I-SEARCH PAPER
TEACHING READING FOR UNMOTIVATED COLLEGE STUDENTS
TEACHING READING FOR UNMOTIVATED COLLEGE STUDENTS
Why I choose my topic
Reading is one of the important language skills for college students beside the other three skills (listening, speaking and writing). It is one of important skills that college students must have to understand the textbook in order to gain knowledge that supports their study. Having a good reading competence will help them not only read the books but also read the world. This means through reading texts students can get a lot of new information that might be useful for their future. Having a good reading competence would help them study, understand and transfer the knowledge better. Highly motivated students are more easily directed to do the reading task. On the contrary, unmotivated students, those who do not show any interest in reading, have a big problem in improving this skill. They even show their big frustration before the reading lesson starts. This of course will impede the teaching and learning process. Both teachers and students may fail if there is no action taken to solve the problems. Therefore I am interested in choosing this topic to help teachers teach reading to the unmotivated students and help the unmotivated students learn reading better.
What I already know and what I want to know
Reading requires certain competences that unmotivated students do not possess-- linguistic competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. Linguistics competence is needed to recognize the elements of the writing system, vocabulary and how words are structured into sentences. Discourse competence will help readers to recognize the discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another. Sociolinguistic competence is essential to recognize different types of texts and their usual structure and content. Strategic competence involves strategies for developing reading skills and knowledge of the language .
Basically reading activity are divided into three parts : Pre-reading activities which prepare the students for reading the text, help the students gain an idea of what the text will be about and this increases their motivation to read; While-reading activities which improve students’ ability to interact and understand the text; Post-reading activities which help students to critically analyze what they have read and increase the students’ understanding of the text. To perform these activities teachers need to teach students some reading skills such as previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning.
The competence and skill requirements mentioned above would not be a big deal for motivated students since they are supported by their positive attitudes that may enhance their learning process. Conversely, unmotivated students would find the reading difficulties doubled since they already have internal constraint-motivation-that urge them to show negative attitudes and may impede their learning process. Therefore I was eventually attracted to find out the way to solve the problems. I am eager to know more about “How should we instruct unmotivated students to read? , “What appropriate reading steps should be given for them?” and “How should we teach reading for them?”
I began my search a month ago by observing two different classes: classes with the majority of highly motivated students and classes with the majority of unmotivated students. The first group consists of about 18 students and the second group consists of about 25 students. First I found their attitudes toward the reading lesson. Both classes showed similar attitudes in the beginning of the reading activity: frustration. The difference was highly motivated students still expressed their interest even accompanied with a slight frustration. Most of them still showed their effort to interact in the discussion by answering the questions and they were easily directed to do the assigned tasks. This did not happen to the unmotivated students. Most of them showed negative attitudes when they started the class, saw the reading texts, and participated in the classroom discussion. Even some of them did not bring the materials. They just sat and listened. Sometimes they looked at their friend’s book. Most of them could not answer the questions even the simplest ones and with the teacher’s guidance. I tried to find their problem spot.
To support my paper I decided to interview Prof. Anita Lee since she had been dealing with the education program for a long time. She would be a great information source since she knows a lot about education and curriculum. She was now teaching in leading universities. I also gathered information from a lot of different sources. I read books about “How to teach reading” that I borrowed from library, I browsed the internet to find some journals, research reports and some articles written by experts.
In week four I felt that I had gathered adequate information to support my paper. I tried to analyze and use them to answer my research questions: “How should we instruct unmotivated students to read? , “What appropriate reading steps should be given for them?” and “How should we teach reading for them?”
1. The reason why the students are unmotivated to learn English
2. The most effective strategy to awaken the students’ motivation
The reason why the students are unmotivated to learn English
During my observation up to this point, I found out that the majority of the students in college where I teach became unmotivated because of several reasons. First, their academic competence is low, especially their English competence. therefore they get problems in following the instructions. Second, the field of study they take is not their best choice, so they have no interest in pursuing their degree. Third, their negative attitude toward English resulted from their previous negative experiences in elementary school, primary school or senior high school. The last is the campus permissive rules and regulations support their low motivation. This creates the un-conducive school learning environment. They study not to gain knowledge, but to meet the passing grade or graduation requirement. They never tried their best because they still can pass or graduate even with the least effort.
Several experts state their arguments about motivation. According to Jere Brophy (1987), motivation to learn is a competence acquired:
"through general experience but stimulated most directly through modeling,
communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by
significant others (especially parents and teachers)."
Deborah Stipek (1988) also states :
"To a very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers
expect them to learn."
The term ‘motivation to learn is defined by Hermine Marshall as :
"the meaningfulness, value, and benefits of academic tasks to
the learner--regardless of whether or not they are intrinsically interesting"
(Hermine Marshall 1987).
