VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

VŨ THÙY LINH

AN EVALUATION OF READING REFLECTION ACTIVITY FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT ULIS-

VNU

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (TEFL)

SUPERVISOR: CAO THÚY HỒNG, MA.

HANOI, MAY 2010

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ACCEPTANCE PAGEI hereby state that I: (Vũ Thùy Linh, 06.1.E9), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL), accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library,In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to send my deepest thank to Mrs. Cao Thuy

Hong, my supervisor for her enthusiastic support and her critical comments

through the process of carrying out and completing my thesis. Mrs. Thuy

Hong also gave me significant help in collecting samples and contacting other

teachers for their consensus for formal interviews.

I would also like to thank Ms. Dang Thi Thu Phuong, Ms. Nguyen

Bich Diep and Mrs. Pham Hanh for their help when openly expressing their

ideas towards my interviews. Their contribution plays a very important role

in the success of my thesis

My sincere thanks also go to the teachers who allowed me to use the

reading reflection samples of their reading classes for analysis in this study

I am grateful to Ms. Dang Thi Thu Phuong for her contributive

comments on my research as well as her encouragement over the last few

months

Finally, I would also like to thank my friends and my family for their

spiritual support which has been a great motivation for me to complete this

thesis.

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ABSTRACT

The importance of reading reflection has been recognized over many years;

that is the reason why this activity is applied in a lot of universities all over the

world. However, the extent of this approach’s effectiveness has not been considered

in a careful way. This issue motivated the researcher to work on “Evaluation of

reading reflection activity for third-year students at Faculty of English Language

Teacher Education-ULIS-VNU”.

The research aims at investigating teachers and third-year students’

evaluation of reading reflection as well as finding out the common problems

students meet when dealing with this activity. Besides, the research also tries to

make some recommendations to address the problems and to improve the

effectiveness of students’ reading reflection.

To achieve the above mentioned objectives, the researcher carried out a

survey questionnaire among 100 third-year students, among whom some were

interviewed to get direct opinions. Besides, semi-structured interviews were

conducted among three teachers who hold responsible for third-year students’

reading course. Finally, the researcher collected 10 reading reflection samples from

two different classes. Based on the analysis from three above sources of data, the

researcher drew some significant conclusions.

The results of such analyses showed that reading reflection activity in

English Department has not achieved the desired results. Neither teachers nor

students feel complete satisfaction for the effectiveness of this activity. A variety of

problems still remain in students’ reading reflection, among which the most

remarkable one is students’ limited analyzing ability. Some other major limitations

lie in writing-essay-skill and the organization of a reading reflection.

Based on these findings, some interviews were held with three reading

teachers to consult their opinions about this issue. The most prominent

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recommendations are to raise students’ awareness of the benefits of reading

reflection and give more careful instructions of this activity.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE

Acknowledgements 2

Abstract 4

Table of content 6

List of figures, tables and abbreviations 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 9

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study 10

1.3. Significance of the study 10

1.4. Scope of the study 11

1.5. Organization of the study 11

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 13

2.1. An overview of reading 13

2.1.1. Definition of reading skill 13

2.1.2. Components of reading 14

2.1.3. Importance of reading skill 15

2.1.4. Types of reading skill 16

2.1.4.1. Extensive reading 17

2.1.4.2. Intensive reading 18

2.1.4.3. The necessity of combining extensive and intensive reading11

2.2. An overview of reflection 19

2.2.1. Definition of reflection 19

2.2.2. Importance of reflection 21

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2.3. An overview of reading reflection 22

2.3.1. Definition of reading reflection 22

2.3.2. Components of a reading reflection 24

2.3.3. Importance of reading reflection 26

2.3.4. Requirements of reading reflection in English Department 31

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 33

3.1. Research approach 33

3.2. Data collection instruments 33

3.3. Data collection procedures 36

3.4. Data analysis procedures 37

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDING 38

4.1. Third-year students’ evaluation of reading reflection 38

4.1.1. The importance of reading reflection 38

4.1.2. The amount of reading texts 41

4.1.3. Teachers’ activities toward reading reflection 41

4.2. Teachers’ evaluation of reading reflection 43

4.2.1. The importance of reading reflection 43

4.2.2. The amount of reading texts

4.2.3. Teachers’ comments 44

4.2.4. Students’ reading reflection 44

4.3. Students’ main problems in reading reflection 45

4.3.1. The format of reading reflection 45

4.3.2. The content of reading reflection 45

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS 49

5.1. Recommendations to teachers 49

5.2. Recommendations to students 50

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS 54

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6.1. Summary of findings 54

6.2. Limitations 55

6.3. Suggestions for further research 56

REFERENCE

APPENDIX 1- Questionnaire survey 65

APPENDIX 2- Interview questions 67

APPENDIX 3- Teachers’ responses to the interview 68

APPENDIX 4- Ten reading reflection samples 79

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

TABLE AND FIGURES PAGE

Figure 1: Bloom’s Taxonomy 31

Figure 2: The importance of reading reflection 38

Figure 3: The number of reading texts 41

Figure 4: Teachers’ instructions 42

Figure 5: Frequency of teachers’ feedback 42

Figure 6: Percentage of students’ problems in their reading reflection 45

Table 1: The reason for the importance of reading reflection 39

Table 2: The reason why reading reflection is unnecessary 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

RF1: reflection 1 (RF 2, RF3…., RF10 for reflection 2, reflection 3…..,

reflection 10 respectively)

T1: teacher1 (T2, T3 for teacher 2, teacher 3)

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

VNU: Vietnam National University

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale:

In an increasingly complex world, there is higher demand for students

to develop intellectual and practical skills for lifelong learning. A panel

report by the Association of American Colleges and University (AAC&U)

(2002, p.62) calls for higher education to help college students become

“intentional learners” who can adapt themselves to new environments,

integrate knowledge from different sources, and continue learning throughout

their lives. Research on cognition and learning (Bransford et al,.2000)

indicate intentional or expert learners typically demonstrate better-developed

metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control. According to Kari

(2009), reading reflection is a very simple activity to foster students’

metacognitive growth. He claims that the benefits of reading reflections are

(1) to get students to read assignments regularly before coming to class, (2) to

encourage students to read for deep learning, and (3) to provide opportunities

for students to develop their metacognitive knowledge and skill. In other

words, they deepen students’ understanding of content and help students

develop their evaluation skills. Ertmer and Newby (1996) argue that

reflection makes it possible for a learner to translate what they know about

learning into action. Another benefit of reading reflection, according to

Weiner and Bazerman (1991), is to foster students’ development of critical

reading- an important component of developing literacy.

As mentioned above, a lot of studies have been carried out on the

benefits of reading reflection. Recognizing the enormous importance of this

activity, the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education-ULIS-VNU has

applied this activity to third-year students. Students are required to collect a

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variety of reading texts on the same topic and write a reading reflection on

such issue in form of academic writing. However, there has been little

research done on the effectiveness of reading reflection in our college and the

students’ problems during this activity. This gap gives the researcher the

desire to conduct this study.

2. Aims and objectives of the research:

The purpose of this study is to examine the real situation of reading

reflection activity for third-year students at ULIS. It aims specifically (1)to

investigate the teachers and third-year students’ and teachers’ evaluation of

the use of reading reflection in our university, (2) to find out the most

common problems third-year students encounter when carrying out reading

reflection activity and (3) to provide some feasible solutions to such issues by

collecting opinions from third-year students and teachers who have been

teaching reading for third-year students and by researching literature for

valuable recommendation to improve the effectiveness of this activity.

In sum, the research is intended to address THREE following

questions:

- What is third-year students’ evaluation of reading reflection activity?

- What is teacher’s evaluation of reading reflection activity for third-year

students?

- What are the main problems third-year students encounter when

carrying out reading reflection activity?

3. Significance of the research

The research, in general, could act as a great help to not only students,

teachers but also researchers working on relating issues

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Reading reflection acts as an important part of third-year students’

reading course which will be of great benefit to students in their future.

Therefore, by studying on the current situation of the reading reflection in

our department, the researcher hopes that this research can make a

contribution to bettering this activity and the recommendations hopefully

would help carter for the demands of most students. Besides, this study, to

some extent, can help increase students’ awareness of reading reflection’s

benefits by themselves. Hence, they will find more motivation and interest

in this activity instead of finishing it as a compulsory requirement.

Besides, for teachers who are in charge of third-year students’

reading skill, the researcher hopes that the findings of this study will

encourage significant changes to improve the effectiveness of reading

reflection activity.

Lastly, this research can be used as a reference source for those who

have interest in this issue and a supplement to the previous studies on

reading reflection thanks to different research issue and different subjects.

4. Scope of the research:

• Field of study: The issue of reading reflection is so

broad and complicated that the researcher has no desire to cover all

aspects of it. Within the frame of an undergraduate thesis, the

researcher would like to work on the evaluation of the effectiveness of

reading reflection, students’ difficulties when dealing with reading

reflection and hopefully make some helpful suggestions to help

students achieve greater efficiency in this activity.

• Targeted subjects: the subjects of this research include

100 third-year students and three teachers at ULIS-VNU.

5. Organization of the study

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The research includes six chapters altogether:

Chapter 1 – Introduction states the study area, rationale, aims and

objectives, scope and significance of the study.

Chapter 2 – Literature Review is devoted to the theoretical background

on which the study is based. Theories on reading, reflection and reading

reflection are included.

Chapter 3 – Methodology describes in detail the methods and

procedures of conducting the research

Chapter 4 _ Analysis and Findings presents the findings of the study

and inferences that can be made from those findings.

Chapter 5 _ Recommendations make some suggestions on how to

overcome the problems stated in the previous chapter.

Chapter 6 _ Conclusion summaries the main points of the research and

acknowledges some limitations.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The research aims at investigating the current state of reading

reflection activity for third-year students at English department-HULIS.

