CC BY
27PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
TEACHING VIETNAMESE TEXT READING COMPREHENSION FOR ETHNIC MINORITY
STUDENTS IN THE NORTH OF VIETNAM
Ngo Thi Thanh Quy,
Assoc.P rof. Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc
Dr.
Faculty of Literature - University of Education - Thai Nguyen University,
Vietnam
Abstract
This study deals with the issue of teaching Vietnamese text reading comprehension as a second language to students of ethnic minorities in the North of vietnam. The article uses the survey and statistics method to investigate the actual situation of teaching reading comprehension for students who are ethnic minorities in the North of vietnam. From the data results, the authors analyze the current situation of teachers' perceptions and assessments of Vietnamese text reading comprehension for ethnic minority students in the North of vietnam. The results show that the level and ability to read and understand Vietnamese texts is at an average or good level. On the basis of soliciting opinions of teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students, the study proposes measures to teach Vietnamese text reading comprehension to improve reading comprehension ability of ethnic minority students in the North of Vietnam.
Keywords: teaching, reading comprehension, text, Vietnamese, students, ethnic minority.
1. Introduction
The North of Vietnam is home to a large area and mountainous terrain with many different ethnic minorities. The number of students who are ethnic minorities in this area is very large. In order to help them achieve high results in learning and integrate into the community, teaching them to improve their reading and understanding Vietnamese texts plays an important role. Researcher Tran Tri Doi affirmed: "For ethnic minorities, their mother tongue is not Vietnamese. To become a real Vietnamese citizen, the best thing for them is to use Vietnamese well in addition to using their mother tongue because Vietnamese is the official language, the language of culture, the language of education of the nation" [1]. In order to improve the quality of teaching and learning to read Vietnamese texts for ethnic minority students in the North of Vietnam, the article performs the task of surveying and investigating the current situation in this area, from which we offer practical solutions suitable to the locality to improve reading comprehension ability of ethnic minority students learning Vietnamese as a second language.
Research on reading comprehension of texts as a second language has also been mentioned by researchers with the following issues:
(1) the best way to teach reading is to teach symbols, morphemes, syllables and especially word awareness, vocabulary richness and cultural understanding. Recently, the method of teaching reading comprehension has shown that the combination of two top-down and bottom-up processes, or interactive reading, is always an important teaching method. "In practice, readers are constantly changing from one reading style to another, sometimes they read in a top-down approach to predict meaning, sometimes they switch to a bottom-up approach to check that what they predicted is really what the writer meant" [2].
(2) Reading is a skill of great significance for ethnic minority students who learn Vietnamese as a foreign language or as a second language. For the majority of Vietnamese students, mastering reading methods not only ensures their success in learning Vietnamese, but also helps them learn any content related to reading Vietnamese texts. Author Nguyen Thanh Hung suggested methods of teaching reading comprehension in the general curriculum [3]. Author Tran Dinh Su said that: Reading comprehension - a breakthrough in teaching Philology [4]. Author Do Ngoc Thong has also spent a lot of effort in researching teaching reading - text comprehension: Assessing students' reading comprehension ability - Viewedfrom the requirements of PISA [5]. There are many other authors discussing methods of teaching reading comprehension, such as: Nguyen Kim Phong [6], Ha Phong [7]. Reading comprehension strategies are also mentioned by many authors, such as Do Huy Quang with the study "Reading to understand artistic texts in Philology class - viewed from students' learning activities" [8], Pham Thi Thu Huong with research on Reading comprehension and reading comprehension strategies in schools [9]. Most of the authors have affirmed that it is necessary to focus on the selection of reading comprehension texts suitable for students and propose orientations and principles for selecting texts, towards teaching reading comprehension through organizing activities for students and applying the theory of feedback to help students interact to create meaning.
However, there have not been many in-depth studies on the issue of reading comprehension for ethnic minority students. Students of ethnic minorities in the North of Vietnam learn Vietnamese as a second language. They are often timid, shy, afraid to communicate, and rarely express opinions. Besides, living and studying conditions in mountainous areas are
still difficult. Therefore, improving reading comprehension ability for ethnic minority students in the North of Vietnam is an issue that needs attention in language education. From the actual survey and analysis of the article, recommendations are made to improve the reading comprehension of Vietnamese texts for ethnic minority students in the North of Vietnam.