Another notes that motivation to learn is characterized by long-term, quality involvement in learning and commitment to the process of learning (Carole Ames 1990).
More theories of motivation can be classified as variations of expectancy-value model of motivation (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996) which focuses on three areas: value (students’ beliefs about the importance or value of a task), expectancy (students’ beliefs about their ability or skill to perform the task), and affective (emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation). First, task-value motivational theory focuses on the reason why an individual completes or why students become involved (or not involved) in an instructional activity (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). The nature of the task and student perception of the importance of the task become key factors influencing student motivation for approaching or avoiding the task (Blumenfeld, Mergendoller, & Swarthout, 1987; Eccles et al., 1983). Second, the concept of expectancy defines the key idea that students will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task that they believe exceeds their capabilities, but students will take on tasks and activities that they believe they can handle (Schunk, 1991). If students expect failure, they will avoid the task; conversely, if students anticipate success, they will approach the task. Expectancy relates to students’ self-efficacy, students’ confidence in their cognitive skills (Bandura & Schunk, 1981). Student self-efficacy is influenced by past experiences and familiarity with the task (Bandura, 1993; Schunk, 2000). Students’ perceptions of competence about personal skills and abilities are influenced by the learning environment. Positive learning environments provide nurturing experiences for students to build their self-confidence in their skills. Students are able to develop their skills comfortably without the fear of failure. The familiarity with the tasks will build students self-efficacy (Eccles & Wigfield, 1993). The third theory relates to the affective domain and identifies students’ emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation. Self-worth theory rests upon the perception that students are motivated to establish, maintain, and promote a positive self-image (Covington, 2000).
The most effective strategies to awaken the students’ motivation
From the theory about motivation above we can briefly suggest several effective strategies to awaken the students’ motivation:
1. Give interesting, fun, and challenging tasks
2. Encourage students’ self confidence and ensure they will involve/approach the task without fear of failure.
( Lucas, 1990)
3. Help students build positive self-image and self-perceptions of ability
4. Give a clear instruction and expectation about the task
5. Use their strength and interest
“Interest is a directive force. It is able to explain students’ choice of an area in which they strive for high
levels of performance or exhibit intrinsic motivation” (Schiefele)
6. Use small group work to make students active
7. Avoid creating competition among students
Bligh (1971) reports that students show better performance (more attentive, display better comprehension,
produce more work, and are more favorable to the teaching method) when they work cooperatively in
groups rather than compete as individuals.
8. Give positive feedback and reward
Cashin (1979) and Lucas (1990) indicates that if a student’s performance is weak, let the student know
that you believe he or she can improve and succeed over time
9. Avoid negative and discouraging feedback.
Cashin (1979) suggests that we must try to cushion negative comments with a compliment about aspects
of the task in which the student succeeded
10. Avoid using grades as threats
Mc Keachie (1986) stated that the threat of low grades may trigger some students to work hard, but
other students may prefer academic dishonesty, excuses for late work, and other counterproductive
behavior
11. Vary your teaching methods
Forsyth and McMillan (1991) suggest to break the routine by incorporating a variety of teaching
activities and methods in your teaching.
12. Use personal and more productive approach if problems come up
Giving struggling students solution means robbing their chance to think for themselves (Flore, 1985)
What appropriate reading steps should be given for them?
To answer this question we have to review again about the reading problems found by experts : Maleki and Heerman (1992) said:
“On the surface, the ‘reading problems’ is a mismatch between college students’
reading ability and the difficulty level of their textbooks and other reading.”
“Many texts used in college courses intimidate students because of their organizational
complexity, length, foreign vocabulary, and expectation about readers’ background.”
From those points of view we can conclude that we must be aware of those problems and try to bridge the existing gap by selecting the appropriate reading materials based on the students’ interest, level and background.
For unmotivated students, everything should be designed carefully in advance to help students in reading activity. And since their need is reading to learn the language, The most common basic steps could be given:
1. Pre reading activities:
These activities are most important at lower levels of language proficiency and at earlier stages of reading instruction:
a. Prepare an interesting ice-breaking
b. Mention the purpose of the reading.
c. asses or activate the background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and
identify appropriate reading strategies
d. give students the background of knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text
e. clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
f. provide opportunity for team work or classroom discussion
2. While-reading activity :
Since in this activity students check their comprehension as they read, we can :
a. Select the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selection will
enable students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to
hold in short-term memory.
b. Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them interactively and flexibly to improve
students’ comprehension and confidence in constructing meaning.
c. Check comprehension while reading and when the reading is completed. This will help students detect
inconsistencies and comprehension failures and help them learn to use the alternate strategies.
3. Post-reading activities:
a. Check comprehension
b. Give exercise/questions to answer or to discuss
How should we teach reading to them?
