, to fend. g. daring, forward, willing to take risks

d. extremely rude in a shocking way h. rude , unpleasant, insulting.e. the breaking of a rule or law i. a principle or quality considered

worthwhile or desirable.

Task 4: Read each statement and cir cle the best answer. Th en gi ve one more exampl e for

each vocabul ary item .

1. In many cultures, (spitting/talking) might be considered offensive.

2. (Stealing/Shopping) in forbidden almost everywhere.

3. In many countries, it might be unseemly for a man to wear (pants/shorts) to work.


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Task 5: Complete the diagr am below usin g the words in th e box. Then, add other wor ds or

phrases you learned in th is chapter. Explain your diagram to a partn er.

Verbal nonverbal obscene offensive make eye contact

Acceptable and Taboo Behavior in the United States

Pointing at someone

Showscon idence

Acceptable

Behavio

r


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4. Have you, or has someone you know ever done something that offended a person from

another country ?

III. Language focus: The formation of adjectives

Task 1: Read the passage again and f in d the examples of adjectives

Task 2: L ook at the foll owing adjectives and say how th ey are formed.

acceptable, aggressive, respectful, western, historic, musical, weekly, dangerous,

Adjectives formed with suffixes

Many adjectives related to verbs or nouns have a characteristic ending (or suffixes)Task 3: Add more adjectives in to the fol lowing l ist.

- able changeable comfortable reliable advisable

- ive attractive informative impressive aggressive

- ful successful harmful truthful boastful

- al practical economical identical political- ly friendly cowardly lovely yearly

- ic historic energetic scientific climatic

- ous poisonous humorous luxurious industrious

- (i)an Egyptian Victorian Italian Brazilian

- ant pleasant exorbitant hesistant abundant

- ible permissible illegible responsible possible

- ish foolish childish reddish bookish


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Appendix: 3QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS

The only purpose of this questionnaire is to gather the ideas of the teachers at Tuyen QuangSpecialized Upper Secondary School to design a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for grade 10

English gifted students. Your answers to the questions will be of great significance to designing

this Supplementary Reading Syllabus. So, please response to each question and fulfill all of them

as frankly as possible. All the information you give will be used for research purposes only.

Thank you very much for your kind co-operation!

Part I: Difficulties in terms of reading skills.

( Please put a tick () the appropriate following boxes . The term N/Aused in this section meansnot applicable. It is a suitable answer if you have never had your students do a certain kind of exercise.)

1. How difficult do your students find in terms of reading exercises?5- Very easy 4- easy 3- Normal 2- Difficult 1- Very difficult 0- N/A

No Reading exercises 5 4 3 2 1 0

1Skimming

1.1. Choose the words or sentencesrelating to the paragraph1.2. Choose the title that fits the text

best.1.3. Identify the main ideas within

paragraphs or in reading texts.


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6Utilizing non-textnformation

6.1. Fill in the table with the informationfrom the reading passage.

7 Understanding thewriter s attitude

7.1. Choose the option that bestdescribes the writer s attitude.

8 Comprehensionquestions

8.1. Multiple choice questions

8.2. Short answer questions

8.3. Long answer questions

9 Other exercises 9.1. Summarize the text

9.2. True or false

2. What problems do you think your students encounter when learning reading comprehension?

1- Very difficult 2- Difficult 3- Normal 4- Easy 5- Very easy

No Areas of difficulty 1 2 3 4 5 Please, specify

1 Vocabulary ..............................................

2 Grammar ..............................................

3 Background knowledge ..............................................


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4. Please put tick () the following topics you think should be included in a supplementary

reading syllabus and indicate how interesting and necessary they are. Add more of your own(if any).

No

Level of interest

Topics

Level of necessity

V e r y

i n t e r e s t i n g

I n t e r e s t

i n g

N o r m a

l

B o r

i n g

V e r y

b o r i n g

V e r y n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r l y

n e c e s s a r y


N o t n e c e s s a r y

a t a l

l

1 Education

2 Environment

3 Sports4 Famous people

5 Culture

6 Jobs

7 English languages

learning languages

8 Recreation

9 Music


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5. Please tick () in the boxes to indicate which of the following grammatical items should be

included in grade 10 and how necessary they are.


n e c e s s a r y

N e c e s s a r y

F a i r l y

n e c e s s a r y


N o t n e c e s s a r y

a t a l

l

1 Sequence of tenses

2 Gerund and infinitive

3 The present participle and past participle

4 Special cases of passive voice

5 Phrasal verbs

6 Compound nouns

7 Compound adjectives

8 Word-formations

9 The order of adjective in adjective phrase

10 Prepositions following nouns

11 Preposition after verbs

12 Prepositions following adjectives

13 Prepositions of time and places


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Appendix 4

PHIU HI KIN ( QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS)

Mc ch ca phiu hi ny nhm thu thp kin ca hc sinh lp 10 Chuyn Anh- Trng THPT Chuyn Tuyn Quang phc v cho vic xy dng chng trnh c hiu ph tr phhp vi mc tiu o to ca nh trng v p ng c nhu cu ca cc em lp 10 chuyn. Nhng kin ng gp ca cc em s gp phn quan trng trong nghin cu ca ti.