2. Research method
We investigated the current situation of Vietnamese language education in a number of schools in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan and Cao Bang. These schools had a percentage of students from ethnic minorities from 90 to 100%. The number of participants was 85 students and 70 teachers of Philology. The content of the teacher survey focused on the following issues: Teachers' awareness of the importance of reading comprehension ability for ethnic minority students; Teachers' evaluation of the content of teaching reading comprehension of texts in Philology textbooks with ethnic minority students; Teachers' assessment of the popularity of instructional materials for teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students; Teachers' approach to teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students; Teachers' evaluation of reading comprehension ability of ethnic minority students; The actual situation of organizing activities to teach reading comprehension in the Philology class for ethnic minority students from the perspective of teachers; Difficulties in the process of teaching reading comprehension texts for ethnic minority students in the North of
Vietnam; Measures, suggestions and wishes of teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students. Survey content of ethnic minority students is on the following issues: Students' perception of the role of reading comprehension ability in learning Philology and other subjects; Students' problem in accessing documents to guide their reading comprehension; Advantages and difficulties encountered by ethnic minority students in the process of receiving documents; Proposals and wishes of ethnic minority students to improve the effectiveness of reading Vietnamese texts.
We used the questionnaire to survey and solicit opinions of teachers and ethnic minority students. Each type of survey was built with 30 indicators, equivalent to 30 questions, revolving around the mentioned issues. On the basis of the survey results, we made statistics, classified, calculated the number and percentage of multiple-choice questions according to the criteria of cause analysis and research directions.
3. Results and discussion
a) Results of the survey on the current situation of teachers' teaching reading comprehension
In order to find out the current situation of teachers' awareness about teaching reading comprehension and organizing reading comprehension for ethnic minority students, we conducted a survey through questionnaires for 70 teachers of Philology with some specific problems. The results obtained after data processing in some typical examples are as follows:
Figure 2.1
Teachers' perception of the importance of teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students
Comment: The survey results showed that all teachers surveyed found that teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students plays a very important role in school education in Vietnam. 98.6% think that teach-
ing reading comprehension is very important and important for ethnic minority students, there are also a very small number of opinions thinking that it is normal (1.4%) and there are no teachers denying the role of teaching reading comprehension in high schools.
Figure 2.2. Teachers' ways to access instructional materials to teach reading comprehension
Comment: Most teachers have access to instructional materials on teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students in schools today mainly through training classes (38.6%), 30% through the Internet, 27.1% through reference books, radio and television, and
4.3% through other channels. The above situation is because the problem of teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students has only begun to be interested by a number of educational researchers in recent years, so there are not many manuals for teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students.
% Excellent
# Good Average
• Week
Figure 2.3. Reading comprehension ability of ethnic minority students assessed by teachers
Comment: Most of the teachers said that the reading comprehension ability of ethnic minority students was just average and good. Specifically, 50% of the respondents said that the students reach the average level of reading comprehension, 37.1% of the respondents believed that the students reach the good level. Meanwhile, 10% of the respondents said that the students had the weak level, there were a very small number of opinions (2.9%) that the students achieve an excellent level. There are many reasons leading to the above result, such as stu-
dents' difficult situations because ethnic minority students have certain limitations in many aspects, especially in terms of language.
b) Results of the survey on ethnic minority students' reading comprehension
To find out the current situation of reading comprehension texts of ethnic minority students, we conducted investigation and surveys through questionnaires for 85 students who are ethnic minorities in the North of Vietnam. The results obtained are as follows:
# Only necessary for Philology
• Necessary for all subjects
Figure 2.4. Perception of ethnic minority students about the position ofreading comprehension ability
Comment: The survey results show that the majority of ethnic minority students (91.9%) have correctly perceived the position of reading comprehension ability in the learning process. It is not only a basis for students to do well in Philology, but also for reading comprehension of other subjects (natural sciences and social sciences). With understanding of text reading comprehension, including multimodal text comprehension, students have the means to be able to read different types of texts for the purpose of "reporting" (eg. report
Through the above survey results, it can be seen that students confirmed that most of the teachers have assigned the learning task, organized for them to read, discuss and integrate in the teaching process, asking them to read more texts beside textbooks and assessing reading comprehension ability in many different ways. Most of the respondents said that teachers need to base themselves on the standard of reading comprehension of texts and general education programs in Philology to determine specific directions to develop reading comprehension for students. The teachers highly appreciated the role of organizing self-reading, reading and discussion activities for ethnic minority students in the regular class time (90% or more). In particular, the use of reading comprehension strategies is important. However, this is still quite new to some teachers, so 7.1% of teachers surveyed have not thought about this issue. In addition, the use of a system of reading comprehension
the process of experimenting with a phenomenon and report on the results of the experiment), "explaining" (e.g. explain a scientific phenomenon) or "disputing" (e.g. state an opinion about a phenomenon in life with different perspectives such as "wearing a traditional "ao dai" to school or wearing a new uniform").