To answer this question we should refer back to the previous steps, pre-reading and while-reading and post-reading activities:
1. In pre-reading activity, we can do the following (previewing and predicting):
a. expose the title in a big size on a slide or on a flash cards
b. cut the title into several chunks and ask them to arrange them
c. ask the students what they know about the title d. ask their personal experience related to one of the
words in the title e. ask students to brainstorm ideas or terms related to the title f. show several pictures
and ask students to choose the one that best describes the title g. ask the students to write or create
several questions (what they want to know about the title)
2. in while-reading activity, we can :
a. stop at important part, and check their understanding
b. ask about their opinion about the information in the text, how they are different or similar with their
prediction in the beginning
c. ask students to mention the most interesting part in the text or the part that incites their curiosity or
attention
d. ask the students to tell about facts that might be different from what they read in the text
e. ask students about the details mention in the previous part
f. ask students about what picture that comes to their mind when reading the text g. guide students to find the
meaning of difficult words from the structural and contextual clues
3. in post-reading activity, we can :
a. ask questions about the information in the text
b. let students answer the questions that they have made in pre-reading activity
c. give various exercises such as crossword puzzle for vocabulary, picture guessing, map, concept map,
cloze exercises.
d. ask students to share what new information they have got from the text
e. ask students to describe the content in the text through drawing, retelling
f. ask students about the problems that they have found or experienced during the reading process
The story of my search
My search results
Based on the information that I have gathered from different sources: books, journals, research reports, articles and interview with a lecture who are often in charge in teachers’ training, I found that teaching reading to the unmotivated students should consider several points: the strategy to awaken the motivation, the content or material selection, and the delivery technique used in teaching reading.
How should we instruct unmotivated students to read?
This question should overview two points:1. The reason why the students are unmotivated to learn English
2. The most effective strategy to awaken the students’ motivation
The reason why the students are unmotivated to learn English
During my observation up to this point, I found out that the majority of the students in college where I teach became unmotivated because of several reasons. First, their academic competence is low, especially their English competence. therefore they get problems in following the instructions. Second, the field of study they take is not their best choice, so they have no interest in pursuing their degree. Third, their negative attitude toward English resulted from their previous negative experiences in elementary school, primary school or senior high school. The last is the campus permissive rules and regulations support their low motivation. This creates the un-conducive school learning environment. They study not to gain knowledge, but to meet the passing grade or graduation requirement. They never tried their best because they still can pass or graduate even with the least effort.
Several experts state their arguments about motivation. According to Jere Brophy (1987), motivation to learn is a competence acquired:
"through general experience but stimulated most directly through modeling,
communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by
significant others (especially parents and teachers)."
Deborah Stipek (1988) also states :
"To a very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers
expect them to learn."
The term ‘motivation to learn is defined by Hermine Marshall as :
"the meaningfulness, value, and benefits of academic tasks to
the learner--regardless of whether or not they are intrinsically interesting"
(Hermine Marshall 1987).
Another notes that motivation to learn is characterized by long-term, quality involvement in learning and commitment to the process of learning (Carole Ames 1990).
More theories of motivation can be classified as variations of expectancy-value model of motivation (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996) which focuses on three areas: value (students’ beliefs about the importance or value of a task), expectancy (students’ beliefs about their ability or skill to perform the task), and affective (emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation). First, task-value motivational theory focuses on the reason why an individual completes or why students become involved (or not involved) in an instructional activity (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). The nature of the task and student perception of the importance of the task become key factors influencing student motivation for approaching or avoiding the task (Blumenfeld, Mergendoller, & Swarthout, 1987; Eccles et al., 1983). Second, the concept of expectancy defines the key idea that students will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task that they believe exceeds their capabilities, but students will take on tasks and activities that they believe they can handle (Schunk, 1991). If students expect failure, they will avoid the task; conversely, if students anticipate success, they will approach the task. Expectancy relates to students’ self-efficacy, students’ confidence in their cognitive skills (Bandura & Schunk, 1981). Student self-efficacy is influenced by past experiences and familiarity with the task (Bandura, 1993; Schunk, 2000). Students’ perceptions of competence about personal skills and abilities are influenced by the learning environment. Positive learning environments provide nurturing experiences for students to build their self-confidence in their skills. Students are able to develop their skills comfortably without the fear of failure. The familiarity with the tasks will build students self-efficacy (Eccles & Wigfield, 1993). The third theory relates to the affective domain and identifies students’ emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation. Self-worth theory rests upon the perception that students are motivated to establish, maintain, and promote a positive self-image (Covington, 2000).