Therefore, it is necessary to start with some knowledge about reading skill

and reading reflection. In this chapter, the researcher attempts to set up the

theoretical background for the research. Some key concepts are studied,

including reading skill, reflection and reading reflection.

2.1. An overview of reading

2.1.1. Definition of reading skill

While studying a language, it is important that students have thorough

understanding about the definition of reading skill so that they can exploit the

best way to improve their reading efficiency. However, making clear what

reading skill is requires a lot of great effort because different people develop

different approaches to this term. Robinson and Good (1997) described

reading as an understanding between the author and the reader. Reading is

believed to be “an interaction” between the writer and the reader (Robinson

& Good, 1997; Keneath, 1995; Milan, 1996; Nuttal, 1996). If the writer has

tried to encode thought as language, the reader, vice versa, tries to decode

language to thought to work out the full amount of information (Milan,

1996).

Gould, et al. (1990) offered a different definition by looking at its scope.

They defined reading as a creative act, interaction, interpretation, a social act

and responding. Although no definition of reading can possibly include all

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view points and features, for the sake of teaching and learning reading

critically, I prefer Anderson (2003)’s definition:

“Reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and

their own background knowledge. The goal of reading is comprehension.” (p.68)

According to Anderson (2003), reading is composed of four components: the

text, the reader, fluency and strategies. Strategic reading is defined as “the

ability of the reader to use a wide variety of reading strategies to accomplish

a purpose for reading” (p.68). Fluent reading is defined as “the ability to read

at an appropriate rate with adequate comprehension” (p.68). Meaning does

not rest in the reader nor does it rest in the text. The reader’s background

knowledge integrates with the test to create the meaning.

In my research, I especially focus on the claim that reading

comprehension calls for critical thinking (Norris&Phillips, 1987, cited in

Commayras, 1990) and thinking critically about texts requires reading

comprehension (Wolf, Kinh, & Huck, 1968, cited in Commayras, 1990). This

claim is similar to the view that reasoning is an integral part of reading. The

comprehension of text requires the reader to use reasoning to evaluate

possible interpretations to determine the meaning of a text (Collins, Brown, &

Larkin, 1980, cited in Commayras, 1990). Critical thinking, which involves

reasoning, is the process the reader uses to determine which interpretations

are consistent with textual evidence and background knowledge.

2.1.2. Components of reading

Reading consists of two main components, namely decoding and

comprehension (Elizabeth, 2000). Decoding involves the “oculomotor,

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perceptual and parsing aspects of reading activity” whereby written symbols

are translated into language (Carpenter and Just 1986, p.156). When children

start learning to read, emphasis is placed on the acquisition of decoding skills

thorough the practice in short and simple reading books such as letter-sound

relationships, word recognition and syntactical parsing of simple sentences.

Comprehension, on the other hand, refers to the overall understanding

process whereby meaning is constructed within sentence units, between

adjacent sentences and across larger units of text contributing to the meaning

of the text as a whole (Elizabeth, 2000). The interaction between decoding

and comprehension process in skilled readers happen simultaneously and

rapidly. It is commonly acknowledged that comprehension cannot occur

effectively unless decoding skills have been mastered (Just and Carpenter

1987, Perfetti 1988). However, skill in decoding does not necessarily imply

skill in comprehension. Whether we read for entertainment, study or work

purposes, we are not going to be entertained, relax, study or do our work

properly if we do not understand what we are reading. Through decoding we

‘learn to read’, while comprehension enables us to ‘read to learn’.

2.1.3. Importance of reading skill

In common sense, reading plays a very important role to one’s

development. Reading is the foundation upon which other academic skills

are built. Mastery of reading skills in the primary grades has often been

considered a good predictor of future academic success. Children who are

exposed to storybook reading before they go to school tend to have larger

vocabularies, greater general knowledge and better conceptual development

than their peers; and in addition, they learn to read and write more easily and

quickly ( Health, 1983; Snow, 1983; Wells, 1986; Elley, 1991) These kids

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have more chance of becoming productive and successful members of their

community. Pretorius (2000) asserted that research findings in applied

linguistics and reading research consistently show “a strong correlation

between reading proficiency and academic success at all ages, from the

primary school right through to university level” (p.33). Students who read a

lot and who understand what they read usually attain good graders. Moreover,

reading promotes the development of “meaning making and information

processing abilities” that are indeed necessary for success in the technological

and information age (Elizabeth 2000, p.37). That is because reading by nature

involves the processing of inferring, understanding, integrating and

evaluating information within and across texts. It also entails recognizing

inconsistencies in text information, monitoring the comprehension process

and adding new knowledge gained from texts to existing knowledge bases in

memory and modifying existing knowledge bases in memory in response to

information acquired from texts.

In terms of language learning, according to Keiko (2008, p.267),

“reading necessitates linguistic knowledge and reading ability enhances

linguistic knowledge expansion.” The crucial reason underlying the strong

relationship between reading ability and language competence has to do with

“the development of language and cognitive information-processing abilities”

(Elizabeth, 2000, p.35). Language proficiency can be greatly enhanced by

wide reading. Students who have a habit of wide reading have shown to

produce longer sentences, employ more complex grammatical structures and

to have a larger vocabulary. (Snow, 1983; Wells, 1986; Feitelson et al. 1993).

2.1.4. Types of reading skill

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Reading is a purposeful activity. Some read for recreation while others

read to enrich their knowledge. The purposes for reading influence the

readers’ selection of texts. Different texts require different knowledge, skills

and strategies that readers need to apple to achieve comprehension.

According to Carrell and Carson (1997), in terms of different purposes, skills

and strategies used by learners while reading we have two main types of

reading which are extensive reading and intensive reading.

2.1.4.1. Extensive reading

Extensive reading, as a language teaching/ learning procedure is

defined that it is reading (a) of large quantities of material or long texts; (b)

for global or general understanding; (c) with the intention of obtaining

pleasure from the text. Further, because (d) reading is individualized, with

students choosing the books they want to read, (e) the books are not discussed

in class ( Benard and Thomas, 1990).

Extensive reading is an important approach that should be applied to

students’ reading course. First of all, it can provide 'comprehensible input'.

Krashen (1982) argues that extensive reading will lead to language

acquisition, provided that certain preconditions are met. These include

adequate exposure to the language, interesting material, and a relaxed,

tension-free learning environment. Secondly, it can increase knowledge of

vocabulary. Daneman (1991) argues that the reason why some students have

larger vocabularies is that they read more and that through reading they learn

new words by inferring meaning from context. Thirdly, writing proficiency

can be increased by reading extensively. Stotsky (1983) and Krashen (1984)

reviewe a number of L1 studies that appear to show the positive effect of

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reading on subjects' writing skills, indicating that students who are prolific

readers in their pre-college years become better writers when they enter

college. L2 studies by Hafiz & Tudor (1989) in the UK and Pakistan, and

Robb & Susser (1989) in Japan, revealed more significant improvement in

subjects' written work than in other language skills. These results again

support the case for an input-based, acquisition-oriented reading program

based on extensive reading as an effective means of fostering improvements

in students writing.

2.1.4.2. Intensive reading

Extensive reading alone is not sufficient for developing reading skills

and “a more focused approach (intensive reading), including explicit instruction is

also needed: it deals with more detailed comprehension and has an important role

in teaching reading strategies” (Paran, 2003, p.40)

Brown (1988) explains that intensive reading calls attention to

“grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the

purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships,

and the like” (p.65). He draws an analogy to intensive reading as a “zoom

lens” strategy. Long and Richards (1987) gives a different definition when

considering it a "detailed in-class" analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary

and grammar points, in a short passage. Intensive reading also involves

critical reading - that is detailed, focused reading of a text.

According to Paran (2003) intensive reading practice can focus more

essentially vocabulary, patterns of text organization and types of text

processing needed to adequately comprehend any text. Intensive reading

activities are needed for four main reasons, to help learners comprehend

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written texts, to become more aware of text organization to better

comprehend, to learn how to use and monitor effective reading strategies, and

to develop general literacy skills necessary to generate productive expression

in language

2.1.4.3. The necessity of combining intensive and extensive reading:

Many researchers (Hill, 1997; Waring, 1997) find intensive and

extensive reading to be complementary. Intensive reading alone cannot make

students good reader. In fact, too much intensive reading may cause students

to develop bad reading habits because it encourages the habit of paying too

much attention to the vocabulary and grammar of a text rather than its overall

meaning. Besides, intensive reading tends to be relatively boring; therefore it

prevents students from becoming motivated students. In this case, extensive

reading acts as a compensation for the drawbacks of intensive reading. Nation

(1997) concluded that extensive reading helps develop desirable reading

habits and attitudes toward reading. Moreover, extensive reading alone is

“not sufficient for developing reading skills” (Paran, 2003). According to

Word (1999), a mere extensive reading course cannot help ESL students

achieve the level of vocabulary knowledge they need to be communicatively

successful in English.

In conclusion, it is necessary that extensive and intensive reading be

combined in an appropriate way in a reading course to help students achieve

the highest improvement in their reading skill. Realizing this necessity, our

college has carried out the reading reflection activity as a means of

developing a well-balanced reading course.

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2.2. An overview of reflection

2.2.1. Definition

According to King and Kitchener (1994), although many students

already hold degrees in their subject areas and many have extensive life and

work experience, few have written or perhaps even thought reflectively

during their academic career. In fact, not many of us have deep understanding

of such terms as “reflection” or “reflective thinking”. Different people offer

different definitions on the concept of reflection. Dewey is considered to be

the first scholar who introduced the term “reflective thought” into literature.