The results of surveying the actual situation of organizing reading comprehension activities for ethnic minority students from the perspective of students are as follows:
exercises plays a big role in the development of reading comprehension skills for students. 95.8% of the teachers asked are aware of the importance of the exercise system. The teachers have suggested many types of exercises that can be used such as multiple choice, open-ended questions, combination of multiple choice and open-ended questions, true - false, matching, filling in the blank, theatricalization of literary works...
c) Some orientations for teaching reading comprehension for ethnic minority students
Teachers need to equip students with basic knowledge about reading comprehension in accordance with the orientation of developing students' ability. Besides, they also need to provide students with suitable approaches to non-textbook texts and multimodal texts. Additionally, students should be encouraged to actively participate in the reading comprehension process.
Questions Answers Number of votes Percentage (%)
1. In the process of teaching reading comprehension, do you integrate with other fields/subjects? A. Yes 79/86 91.9
B. No 7/86 8.1
2. Do you assign the learning task so that the students read the text on their own before and during the regular class time? A. Usually 54/86 62.8
B. Sometimes 22/86 25.6
C. Never 10/86 11.6
3. Do you allow ethnic minority students to creatively and actively think in the process of reading and understanding texts? A. Usually 44/86 62.9
B. Sometimes 26/86 37.1
C. Never 0/86 0
4. Do you organize for students to read and discuss during reading comprehension time? A. Usually 40/86 46.5
B. Sometimes 42/86 48.8
C. Never 4/86 4.7
5. Do students receive your instructions on how to read and understand the text? A. Yes 85/86 98.8
B. No 1/86 1.2
6. When teaching reading comprehension, what method do you usually use? A. Using some reading comprehension strategies 13/86 15.1
B. Using the question system in the direction of competence development 44/86 55.1
C. Using the system of reading comprehension exercises 29/86 33.7
7. In the process of teaching reading comprehension, do you ask students to read more texts in addition to textbooks? A. Yes 65/86 75.6
B. No 21/86 24.4
8. Do you use materials other than Philology textbooks when testing and assessing students' reading comprehension ability? A. Yes 62/86 72.1
B. No 24/86 27.9
9. What assessment tools do you usually use to assess your students' reading comprehension ability? A. Test 60/86 69.8
B. Observation sheet 9/86 10.5
C. Academic record 7/86 8.1
D. Research project 10/86 11.6
Teachers prepare for reading comprehension activities: (1) Before class, teachers remind students to prepare lessons, assign tasks to students to prepare exercises and questions before class. (2) During class, with a system of questions and exercises, teachers organize activities to guide students to approach and grasp knowledge content, and at the same time practice skills and techniques for students through organizing teaching activities and using teaching techniques. (3) After class, teachers can use the system of exercises and questions in the form of multiple choice and open-ended questions to evaluate the results of the lesson.
- Teachers need to invest a lot of time and enthusiasm in teaching and designing lesson plans. They should apply modern teaching techniques and create various exercises on google classroom, google form, padlet.com to encourage learners to self-study and apply information technology in learning. Teachers need to develop a teaching plan, prepare teaching materials and tools, assign tasks to students, check students' preparation progress, and collect documents related to the text. Furthermore, teachers need to be trained in language education skills as well as teaching bilin-gualism for ethnic minority students.
In order to develop reading comprehension ability for ethnic minority students, it is necessary to pay attention to the texts suitable to learners' perception, culture and psychology. Textbooks must be scientifically designed to have vivid illustrations and the system of reading comprehension questions must adhere to the content of the text and related to the local area.
4. Conclusion
Reading comprehension is an important condition for learners since it is present in teaching activities, self-study activities, research needs, knowledge inquiry and aesthetic needs. In particular, reading comprehension accounts for a large part of the content of teaching methods in Philology, contributing to helping learners develop language and literary competence in the most positive way. Understanding the text is the criterion to confirm successful reading and teachers' meaningful reading teaching. In teaching reading comprehension, teachers need to make a "map" of reading texts into questions to create meaning while students need to learn to understand meaning and develop ideas rather than reconstructing information from text. To do so, the teacher needs to build a background knowledge for the students. The reader's background can affect reading comprehension, which has been mentioned in the research of author Neil J. Anderson [10]. Background knowledge includes all the experiences the reader has to understand the text. In order to read and understand smoothly, students need a rich vocabulary system. Therefore, through many
different ways teachers can provide students with a basic vocabulary system to help them understand the context to make a reasonable guess of the meaning of unusual words from which the content of the text can be fully understood. Teachers need to provide students with strategies for reading comprehension of texts. Teachers should continuously extend comprehension rates for students by giving presentations and explanations. However, it is still to impose the teacher's understanding on the students' perception. It is important for teachers to guide students to understand the text on their own. They discover the world of words by themselves with personal insights. Teachers must aim to find a balance between helping students improve their comprehension rates and developing their reading comprehension skills, because it will help them throughout their lives.
Acknowledgements
This research is funded by the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training with the code B2020-TNA-09
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