The most effective strategies to awaken the students’ motivation
From the theory about motivation above we can briefly suggest several effective strategies to awaken the students’ motivation:
1. Give interesting, fun, and challenging tasks
2. Encourage students’ self confidence and ensure they will involve/approach the task without fear of failure.
( Lucas, 1990)
3. Help students build positive self-image and self-perceptions of ability
4. Give a clear instruction and expectation about the task
5. Use their strength and interest
“Interest is a directive force. It is able to explain students’ choice of an area in which they strive for high
levels of performance or exhibit intrinsic motivation” (Schiefele)
6. Use small group work to make students active
7. Avoid creating competition among students
Bligh (1971) reports that students show better performance (more attentive, display better comprehension,
produce more work, and are more favorable to the teaching method) when they work cooperatively in
groups rather than compete as individuals.
8. Give positive feedback and reward
Cashin (1979) and Lucas (1990) indicates that if a student’s performance is weak, let the student know
that you believe he or she can improve and succeed over time
9. Avoid negative and discouraging feedback.
Cashin (1979) suggests that we must try to cushion negative comments with a compliment about aspects
of the task in which the student succeeded
10. Avoid using grades as threats
Mc Keachie (1986) stated that the threat of low grades may trigger some students to work hard, but
other students may prefer academic dishonesty, excuses for late work, and other counterproductive
behavior
11. Vary your teaching methods
Forsyth and McMillan (1991) suggest to break the routine by incorporating a variety of teaching
activities and methods in your teaching.
12. Use personal and more productive approach if problems come up
Giving struggling students solution means robbing their chance to think for themselves (Flore, 1985)
What appropriate reading steps should be given for them?
To answer this question we have to review again about the reading problems found by experts : Maleki and Heerman (1992) said:
“On the surface, the ‘reading problems’ is a mismatch between college students’
reading ability and the difficulty level of their textbooks and other reading.”
“Many texts used in college courses intimidate students because of their organizational
complexity, length, foreign vocabulary, and expectation about readers’ background.”
From those points of view we can conclude that we must be aware of those problems and try to bridge the existing gap by selecting the appropriate reading materials based on the students’ interest, level and background.
For unmotivated students, everything should be designed carefully in advance to help students in reading activity. And since their need is reading to learn the language, The most common basic steps could be given:
1. Pre reading activities:
These activities are most important at lower levels of language proficiency and at earlier stages of reading instruction:
a. Prepare an interesting ice-breaking
b. Mention the purpose of the reading.
c. asses or activate the background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and
identify appropriate reading strategies
d. give students the background of knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text
e. clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
f. provide opportunity for team work or classroom discussion
2. While-reading activity :
Since in this activity students check their comprehension as they read, we can :
a. Select the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selection will
enable students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to
hold in short-term memory.
b. Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them interactively and flexibly to improve
students’ comprehension and confidence in constructing meaning.
c. Check comprehension while reading and when the reading is completed. This will help students detect
inconsistencies and comprehension failures and help them learn to use the alternate strategies.
3. Post-reading activities:
a. Check comprehension
b. Give exercise/questions to answer or to discuss
How should we teach reading to them?
To answer this question we should refer back to the previous steps, pre-reading and while-reading and post-reading activities:
1. In pre-reading activity, we can do the following (previewing and predicting):
a. expose the title in a big size on a slide or on a flash cards
b. cut the title into several chunks and ask them to arrange them
c. ask the students what they know about the title d. ask their personal experience related to one of the
words in the title e. ask students to brainstorm ideas or terms related to the title f. show several pictures
and ask students to choose the one that best describes the title g. ask the students to write or create
several questions (what they want to know about the title)
2. in while-reading activity, we can :
a. stop at important part, and check their understanding
b. ask about their opinion about the information in the text, how they are different or similar with their
prediction in the beginning
c. ask students to mention the most interesting part in the text or the part that incites their curiosity or
attention
d. ask the students to tell about facts that might be different from what they read in the text
e. ask students about the details mention in the previous part
f. ask students about what picture that comes to their mind when reading the text g. guide students to find the
meaning of difficult words from the structural and contextual clues
3. in post-reading activity, we can :
a. ask questions about the information in the text
b. let students answer the questions that they have made in pre-reading activity
c. give various exercises such as crossword puzzle for vocabulary, picture guessing, map, concept map,
cloze exercises.
d. ask students to share what new information they have got from the text
e. ask students to describe the content in the text through drawing, retelling
f. ask students about the problems that they have found or experienced during the reading process
WHAT I LEARNT
This project has really given me many great lessons. It teaches me a lot of things about doing research, how to get the information, how to express ideas and constructing the information that I had gathered in an accepted academic writing form, how to manage time, to prepare schedule for interview, and prepare everything needed for this project. It also forces me to study more about academic writing and as a result, my academic writing skill is improved a lot. The more important thing is I learn many things about how to teach reading. All information that I have collected give me a lot of new information that I did not know before and would be a great help to improve my quality as an EFL teacher. Consequently, It improves my competence in teaching reading in general and especially to unmotivated college students. At last, this project interests me a lot, sharpens my analytical thinking and forms a new habit and dream that I want to develop: being a researcher.
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