Dewey’s definition of reflection (1993) endues the “active, persistent and

careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of

the grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends” (p.103). In

other words, reflective thinking begins with a state of doubt, hesitation, or

perplexity and moves through the act of searching to find material that will

resolve, clarify or otherwise address the doubt. In this sense, reflection takes

time and implies a mental effort that conduces to a personal measurement of a

previous concept. Clark (1999) regards reflection as a thinking process for an

extended period by linking recent experience to earlier ones in order to

promote a more complex mental schema. According to this idea, reflection

implies the connection of previous knowledge to new information to form a

new expanded-improved version of an idea. Rowntree (1988) says reflection

is studying one's own study methods as seriously as one studies the subject

and thinking about a learning task after you have done it. Unless you do this,

he says, the task will almost certainly be wasted. Reid (1993) in her definition

notes reflection as an active process rather than passive thinking. She states

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"Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe,

analyze, evaluate and so inform learning about practice." (p.305-309)

Four activities are central to critical reflection (Brookfield 1988):

• Assumption analysis - This is the first step in the critical reflection

process. It involves thinking in such a manner that it challenges our

beliefs, values, cultural practices, and social structures in order to

assess their impact on our daily proceedings. Assumptions are our way

of seeing reality and to aid us in describing how the order of

relationships.

• Contextual awareness - Realizing that our assumptions are socially

and personally created in a specific historical and cultural context.

• Imaginative speculation - Imagining alternative ways of thinking

about phenomena in order to provide an opportunity to challenge our

prevailing ways of knowing and acting.

• Reflective skepticism - Questioning of universal truth claims or

unexamined patterns of interaction through the prior three activities -

assumption analysis, contextual awareness, and imaginative

speculation. It is the ability to think about a subject so that the available

evidence from that subject's field is suspended or temporarily rejected

in order to establish the truth or viability of a proposition or action.

In general, reflection, in my opinion, is a meaningful activity which is related

to thinking for a purpose, analyzing, evaluating and most of all, thinking

critically - one of the most important characteristics of an effective student in

higher education.

2.2.2. The importance of reflection

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The last two decades have seen substantial growth in the use of

reflection. Dewey is generally pointed as the scholar who first stressed the

importance of reflection for learning. He claimed that reflection benefits

individuals by giving them more control over experience and thereby

increasing the value of experience. Many theorists have noted that reflection

acts as the vehicle for transforming a learner’s understanding. Gillie (2005)

uses an interesting metaphor to describe this power of reflection, that is, the

mirror which projects back the object being looked at.

To emphasize the use of reflection in the writing classroom, no list can

be better than the one by Horning (1997): Firstly, reflective statements shed

important light on the form and the content of students’ written work.

Secondly, they help students become aware of their preferred approaches to

writing, and enable them to take risks to try new and more productive

strategies on a particular task. Thirdly, when revising, students may examine

their reflections on their earlier process of writing and consider alternative

processes or approaches. Fourthly, reflective writing produces an intimacy

between students and teachers to respond to and encourage students’ growth

in writing skill. Lastly, the reflective statements give teachers insight into

students’ thinking and development not normally accessible otherwise.

In conclusion, reflective thinking is an important pedagogical tool to enable

learners to become efficient ones.

2.3. An overview of reading reflection

2.3.1. Definition

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In order to develop reflection skill, students are encouraged to write

“reading reflection”-also named “reaction papers” or “reflective papers” as a

part of their regular program. A reaction paper is a means to express one’s

own opinion about the readings in a course that should include “critical,

informed, thoughtful, intelligent responses to the claims that are made in the

readings” (Pols, 2001). Reflecting, thinking critically is at the core of a

reaction paper. To Prof Smith at the University of Los Andes, Merida-

Venezuela, writing reading reflection is not merely a matter of putting words

down on paper about the text, but based on the text, the writer reads that text

and, then, in a critical way, the writer critically expresses his or her opinions

about the text. An article from http://www.usd.edu/fye/sjwriteresp.html also

share the same definition that writing good response papers is more

demanding than it might appears. It is crucial that you allow yourself not just

enough time to do the readings but enough to ‘digest’ what you have read and

to put the results together into a unified account. A reaction paper should be

aimed to answer the following questions

• What are the purposes of the reading passage(s)?

• Who are the target readers?

• What is the pattern of organization?

• What are the main ideas?

• What is the style of the passage(s)? Is this appropriate to the target

readers and the purposes?

• How do you evaluate these texts?

More specifically, students are supposed to clarify the following issues when

writing a reading reflection:

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author’s point of view (the author’s position on an issue)

author’s purpose (the author’s reason for writing)

author’s intended audience (whom the author had in mind as his

readers)

author’s tone (a way the author reveals his or her attitude toward the

topic)

author’s writing style

the pattern of organization (the way ideas in a paragraph can be

arranged)

2.3.2. Components of a reflective paper

2.3.2.1. Summarizing

Hirvela (2004) suggests outlining and writing a brief summary of the piece.

These are necessary and helpful strategies to have a deep insight into the

content and structure of a reading text and distinguish main ideas with

supporting ideas and examples.

2.3.2.2. Interpreting, analyzing and evaluating

In a reading reflection, students also interpret or discover meaning in a text;

that is, to determine what conclusions can be drawn about the various

messages the texts contains.

After understanding the main content of the reading text and its messages,

students analyze and evaluate the reading text and compare it with their

beliefs and values.

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♦ Analyzing and evaluating the author’s purpose: whenever authors write,

they write for specific purposes. The author’s purpose may be to inform, to

instruct, to entertain or to persuade the reader to believe something or to take

a certain action.

♦ Analyzing and evaluating the author’s point of view: there is always more

than one side to any issue. An author may be in favor of an issue or he/she

may be opposed to it. It is important that the reader recognize the author’s

point of view otherwise he will not know which side of an issue the author

favors.

♦ Analyzing and evaluating the reading’s evidence: it is advisable to answer

such questions as whether the author supports his reading, whether or not the

evidence supports and illustrates the argument, whether it supports any

conclusions that are drawn, and whether the author has ignored evidence or

alternative hypothesis or explanation and while developing his/ her position;

or there are any problems with unstated assumption (Sunda & Brisas, 2002).

♦ Analyzing and evaluating the reading’s organization (i.e. the development

and sequence of ideas, the relationships between ideas, whether the argument

is deductive or inductive). When a writer offers ideas, examples or

explanation, he has to reason them to the readers in a specific process which

contributes largely to the coherence and persuasiveness of the reading.

Hence, it is important that readers bear in mind the questions about the

author’s indicators that he is moving from one point to another and the way

the writer has tried to help the reader understand the organization of the

reading such as transition words or phrases, transition paragraph, repetition of

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key terms, repetition of language from the thesis, repetition of names or title

(Kirszner and Mandell, 1992).

♦ Analyzing and evaluating the reading’s style: Students are supposed to find

out the style of the piece: formal or informal or somewhere in the middle and

the characteristics of the tone of the piece (inviting, encouraging, sarcastic or

humorous) by examining the author’s word choice. It is important to

determine the author’s tone and explore the appropriateness of the author’s

language, tone for particular type of writing because if you misunderstand the

author’s tone, you may misinterpret the messages. (Kirszner and Mandell,

1992)

2.3.3. Importance of reading reflection

2.3.3.1. Importance of reading reflection to instructors

A study by some professors at Wabash College (2009) showed that students’

reading reflections offer a regular opportunity to monitor student learning

because they provide teacher a wealth of information about students’

understanding of the reading texts. Therefore, teachers can get more access to

each individual and give necessary aids to improve student’s reading skill.

Besides, reading reflections give instructors regular information about

students’ learning habits and motivation. This facilitates appropriate

intervention, assessment and modification of student learning at various

stages throughout the semester.

2.3.3.2. Importance of reading reflection to students

26

• When students are required to summit reading reflections, it means that

they are forced to read more frequently and therefore, improve their

background knowledge. Besides, this kind of free reading encourages

students to engage in reading activities outside the classroom and under

less structured conditions than in extensive reading. (Hirvela, 2004).

The main purpose of this approach is to help students develop

pleasurable reading experience and become more motivated readers.

• Writing reading reflections helps improve students’ writing skill.

To begin with, some specialists have proved that writing and reading

are closely connected. In language literacy contexts, Krashen’s argument

(1984) that “it is reading that gives the writer the feel for the look and

texture” (p.20) paved the way leading writing researchers and instructors to

the vision of reading/ writing connection. He claimed that reading, which

builds the knowledge base of written texts, help language learners acquire

necessary language constructs such as grammatical structures and discourse

rules for writing, and facilitates the process the language acquisition. In other

words, while reading different types of texts, students are encouraged to pay

attention to and learn consciously about grammatical and lexical features of

the texts, organization of the articles and expressions which are unfamiliar to

the students.

Reading to write and writing to read are the two facilitative strategies

for instruction in language literacy classrooms. Reading to write is based on

the notion that reading supports and shapes language learners’ writing

through acquisition of language input when students are performing reading

tasks. Reading is not merely helpful for enhancing language learners’ writing

ability in a general sense. Also, through reading, students are given

27

opportunities in writing classroom to acquire knowledge of vocabulary,

grammatical structures or rhetorical features of texts. Pedagogically, there are

numerous teaching practices suggested for reading to write, among which

reading reflection is one of the most popular practices in reading classroom.

Furthermore, reading reflections inevitably lead to reflective writing

because their main purpose is to expose student to a writing situation in

which he/ she needs to critically reflect about a topic and see how it is

applicable in his/ her own teaching/ learning situation.

Lastly, within a reading reflection, students are required to write a

summary to gain greater insight of the main points the reading text. When

summarizing, it is better not to use the text’s exact words; therefore, it

requires creative synthesis. This is regarded as a closer step toward a creative

writing by putting ideas together again, however in the reader’s own words

and in condensed form.