Xin chn thnh cm n s hp tc cacc em!

Phn I: Nhng kh khn trong k nng c. (Em hy nh du () vo cc tng ng di y v cc dng bi tp c hiu.)

1. Em hy cho bit kin ca em v cc dng bi tp c hiu di y. 5- Rt d 4- D 3- Bnh thng 2- Kh 1- Rt kh 0- Bi tp cha c lm

STT Cc dng bi tp c hiu 5 4 3 2 1 0

1 c lt ly chnh

1.1. Chn cu tm t t hoc cu ch thch hp vi tng on.1.2. Chn ch thch hp vi bi kha.1.3. Xc nh cc chnh trong cc on


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vn bn. 6.3. Dng cc t ni ch l do, nguynnhn, mc ch ..

7

Hiu thi catc gi.

7.1.Chn phng n miu t thi catc gi.

8 Cc loi cu hi

c hiu.

8.1. Cu hi nhiu la chn.

8.2. Cu tr li ngn.

8.3. Cu tr li di.

9 Cc dng bi tpkhc

9.1. Tm tt bi kha. 9.2. Chn cu tr li ng hoc sai.

2. Em hy cho bit nhng kh khn m em thng gp phi trong khi hc c hiu.

1- Rt kh 2- Kh 3- Bnh thng 4- D 5- Rt d Stt Cc mt gp kh khn 1 2 3 4 5 Hy cho bit c th 1 T vng ............................................................

2 Ng php ...........................................................

3 Kin thc nn ...........................................................

4 kin khc: ................ ..........................................................


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4. Em hy nh du () vo cc t ng ng d i y v nhng ch im cn phi c

trong ch ng trnh c hiu ph tr v cho bit cc mc t ng ng. ( Ghi thmnhng ch im khc theo kin ring ca em)

SttCc cp th v

Ch im Cc cp cn thit

Rtthv

Thv

BnhTh ng

Khngth v

Khngth vchtno

Rtcnthit

Cnthit

T ngi cn

thit

Khngcnthit

Khngcnthitchtno

1 Gio dc 2 Mi trng 3 Th thao 4 Ngi ni

ting 5 a dng

Vn ha 6 Vic lm 7 Ngn ng-

Ting Anh 8 Gii tr9 m nhc

10 Cng ngh


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khc:5. Em hy nh du () vo cc mc cn thit ca cc kha cnh ngn ng cn c luytp trong chng trnh c hiu ph tr.

1. Rt cn thit2. Cn thit 3. Tng i cn thit4. Khng cn thit 5. Khng cn thit cht no c

Stt Kha cnh ngn ng 1 2 3 4 51 - Kt hp th2 - Danh ng t v ng t nguyn th3 - Hin ti phn t v qu kh phn t4 - Cc trng hp c bit ca b ng5 - Cm ng t6 - Danh t ghp7 - Tnh t ghp8 - Cu to t9 - Trt t ca tnh t10 - Gii t theo sau danh t11 - Gii t theo sau ng t

71


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23 Cc dng khc: .

72


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Appendix 5Teachers' perceptions of their students in terms of reading exercises

Item s Reading exercises

Easy Normal Difficult Very

difficult

N P N P N P N P

1 Skimming

1.1. Choose the words or sentencesrelating to the paragraph 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0

1.2. Choose the title that fits the textbest

0 0 3 60 2 40 0 0

1.3. Identify the main ideas withinparagraphs or in reading texts.

0 0 1 20 3 60 1 20

2 Scanning

2.1. Scan the text for specificinformation 0 0 4 80 1 20 0 0

2.2. Scan a text quickly to answer aquestion about specific informationpresented before reading

1 20 2 40 2 40 0 0

3

Guessingunfamiliarwords in atext

3.1. Guess unfamiliar words in a textvia a context

0 0 0 0 4 80 1 20

3.2. Guess unfamiliar words in a textvia synonym, antonym, their prefixes andsuffixes

1 20 2 40 2 40 0 0


4.1. Rearrange the paragraph 1 20 2 40 2 40 0 0

4.2. Choose and put the phrases /sentences to where they fit in a text.

0 0 1 20 4 80 0 0

5 Inferring

5.1. Identify the information that is

not explicitly stated in a paragraph /text

0 0 0 0 2 40 3 60

6Utilizingtextinformation

6.1.Fill

Documents

Designing a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for Grade 10 English Gifted Students at Tuyen Quang Specialised Upper Secondary School