• Reading reflection helps improve students’ ability to read critically. In

an increasingly complex world, there is higher demand for students to

develop intellectual and practical skills for lifelong learning. Among

these daily skills, critical reading is regarded as the most important

reading skill for you to acquire in college (Kurland, 1995). According

to a variety of studies, students with strong creative problem-solving

and critical reading abilities usually get better academic results; thus,

enhance their chosen professions and personal success. As Weiner and

Bazerman (1991) defined, critical reading refers to the process of

making judgments in reading evaluating relevancy and adequacy of

what is read. The term critical reading in this case does not mean

28

“critical” in the sense of tearing down or fault-finding; rather it means

using careful evaluation, sound judgment and our reasoning powers

(Milan, 1995). Knott (2005) also added “critical reading” involves

higher level skills: interpretation and analysis. Critical reading requires

students to evaluate the arguments in the text, weigh the evidence and

develop a set of standard on which to base their evaluation. Students’

needs are to distinguish fact from opinion, and a thorough look at

arguments given for and against the proposition. Consequently, reading

critically helps students meet their author’s most important points,

recognize how the texts fit together and to note how they can turn it

into their own knowledge. Teaching critical reading, therefore, is

received great concern from teachers and reading reflection is

recognized as an effective technique to improve this skill.

• Reading reflection is a useful tool to help students develop reflective

skill and therefore to think critically about a topic.

According to Kurland from www.criticalreading.com critical reading has

a close relationship with critical thinking. Critical thinking allows us to

monitor our understanding as we read while critical thinking depends on

critical reading because we can think critically about a text (critical thinking_

only if we have understood it (critical reading).

According to Gaia (2001) the main purpose of this assignment is to

stimulate the development of critical thinking. It should be noted that reading

reflection is a kind of reflective writing which refers to the activity of writing

with the purpose of reflecting and as consequence, learning. Hillocks (1995)

states that reflective writing helps us in the process of learning. He argues

that “writing cannot be disconnected from its sources, the processed of

29

observation, interpretation, imagination and inquiry” (p.89). Therefore, writing

and reflecting have an interrelation in which writing facilitates reflecting and

vice-versa. Writing facilitates learning by helping writers explore, clarify and

think deeply about the ideas and concepts they encounter in reading (Harris

and Perzynski, 2001).

It is necessary to clarify the definition of “critical thinking”. As cited in

Dixon et al. (2005), John Dewy gave the name “reflective thinking” to the

skill and defined it as “active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief

or supposed form of knowledge in the light of ground that support it and the further

conclusions to which it tends” (1993, p.9). This idea was further developed by

Ennis (1989) who claimed critical thinking was synonymous with thinking

reasonably and reflectively to mainly decide what to believe and do and what

not. Accidentally, both Dewey and Ennis saw reflection as a dimension of

critical thinking. A popularly accepted model is the Bloom’s Taxonomy. The

expert divided critical thinking into six specific units Knowledge,

Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

30

Figure 1: Bloom’s Taxonomy

As stated above, with a reading reflection, not only students gain background

knowledge of some issues but they also reach the highest level of the thinking

order-evaluating a reading text.

2.3.4. Requirements of reading reflection in English Department-ULIS

for third-year students

31

In English Department-ULIS, students are required to read at least 7000-

10,000 words (around 8-10 texts) which are written on the same issue and

answer the following questions in their reading reflection:

a. What are the purposes of the reading passage(s)?

b. Who are the target readers?

c. What is the pattern of organization?

d. What are the main ideas?

e. What is the style of the passage(s)? Is this appropriate to the

target readers and the purposes?

f. How do you evaluate these texts?

Besides, students are supposed to give comparison and contrast among the

collected texts to find out different authors’ views towards the same topic, the

differences in their writing style, their pattern of organization, their way of

argument and so on.

As regards the reference list, students have to follow the APA form which is

instructed in the Research methodology course.

SUMMARY

In this chapter, the researcher has presented the theoretical background on

which the study is based. The chapter provided the basic definitions,

terminologies and knowledge in three major issues

- Reading skill

- Reflection

32

- Reading reflection

It is undeniable that reading reflection plays a very important role in

improving reading skill and other skills needed for one’s development.

Although this approach attracts great attention from both teachers and

students, not much research has been carried out on its real effectiveness and

the methods to enhance its efficiency. Realizing that gap, the researcher

decided to work on the issue with a hope to better this activity in English

Department-ULIS-VNU

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is aimed at answering the question how this research was

carried out.

3.1. Research approach

33

In this study, the researcher combines both the qualitative and

quantitative approach. Firstly, a survey was conducted to get the overall

evaluation of third-year students and teachers on reading reflection activity.

Besides, this study also applies the quantitative approach as it is significantly

based on collecting samples of students’ reading reflections and analyzing the

samples to provide a description of the most common problems that third-

year students encounter when they carry out the reading reflection activity.

This is also a descriptive research because it aims at finding out the

problems faced by the students, based on which recommendations are drawn

to improve third year students’ reading reflection.

More specific explanation of the selection of subjects, research

instrument, procedure of data collection and data analysis will be presented in

the following sections of this chapter.

3.2. Data collection instruments

Questionnaire

The researcher conducted a questionnaire survey because according to

Gillham (2000) questionnaire is a very useful tool to administer to a group of

people and it provides permanent, systematic records of feedback from all

students.

The questionnaire survey was held among 100 third-year students of

English Department-ULIS to collect their opinion towards the reading

reflection, their difficulties as well as their recommendations for this activity.

In fact, 150 questionnaire schemes were delivered and 115 were returned;

34

however, only 100 that met the researcher’ requirements were chosen for

analysis.

Questionnaire is divided into 2 parts: The first part is aimed to

investigate students’ evaluation of reading reflection activity on the basis of

five criteria: the importance of reading reflection, the amount of reading texts,

teachers’ instructions, teachers’ frequency of feedback and students’

difficulties in carrying out this activity. In this study, multiple-choice items as

were deployed as this item type was relatively straightforward and most

respondents tend to choose short questions as their preference. Besides, the

researcher used open-ended questions to offer respondents more chance to

express their opinion openly. The second part is to gain suggestion from

students for some improvement in reading reflection in the form of open-

ended questions.

Interview

Firstly, the researcher had some informal interviews with in-survey

students to clarify some of their answers and gain deeper insight into their

evaluation.

Secondly, semi-structured interviews were employed among three

teachers who are in charge of third-year reading skill because the researcher

would like to have a deeper insight into third-year students’ reading reflection

from teachers’ point of view and consult their suggestions to solve the

students’ problems. According to Nguyen (2008), this type of interview gives

the interviewer a degree of power and control over the course of the interview

and a greater deal of flexibility. Some predetermined questions are prepared

35

by the researcher and then based on the interviewee’s answers, further

questions are probed. Therefore, the researcher could probe the respondents

for additional information when interesting and important ideas arose

unexpectedly from the planned questions. Thanks to their great support to the

researchers by openly giving their opinion on the issues, the researcher got a

lot of valuable data from the interview.

All questions in the interviews are open-ended and based on the criteria

in the questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted in the following

procedure: Firstly, the researcher introduced the purpose of the study, asked

for interviewees’ permission to make record of their answers and ensured the

confidentiality. Then, the interviewer gave the respondents the predetermined

questions to get their opinions on the issue. On the basis of the sketch

analysis from the questionnaire, the researcher provided collected information

from students and asked if in-survey teachers shared the same view. During

the interview, interesting answers were probed for deeper understanding.

Finally, the researcher thanked the teachers again for their time and their open

answers and asked their contact details for further information.

Reading reflection samples

Students’ reading reflection samples were collected so that the

researcher could analyze, compare and contrast the samples with the data

from the questionnaire survey and the interview to draw conclusions. Best

and Kahn (2003) regarded documents among the most significant sources for

data collection (cited in Ghonaim, 2005, p.91). The analysis from these

samples helps bring amore insightful information; thus increase the reliability

of the study findings. This research specifically relied significantly on

36

participants’ pieces of reading reflection to draw conclusion then the process

of selecting reliable reading reflections were of great significance.

After the interview, the researched asked for two teacher’s permission

to collect their students’ reading reflection. Thanks to their enthusiastic help,

10 samples (5 samples per class) were gathered for analysis.

3.3. Data collection procedures

Phase 1: In order to assure the success of the questionnaire, the

researcher piloted the questionnaire among ten third-year students. Hence,

some problems with the clarity of the instructions and unnecessary items

were pointed out. Based on the feedback, the researcher made beneficial

changes before providing the final version.

Phase 2: The final version of the questionnaire was delivered to

100 third-year students chosen randomly among eight classes. Furthermore,

the researcher had direct interviews with some students to gain more

information needed to support the study.

Phase 3: After collecting data from the questionnaire survey, the

researcher made initial analysis and then based on the result to design

interviews for the teachers. Therefore, the researcher tried to contact some

teachers and luckily enough, she succeeded in arranging the interviews with

three teachers

Phase 4: After getting necessary results, to see if there are any

differences between the collected data and students’ real reading reflections,

the researcher asked permission from two teachers to get 10 reading

reflections of 10 students for deeper analysis. The main aims of this analysis

was; along with the data gathered from the questionnaire survey and the

37

interview, the researcher would find out students’ main problems in their

reading reflections as well as the issues teachers often give feedback on.

3.4. Data analysis procedures

First of all, the research made thorough study into the questionnaire

data and interpreted the responses. All the responses from closed questions

were analyzed and categorized into groups to be easily quantified. For better

demonstration, the researcher then put all the number, percentage ratio in

form of pie charts. Not only did this kind of illustration help avoid wordy

explanation but it also made the paper look more systematic.

Secondly, based on the categories in the questionnaire, the researcher

continued to analyze data collected from the interview. At this part, the

researcher specially focused on two main issues: students’ problems in their

reading reflection and teacher’s comments.

Lastly, the researcher analyzed students’ reading reflection to point out

the common problems in students’ reading reflection samples as well as

teacher’s feedbacks. This insightful analysis later resulted in reliable

implications and recommendations.

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter consists of three main parts: Part 1 reflects third-year

students’ evaluation of reading reflection activity. Part 2 works on teacher’s

evaluation of reading reflection. Part 3 synthesizes the main problems faced

by third-year students when conducting their reading reflection.

4.1. Third-year students’ evaluation of reading reflection

4.1.1. The importance of reading reflection

38

When the researcher investigated into third-year students’ views

towards the importance of reading reflection, she received different responses

which could be illustrated in Figure 1 as follows

It could be clearly seen from the figure that very few students deny the

importance of reading reflection. Up to 92% value this activity as being

important while only 8 % claim that reading reflection is not really needed. It

could be implied that most of third-year students’ are aware of the benefits of

reading reflection activity in their learning course.

Besides, all respondents were also required to give explanation for

their choice which is shown in the below figure

Why reading reflection is important Number of

respondentsIt helps students understand reading texts more deeply 11It motivates students to read actively and independently 32It enhances students’ critical thinking 53

It helps students in their writing (such as argumentative

essay, comparing and contrasting essay)

25

Other reasons 0

39

Table 1: The reason for the importance of reading reflection

Question 1.1-Appendix 1

As regards the reason why reading reflection is regarded as an

important activity for third-year students, the majority of the respondents (53

students) realizes that the greatest benefit they get from reading reflection is

its ability to enhance their critical thinking which is a must skill in the

information and technology age. The second good point reading reflection

contributes to students is that students are motivated to read actively and

independently. Some students state that under the requirements of reading

assignments, they are forced to develop their reading habit and therefore

improve their background knowledge. Standing at the third rank, as can be

seen from the table, is its support to students’ writing (especially in writing

argumentative or compare and contrast essay). According to respondents in

informal interviews, through different kinds of texts, they can learn a variety

of useful vocabulary and structures needed to improve their writing

proficiency. Last but not least, reading reflection plays an important role in

helping students understand the reading texts more deeply. In-survey students

claim that reading tasks or tests only help them develop their reading skill

rather than give them the thorough insight into a text. Clearly enough, third-

year students identify a variety of benefits of reading reflection for their study

as well as their daily life, which may be a predictor for their great effort in

conducting this activity.

Why reading reflection is not important Number of respondents

It is a time-consuming activity 3

Reading tests do not require analyzing a reading 5

40

textOther reasons 0

Table 2: The reason why reading reflection is unnecessary

Question 1.2-Appendix 1

A small number of third-year students, however, do not have full

awareness of the necessity of reading reflection. Their top reason is that

reading reflections require analyzing the reading text while reading tests do

not. In fact, when coping with tests, they are put under such great time

pressure that hardly can they have deep understanding of what they are

reading. They argue that their main objective of learning is merely to achieve

good results in the tests; therefore, all they need is to develop their testing

skill. Secondly, they explain that third-year students get a studying load with

assignments and presentations of other subjects already. Doing reading

reflection, they are required to read a great number of texts for a long period

of time, then analyze and synthesize different reading texts to draw

conclusion; so they find it a time-consuming activity.

4.1.2. The number of reading texts

41

As illustrated in the pie chart, the majority of third-year students (72%)

feel upset by the number of reading texts while only 28% are satisfied. To

clarify, 72% find it necessary to decrease the amount of reading. Through the

informal interviews, some students claimed that the load of assignments and

presentations prevents them from reading such big amount of reading in a

thorough way. Moreover, to meet teachers’ required number, hardly can they

find the texts to their interest. Instead, they can just search for all the texts

which are suitable for the topic from different sources. It can be implied that

managing time for reading reflection activity seems a big problem among

third-year students.

4.1.3. Teachers’ activities towards reading reflection

42

Up to 64% of third-year students claim that teachers’ instructions are

clear enough for them to follow whereas only 36% do not feel really satisfied.

The underlying reason for this dissatisfaction (based on the informal

interviews with students) is that their teachers only give the handouts at the

beginning of the course and ask them to do exactly as such instructions

without any other complement. Besides, there is no further instruction on the

techniques of analyzing a passage or comparing and contrasting different

texts on the same issues.

43

As can be seen from the above chart, most teachers (82%) make

frequent feedback on students’ reading reflection. Only the minority of

teachers seldom or never give comments. Respondents add that their teachers

give most feedback on the format of their reading reflection, grammatical

mistakes and word choice. Some other comments focus on their analyzing

skill and their writing ability of comparing and contrasting essays. According

to some students, such valuable feedbacks enable them to improve greatly in

their later reflections as well as their writing skill.

4.2. Teachers’ evaluation of reading reflection for third-year students

The researcher conducted some interviews with some teachers who

take responsibility of third-year students’ reading skill to investigate their

evaluation of the reading reflection activity and she drew some main points as

follows.

4.2.1. The importance of reading reflection

All teachers put a heavy emphasis on the importance of reading

reflection because of the two main reasons: firstly, it acts as a motivation for

students’ reading. Lessons at class focus on developing students’ reading skill

rather than stimulate their interest in reading. Therefore, reading assignment

helps improve students’ self-reading. Not only does this activity enrich their

background knowledge but it also helps enhance their critical thinking ability.

Secondly, reading reflection forces students to give more thought to what

they read because the main requirement of this activity is to read for deep

analysis. Consequently, students’ effort and their level of understanding will

be reflected clearly in their reflection.

44

4.2.2. The amount of reading texts

According to the interviewed teachers, students seem overloaded with

the amount of reading, which results in the fact that not many students really

do thorough reading. Nor do they spend much time having good choice of

texts. They would just find long texts with sufficient number of words to

meet teachers’ requirements rather than search for passages they find great

interest in.

4.2.3. Teachers’ comment

Teachers’ comments could be divided into two groups: the first set

contained feedback on the format of students’ reflection which helped

recognize whether their reference lists met the APA requirement or not. The

second group included comments on the content of students’ reflection; more

specifically, their writing ability and level of analyzing. Such comments

focused on grammar mistakes, word choices, their comparing-and-contrasting

skill and the depth of their analysis.

4.2.4. Students’ reading reflection

Generally speaking, all teachers have the similar comment that third-year

students have not really done good jobs with their reflection. Only a small

number of students seem to satisfy teachers’ requirements in both the format

and content of their piece of reflection. The most common problem among

students is that they do not have full awareness of what to do with their

reading assignment. To clarify this matter, the researcher pointed out biggest

drawbacks in students’ reflection in part 3.

4.3. Main problems encountered by third-year students when

conducting reading reflection

45

Based on the information collected from the questionnaire and the

interview, the researcher stated some problems as illustrated in the following

chart

Figure 6: Question 4-Appendix 1

3.1. The format of students’ reading reflection

Firstly, there is no fixed format for students, which results in their illogical

presentation of their reflection. The ten collected samples are presented in

different ways. Some students analyze one text to another before moving to

the reflection and others make a reverse order. Even worse, some students

just give the website address of their texts or the name of the books instead of

attaching the full texts to their reading assignment. (RF5, RF7-appendix 3)

Another problem is students’ sources of reading texts. The in-survey

teachers claimed that although students are taught the APA form in research

methodology and reading teachers also provide them with the instructions of

APA during the course, students still have a lot of difficulties in giving the

reference list. (RF 2, RF 5, RF6, RF7, RF8, RF9-appendix 3)

3.2. The content of students’ reading reflection

46

To begin with, all interviewed teachers stated that students’ biggest

problem is that they have no idea of writing a reading reflection. The

requirement of reading reflection for third-year students in English

department is to write a comparing and contrasting essay, which is aimed at

identifying the similarities and differences among different authors towards

the same issue. However, the majority of students only succeed in analyzing

one text to another and providing the main ideas of each text or synthesize the

interesting information from texts. Hardy do they provide any comparison or

contrast among the collected texts (RF3, RF7, RF8, RL10-appendix 3).

Moreover, within each text, most students achieve low level of analyzing a

text. Students’ reflections show that they just discover the surface layer of the

issue. Hence, in response to the question “What you have gained from the

reading texts”, most students give general lessons. Here are some examples:

• “When reading those passages, I find that I can improve my reading

skills such as improving critical reading and thinking skills. I can

focus on scanning skill, especially in last article. In addition, I can

broad my vocabulary because there’re many new words or stems

about survival, for examples survival fire, gear, kit, etc. I think the

structure of all articles is generally quite clear and easy to read” (RF

3-appendix 3)

• “These five texts are really interesting, persuasive and informative,

and all show clear ideas and patterns organization. Besides, they

provide a wide range of vocabulary and structures from which I can

learn to improve my reading, writing as well as critical thinking

skills”. (RF6-appendix 3)

• “I have to use some of reading skills such as skimming, reading closely

scanning, summarizing, paraphrasing, analyzing and synthesizing.

47

Those articles are very useful to me because I have learned a lot from

the way to use language to the way to write persuasively” (RF8-

appendix 3)

• “Besides, I can practice reading skills. When reading these texts, I

used reading skills such as scanning, skimming, identifying the

author’s main points and noting useful information, etc.” (RF9-

appendix 3)

The second problem lies in students’ summarizing skill. The fact

remains that most students often copy the exact words from the texts to make

their summary while they are required to use their own words to gain deep

understanding of the texts. That is one of the reasons why they cannot give a

thorough analysis of their reading.

Lastly, there still remain a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes in

students’ assignment which should be avoided to the maximum in a third-

year student’ piece of writing, perhaps because students do not have the habit

of rechecking their reflection. For instance:

“Work is central to the human experience, in fact, it is work and its

economic and social outcomes that provide us with the keys to

understanding of culture and civilization…” (RF1-appendix 3).

“Gambles give meaning examples to support their views about

nonverbal” ( RF 4-appendix 3)

“Gambles analized more deeply and compared nonverbal

communication with verbal communication………..” (RF4-appendix 3)

In shows that portrayed teens in sexual situations, only 17 percent

contained messages about safe and responsible sex. (RF5-appendix 3)

They have no support of love, of care, of finance, and especially easy

to be abused (RF7-appendix 3)

48

This thinking should be criticized strict. (RF7-appendix 3)

According to the latest research, there are about 7000 languages

existed; however, half of them will be in danger of extinction. In fact, a

plenty of ingenuous tongues has been vanished (RL10-appendix 3)

Moreover, some reflections show students’ bad word choice, which may

be the result of their limited vocabulary. Some examples are shown below:

“In order to appeal to readers’ attention the author leads them to the

definition and origin of tea and after that he provides them with the overall

view of function of tea…..” (RF3-appendix 3)

About healthy problems, TV can make a negative effect on adults’

physical and mental health. (RF5-appendix 3)

“The civil life and the healthy life is the future we purchase in our

whole life” (RF7-appendix 3)

“Toyota is innocent in its efforts to correct the problem” (RF8-

appendix 3)

49

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings in chapter IV show that some problems remains in third-year

students’ reading reflection, which cause the limited effectiveness of this

activity. In this chapter, the researcher attempts to give some

recommendations, which she hopes to help students overcome such

difficulties and improve their reading reflection.

5.1. Recommendations to teachers who holds responsible for third-year

students’ reading reflection activity

First of all, it is important to raise third-year students’ awareness of the

enormous importance of reading reflection, not only short-term benefits but

also long-term ones. Under no circumstances should they regard scores as

their goal of learning. What they should bear in mind is that reading

reflection enables them to improve a lot of necessary skills that are required

for their daily-life activities.

Secondly, more emphasis should be put on the instructions of the way

to conduct reading reflection. According to T1 (appendix 3), it is advisable

that teachers spend a whole lesson providing students with the theoretical

background of reading reflection. Students may easily answer all the

questions given in the handouts when they get full understanding of such

terms as the author’s purpose for writing, the author’s tone, target readers,

pattern of organization and so on. T2 (appendix 3) added that reading

reflection shares a lot of similarities with literature review in Research

50

methodology. Hence, it is suggested that teachers should supplement the

Research methodology course with the theory of reading reflection so that the

Research methodology become more accessible to students and reading

teachers suffer from less pressure when dealing with students’ reading

reflection.

Thirdly, T1 and T3 (appendix 3) also suggested that some changes

should be made to the writing course. Students should receive instruction in

writing a compare and contrast essay at the first term of the third year so that

they can become more familiar with the reading reflection form.

Fourthly, according to T2 and T3 (appendix 3), it is necessary that the

format of reading reflection be synchronized in the whole English

Department so that students find it easier to follow a fixed form and teachers

have less difficulties in marking students’ reflection.

Last but not least, all in-survey teachers share the same view towards

the amount of reading because it may cause students more difficulties in

comparing and contrasting a large number of texts. Instead, students should

be required to read fewer texts (around 8000 words) but make more thorough

analysis so that they gain deeper understanding of what they have read.

(appendix 3)

5.2. Recommendations to third-year students

Firstly, T3 (appendix 3) recommended that before handing in the

reading assignments to teachers, students should exchange feedback on their

reflections in order to minimize the mistakes of grammar and spelling.

Secondly, the findings in the chapter IV identifies that the biggest

difficulty students encounter during the processing of their reading reflection

is in analyzing a reading text. Therefore, based on the opinions of in-survey

teachers and the researcher’s self-reading and analyses, the researcher

51

synthesized some basic techniques which may be helpful for students in their

reading reflection

• Techniques of identifying the main ideas of the reading texts

(techniques of summarizing a text)

Deanne (2000) suggested that to make a good piece of summary, the first step

is to read through the passage twice so that the content of the text is well

understood. Next, it is advisable to underline important words, phrases and

sentences. Lastly, the reader should copy the material he underlined onto a

sheet of paper, condense and rewrite the material in his own words as much

as possible.

• Techniques of identifying the purpose of the reading passage: Firstly, it

is necessary to determine the kind of text. For example, most textbooks are

written for the purpose of informing or instructing, such texts as movies

critics, newspapers editors and political writers are written to give their

opinion or to persuade. Secondly, students are advised to notice the way the

information is presented

-When he author’s purpose is to inform, he or she will use phrases such as “It

is interesting to know that……..”

-When the author’s purpose is to instruct, he or she will typically give a set of

directions (instructions) or a sequence of steps to follow.

-When the author’s purpose is to persuade, he or she will deliberately use

words that are designed to influence your thinking and make you respond a

certain way.

-When the author’s purpose is to entertain, he or she may tell a funny story,

use wild exaggerations, or simply describe a pleasant event or place.

• Techniques of determining the target readers: students can identify the

author’s intended audience by considering these three things:

52

-The topic

-The level of language used (Is it simple? Sophisticated? Specialized?)

-The author’s purpose for writing

• Techniques of identifying the pattern of organization

According to Deanne (2000) there are five typical patterns (1) chronological,

(2) spatial, (3) deductive, (4) a variation of deductive and (5) inductive.

Chronological (or time) order refers to the order in which the events happen.

Spatial order is defined as the arrangement if things in an environment.

Deductive order, which is sometimes called general-to-specific order, is the

most common pattern in the English paragraph. The deductive pattern can be

visualized like an inverted triangle with the base at the top

A variation of deductive order is the pattern in which the main idea is

followed by supporting sentences, but the writer then restates the main idea

at the end of the pattern, thereby underscoring its importance.

Main idea

Supporting statements

Restated main idea

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Main ideaSupporting statements

Inductive order, the opposite of deductive order, is sometimes called specific-

to-general order. A diagram of an inductively arranged paragraph looks like

this

• Techniques of identifying the author’s point of view: it is

important that students look for words that reveal the author’s point of view,

that is, his or her support or opposition to something. There are times when

an author hoes present both sides of an issue, and rather than taking a

position, allows readers to make up their own minds.

54

SupportingstatementsMain ideas

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

6.1. Summary of findings

In this research paper, the researcher works on the topic : “An

evaluation reading reflection activity for third-year students at ULIS-VNU”.

By and large, the research has completed its primitive aims, which are (1) to

investigate the teachers and third-year students’ and teachers’ evaluation of

the use of reading reflection in our college, (2) to find out the most common

problems third-year students encounter when carrying out reading reflection

activity and (3) to provide some feasible solutions to such issues by

collecting opinions from third-year students and teachers who have been

teaching reading for third-year students and by researching literature for

valuable recommendation to improve the effectiveness of this activity.

The research shows that the majority of third-year students and teachers have

a great feeling of satisfaction for the current reading reflection situation at our

department. Most students are deeply aware of the benefits reading reflection

brings to their study and their life; therefore, they have made big efforts to

carry out this activity to the best of their ability. However, some problems

still exist, which reduces the effectiveness of this activity. Such problems are

listed as follows:

About the format of reading reflection:

55

Firstly, there is no agreement in the structure of a reading reflection

piece. Hence, most students’ reading reflections lack logicality, which causes

lot of difficulties to teachers when assessing their reading assignment.

Secondly, the majority of students have problems with citing sources in

APA form. All they do is to list a number of texts or links in alphabetical

order.

About the content of reading reflection:

The first problem lies in students’ comparing and contrasting ability

and their limited analyzing skill. Secondly, a lot of students’ reading

reflections show that a popular circumstance of copying and integrating the

words and structures of the original reading texts into students’ reflection;

that is to say their low summarizing ability. Thirdly, high frequency of

grammar and spelling mistakes is found in their reflection, which reflects

students’ lack of consciousness in checking their writing. Lastly, bad word

choice in some students’ reflections emphasizes again the necessity of

reading extensively to enrich their vocabulary.

However, it is not impossible to overcome these problems. Most importantly,

students should be aware that the first goal of learning English is to

communicate, not just to pass the final exams. Therefore, under no

circumstances should students focus on developing their testing skill but

undervaluing the importance of reading reflection. Besides, it should be

teachers’ responsibility to help students become more familiar with the

techniques of analyzing a reading text because this way enables students to

conduct their reading reflection by themselves more easily. Another

important thing to be considered is to negotiate agreement on the reflection

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format among the whole department so that students’ reflections show a more

logical and scientific presentation.

6.2. Limitations

Although the research has achieved some certain results in the use of reading

reflection for third-year students, it still contains some inevitable limitations

due to limited time and scope of the study

The most remarkable limitation lies in the methodology by which the

research was carried out. Actually, the researcher initially intended to make

some informal interviews with third-year students to clarify their opinions

towards reading reflection and collected around 20 of students’ reading

reflection samples for analysis. However, limited time and unexpected

happenings caused the researcher to interview just few students and collect a

smaller number of samples than she had expected. A more thorough analysis

could have been made if the researcher had had more time and condition to

do it. Moreover, because of time pressure, the researcher could have

interviews with only three teachers, otherwise the research would have seen

from more viewpoints.

The serious self-evaluation on what this paper has successfully achieved and

what not yet urge the researcher to make some following suggestions for any

other researchers who share the same interest in the topic.

6.3. Suggestions for further research

The researcher hopes that further studies would be able to involve more

participants to get more reliable results. Interview could be carried out with

more teachers who are interested in the field so that more recommendations

are collected, hopefully they will serve as a good reference for those who

have desire to improve the current reading reflection situation in our

department.

57

Being an undergraduate student, the researcher is obviously inexperienced

and her knowledge is also limited. As a result, there will be unavoidable

mistakes in this research paper. Therefore, it is her pleasure that her teachers

and friends would make comments and contribute to her work so as to perfect

it as well as to provide her with experience that will be of great help in

carrying out papers in the future.

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APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

My name is Vu Thuy Linh - Class: 06.1.E9

This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “The evaluation of the

effectiveness of reading reflection for third-year students” Your assistance in

responding to the following questions is highly appreciated. You can be

confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data.

In completing these questions, please choose the answer by tick beside your

choice or expressing your ideas in the blank

Thank you very much in advance

_______________________________________________________________

1. The Importance of reading reflection

How do you value the importance of reading reflection to third-year students?

Not important at all○ Not really○ Important○ Very

important○

If your answer is important/ very important, answer the question 1.1

1.1. Reading reflection is important to third-year students because

( Can circle more than one answer)

a. It helps students understand reading texts more deeply

b. it motivates students to read actively and independently

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c. it enhances students’ critical thinking

d. it helps students in their writing ( such as arguementative essay)

e. others (please specify)………………………………………….

If your answer is “not important”, answer the question 1.2

1.2. Reading reflection is not necessary to third-year students because

a. it is a time-consuming activity

b. reading tests do not require analyzing a reading text like the one in reading

reflection; therefore, it is not necessary for third-year students to write reading

reflection

c. others (please specify)…………………………………………………

2. The amount of reading texts

In your opinion, should teachers decrease, increase or remain the required

amount of reading texts?

Decrease□ Remain□ Increase□

3. Ways of carrying out the reading reflection activity

3.1. Are your teacher’s instructions before the activity clear enough for you to

follow?

No Yes, but not clearly Yes, very clear

3.2. Do your teachers make any comments on your reading reflections?

Always frequently seldom never

4. Your difficulties in carrying out reading reflection activity

a. In choosing a reading text with suitable content, reasonable length and

academic style

b. In summarizing the text

c. In synthesizing different authors’ view towards the same issue

d. In understanding the author’s intended meaning

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e. In evaluating the author’s style and organization

f. In expressing the personal view towards controversial issues

g. In following the APA form

h. In organizing the reading reflection

i. Other difficulties (please specify)…………………………………

5. What are your suggestions to improve reading reflections?

APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

I am Vũ Thùy Linh, a senior student of the English Department, HULIS, VNU. I

am carrying out a study on “The evaluation of the effectiveness of reading

reflection for third-year students”. This survey is designed to investigate your

opinion on third-year students’ reading reflection activity. Your personal

information will be kept strictly confidential. Please give your answers truthfully

for a guaranteed success of the investigation.

Thank you very much for your help

1. How do you value the importance of reading reflection for third-year

students?

2. How many of words/texts do you require your students to read?

3. Do you give any other instructions about reading reflections activity

beside the ones in the course outline?

4. Do you have any different requirements from the ones in the course

outline?

5. What do you often give feedbacks on in your students’ reading

reflections? After getting your feedback, do they have any improvements in their

later reading reflection?

6. In your opinion, what are the most common problems your students often

deal with when carrying out reading reflection activity?

7. Do you have any suggestions to improve students’ reading reflection?

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APPENDIX 3: TEACHERS’ RESPONSES TO THE INTERVIEW

Questions T1 T2 T31. The Importance of reading reflection

- Motivate Ss to read more

- Develop Ss’ critical thinking

- Motivate Ss to read more

- Develop Ss’ critical thinking

-motivate Ss to read more

-develop Ss’ critical thinking

2. The required number of reading texts

6-8 texts (15000words)

2-5 texts (around 8000 words)

2-5 texts (around 8000 words)

3. Instructions (beside course outline)

- An agreed format between teacher and students- summarizing skill- writing an essay- choosing suitable texts

4. Other requirements

- academic source- find the

differences among the texts and the trend of the issue

- updated sources (online source)

-no other requirements

5. Feedback - Form (APA, paraphrasing)

- Writing ability

-form (APA)-grammatical and

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- Content (find out the differences and the causes of such differences)

- Level of analyzing

spelling mistakes-word choice

6. Students’ problems

- Form (not APA)- Too many online

sources- Summary (just

copy and paste the exact words from the texts)

- Not critical analysis

- Summarizing skill- Academic writing:

Ss analyze one text to the other, not the compare and contrast essay)

- Too common lessons from the texts

-bad choice of reading texts

-form (not APA)-illogical organization of the reflection

-misunderstanding of a reflection ( Ss report, not reflect what they read)

-grammatical and spelling mistakes

-bad word choice7. Recommendati-ons

- Have strict requirement for sources

- Motivate Ss’ interest in reading

- Combine Research methodology and reading reflection

- Synchronize the format of reflection in the whole department

- Reduce the number of texts

-Give students theoretical background of reading reflection-Make some change to the 1st-term writing course (compare and contrast essay)-Reduce the required number of texts

-give students theoretical background of reading reflection

-reduce the number of texts

-advise students to exchange feedback to reduce the number of grammatical and spelling mistakes

-synchronize the format of reflection in the whole department

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APPENDIX 4- THE 10 READING REFLECTION SAMPLESRF1-Reflection 1 Work is central to the human experience; in fact, it is work and its economic and social outcomes that provide us with the keys to understanding of culture and civilization. Work tells us much about scarcity and abundance poverty and affluence in any society, as well as a nation’s economic imperatives. Work affects families, school curricula and public policy because it is our handprint upon the world. Last week I read a book write about “Work” it called The McGraw-Hill Reader, Issues Across the Disciplines, Seventh Edition. I chose and read three texts in the book, which are “What Is the Point of Working?”, the author, Lance Morrow; “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer”, the author, Robert Reich; “Professions for Women”, the author, Virginia Woolf. All of three texts have in common that is talk about “Work”. The first text is “What Is the Point of Working?” (page 288-292) of the author Lance Morrow. In the text, Morrow explores American attitudes toward the workplace. The second text (page 304-315), Robert Reich- the author talks about three economic boats: the boat containing routine producers which is sinking rapidly, the boat carrying in-person servers is sinking but more slowly and unevenly than the first boat, and the vessel containing America’s symbolic analysts which is rising. The third text (page 325-329), Virginia Woolf, novelist and essayist also writes about wok by arguing that women must overcome several “angels” or phantoms, in order to succeed in professional careers. Particularly, all three texts are essays by rhetorical mode.

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Although discussing about work, each text displays the different aspects of work. The content of the first text is the most common. It is about American attitudes toward the workplace from past to now. By giving the views of the other writers about work and his own opinion Lance Morrow shows the readers different ideas about work. For example Studs Terkel with his 1972 book “Working’ began “This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence-to the spirit as well as to the body” (page 288); in contrast Kahlil Gibran called work “love made visible” (page 289). “During the 19th century industrialization of America, the idea of work’s inherent virtue may have seemed temporarily in plausible to generations who labored in the mines and mills and sweetshops” (page 289). However, according to the author, now the work ethic is not dead, but it is weaker. The psychology of work is much change in America. Morrow gives not only the change in attitude of American workers but he also explains clearly the reason leading to the change “because today’s workers are better educated than those in the past, their expectations are higher”. Finally, Lance Morrow expresses his own attitude to the workplace. He sees work not merely as an important human activity but an essential one for social and psychology health. He supposes that “Work is the most thorough and profound organizing principle in American life” (page 291). He also thinks that work is the way that people tend the world, the way that people connect. In the essay, the author refers to many historical, biographical and literary references to make it more persuadable. In his essay Morrow cites no polls, no statistics, nor does he offer any personal observation regarding his topic, but this absence does not weaken his argument because the rhetorical strength of the essay powerful enough to stand on its own (the rhetorical format for the essay is argument). The strength of the Morrow’s essay is that he gives encounters to strengthen his ideas. The second text is “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer”- Robert Reich. Through his text, the author tells us his analysis of the changing nature of work and how these changes create an even broader gap between the rich and the poor. According him, in the past, All American used to be in roughly the same economic boat, but now in different boats, one sinking rapidly, one sinking more slowly and the third rising steadily. The first boat containing routine producers is sinking rapidly. Robert Reich gives evidences to prove his state. For instance, key punch operators in the United States in 1990, American Airlines in 1990, AT&T in 1989 and so on. The second boat of the three boats carrying in-person servers is sinking as well, but somewhat more slowly and unevenly. “Most in-person servers are paid at or just slightly above the minimum wage and many works only part-time with the result that their take-home pay is modest, to say the least” (page 309). The

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author shows the problems or difficulties that in-person servers have to face such as the competition in labor-saving machinery (the fiercest competition), the second decade of the 21th century, the number of Americans aged 65 and over will be rising, as the baby-boomers reach retirement age and live longer, and the decaying baby-boomers will not have enough money to pay for the services such as require nurses, nursing-home operators, hospital administrators hospice aides and so on. The final boat containing America’s symbolic analysts is rising. Symbolic analysts are American scientists and researchers who are busily selling their discoveries to global enterprise webs. The third boat is rising because worldwide demand for America’s symbolic analyst’s insights is growing. Reich uses the central metaphor of the “boat” in describing the state of economics and employment. This makes his essay imaginative. The third text ““Professions for Women”, Virginia Woolf - the author uses her own experience to prove that women wants to have professional careers they must overcome several “angels”. In the text, the author talks about two very genuine experiences of her own which she has had to overcome to become a novelist. They are two of the adventures of her professional life. The first-killing the Angel in the House-phantom which she solved, and the second, telling the truth about her own experiences as body which she has not solved yet. According to the author the second experience is ghosts, prejudices. The essay of Virginia Woolf is ironic from the start as she readily admits she can speak expertly of only one profession, her own, which is writing. There is a significant amount of figurative language in the essay which helps the author expresses her experience successfully. In her essay, Woolf also poses so many questions to emphasis the utmost importance and interest. She wants the readers to understand her message that is clear regarding the effect of living in a male-dominated society. Generally, all of three texts are likely different each other because each author has own opinion and different ways to demonstrate and support his or her own ideas. The three texts are very informative. They help me read more critically. Thanks to the texts, I know more information about work, especially work in the United States. I know more about the attitudes of American to the workplace in the past. I also understand why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. Moreover, I learn the forms of essays by rhetorical mode, the ways writers perform ideas, support them and encounter the other ideas. Reading the texts help me have the ability to think, read and write about complex materials. Besides learning the tools of critical reading and writing not only teaches me the “what” of an issue, but also helps me think about and respond smartly to the relative strength of the writer’s opinions, ideas and theories. Although all of three texts are useful for me, there are lots of

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terminologies, so it is difficult to understand the texts. When I read the texts I used closed skill and summarizing skill to understand and reflect them.

RL 2- Reflection 2 Family where one can find understanding, talk about their problems, be listened to, share feelings and emotions, love and be loved is very important to them. I have read five texts written about family, its roles, values and influences recently. The first text is “Immigrants and family values” written by Francis Fukyama and reprinted by permission from Commentary, May 1993. The second one is ““Stone soup” written by Barbara Kingsolver published by HarperCollins. The third one is “A mother’s son”, written by Thomas Simmons; the fourth is “ parent education” written by Gayle M. Jessar and the last one is “Are families passé’?” written by Ruth Benedict given in the book “The Mc Graw Hill Reader, Issues across the disciplines” designed by Gilbert H.Muller, published by the City University of New York La Guardia .

In terms of similarities, firstly, all of five texts are written about families, its roles, values, influences and the purpose is to save it. The first text “Immigrants and families values” is about immigrants in the United States and their family life in the Third World. It affirms that economic conditions are very important in saving family in the Third World and its values. In the second text “Are families passé’?” the author gives a lot of arguments about family , its roles and the question here is that whether icfamilies are passé or not. The third one “Stone soup” is also about the role of family and its importance. In this text, the author uses quite a lot of capitalizing, italicizing, and placing quotation marks around certain phrases, for example ,”way it has always been” ( paragraph 4); failed and children of divorce (paragraph 7) ; “ family values” ( paragraph 18) to emphasize the role

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of family, parents and its importance. The fourth one “A mother’s son” is a short story which tells about the life, the hope of the author’s mother, a mother in 1960’s and her influence on him. He wrote it to commemorate his departed mother, to express his sentiments towards her, to show his opinion about family relationship and to help readers understand more about the place of women in marriage as well as in family in his mother’s times. The last one ““Parent Education” written to show people the importance of parent education and encourage people to take parenting classes. Secondly, all of these texts, the authors use a lot of comparison and contrast rhetorical. In “Immigrants and families values”, the author use comparison and contrast rhetorical from paragraph 19 to 28(page 116 to 119) to point out families values of immigrants. Next, in “Are family passé?” from paragraph 7 to 18(page 158 to 160); the author follows a comparison and contrast format, which makes prominent the view on family life of the United States or European countries and others in the world. Moreover, this rhetorical method helps readers understand or answer easily the essay’s title she gave. In “Stone soup”, the author uses comparison and contrast rhetorical in paragraph 1, 3, and 4. 6, 7, 8 and 9 (page 166) to point out the difference between her real life and the family of dolls and the change in life after she divorced the difficulties she encountered and the importance of family. Added to this, in “a mother’s son”, the author compares his mother with his friend’s to emphasize his mother’s love for him. Finally, all of these texts use argument and persuasion rhetorical to argue about the role of family, its importance and persuade readers to find the way to save family values.In terms of differences, because the authors were born at the different generations, so their views regarding the family also have differences. In “Are family passé?” Ruth Benedict the post – World war II American family and by doing so, demonstrates how she synthesizes many disciplines in her reflection on social phenomena. Next, “Stone Soup” is a personal reaction by Barbara Kingsolver that expresses the author’s feelings in response to society’s negative view and it’s holding of contempt of divorced, remarried, single parenthood, and gay parents. The author herself is a divorced parent and feels outraged at the notion that her family, according to society, is classified as “broken” or “failed” .She begins her essay with an anecdote of a child scoring a winning goal during a soccer game; the child looking at the bleachers, where he is praised by his mother and her friends .In “Immigrants and family values.” Francis Fukuyama attempts to set the record straight regarding the influence of recent immigrants to the United States. Next, in “ a mother’s son” ,the author’s tone is emotional and expressive as he describes his noble mother who considered self-sacrifice as her justification for living

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in her whole life. The language the author uses is simply and natural but imbrued with love and preoccupation. To attract readers’ attention and provoke their contemplation, he cleverly makes use of beautiful words and expressions such as “I am left with boxes and boxes of history”, “in the futile hope of”, “the sacred mingling of souls”, “self-sacrifice and endless duty”, “the past quiets down, and things fall into perspective”, etc. Last, in “parent education”, the author gives an authoritative tone by telling the readers about her own job. She also reports positive results, noting that parents she works with believe “they become better parents when they understand more about their children’s needs and normal development patterns”. The language she uses is simple and understandable. Each reflects a style of writing, an intellectual universe, and an external world that views the healthy family differently. Additionally, because Benedict comes directly from the academic community, her writing reflects its stylist influence, while Kingsolver, a poet and novelist as well as a scientist , demonstrates a more eclectic and unique voice; moreover, she also reveals to the reader her experience of divorce and the affect it had on her and her daughter, admitting to the reader her arrogant view of divorce prior to experiencing it herself and describing her prior beliefs as, “ignorance and Francis Fukuyama – a consultant as well as a deputy director for the State department’s policy demonstrates through statistics and analysis. Perhaps these attributes can also be traced to the greater tolerance for stylistic variety today than existed in Benedict’s time. Added to this, Benedict was writing at a time when family values were just beginning to become more liberal; on the other hand, Kingsolver and Francis Fukuyama are writing at a time when the composition of conventional household has now become just one among a variety of family constellations. After reading these five texts, I have learnt many useful things. Firstly, in my opinion, the most useful lesson is the importance of family, its roles and values. For example, after reading “a mother’s son”, I understand more about mothers’ sacrifice for their families. I think about my mother who loves me boundlessly and readily does everything for my family. I also understand more about the equality in love and marriage. Love and marriage has to be built on mutual understanding and sharing, not just compliance. Besides, I used to experience a hard time when I felt that my parents did not understand and respect me, and I turned into a bit rebel and troublemaker. Now I know that parents just want the best things for their children and they also need their children’s respect and cooperation. What’s more, in the past, I did not know more about the importance and values of family, and American’s views on life and family .After reading these texts; they help me to broaden my

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knowledge about life, family in other countries. They help me appreciate the value of unity, honesty and respect in family. Moreover, these texts help me know more about the writing styles of other writers. Finally, personally, I have learnt how to organize the text, how to use the transitional words and phrases exactly, and how to express my own view persuadably. In conclusion, these three texts are really interesting, touching, meaningful, persuasive and worth reading. They generally show clear ideas and organization, so it is easy to follow. Besides, there is a wide range of vocabularies and structures from which I can learn and actually they are examined carefully and deeply.Source:1. PARENT EDUCATION Gayle M. Jessar Source: “Reading, Writing and Thinking Critical Connections” (Pages 181, 182) Vivian M. Rosenberg Random House, Inc. 19892. A mother’s sonThomas Simmons Source: “Reading, Writing and Thinking Critical Connections” (Pages 164, 165, 166) Vivian M. Rosenberg Random House, Inc. 19893. Immigrants and Family Values. Francis Fukuyama

Reprinted by permission from Commentary, May 1993.

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/pub/Immigration/ImmAndTheFamily/Fukuyama.html4. "Stone Soup" is reprinted with permission from High Tide In Tucson, published by HarperCollins. Copyright©1995 by Barbara Kingsolver..

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/09-28-95/cover.htm5.“Are families passé’?”- Ruth Benedict The book “The Mc Graw Hill Reader, Issues across the disciplines” designed by Gilbert H.Muller, The City University of New York La Guardia .

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RF 3- Reflection 3After these seven weeks, I’ve read a lot of articles about disasters and

survival. I found that five articles were very interesting and informative. They are on Internet, consisting of: Could you survive alone if injured, Cold weather survival, A Survival Guide to Catastrophe, Wilderness Survival Priorities, and Survival in Times of Uncertainty: Growing Up in Russia in the 1990s. These articles all bring us the stories of how different people all around the world can survive in many different ways. Moreover, they also tell us about some tips of surviving when you’re in troubles. While three of these articles including the first, second and the forth ones are written about the ways which help people overcome some difficult situations such as cold weather, being injured or lonely in the dark and the steps to do, the other article in some ways bring true stories in life of the persons who had experienced these situations. I’m especially interested in these articles about catastrophe and growing in Russia. The persons in these articles told us their own stories to help us feel clearly how difficult to overcome these difficulties in life and how they can survive..

First four articles all bring information in details and stories in order to help readers know specifically more about survival. I found that the last article is a little different from the first ones. It didn’t write about the way people can survive over disasters, and it focused on real life and its matters. In some difficult periods, when people have to face to lacks of food, happiness, freedom, they have to learn to survive and do by their natures.

When reading those passages, I find that I can improve my reading skills such as improving critical reading and thinking skills. I can focus on

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scanning skill, especially in last article. In addition, I can broad my vocabulary because there’re many new words or stems about survival, for examples survival fire, gear, kit, etc. I think the structure of all articles is generally quite clear and easy to read. To support these opinions, the writers show us not only a lot of facts and examples but also many arguments and true stories, so we can aware of how to survival and how important it is. In my opinion, all the authors give fair arguments and reliable information.

I can also enrich the background knowledge about the steps I need to follow when I’m in trouble. I find that stories in two articles about catastrophe and growing up in Russian in the 1990s very meaningful because they bring me some valuable lessons about our life, the ways to live and how to overcome difficulties. After reading these articles, I can know how to do if I’m in an earthquake, flood, or fire. The most important thing I should remember is always be calm and quickly do what I think. To try to survival means you need to act, not “freeze”.

In conclusion, I think the topic of survival and disasters is very interesting and useful. By doing this assignment, I can consolidate and broaden language knowledge to reach higher level.

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RF 4-Reflection 4I have ever read three researches about one topic “nonverbal communication-body language”, however in this reflection I just want to compare two researches of two different group authors (Teri Kwal Gamble and Micheal Gamble; and Stephen E.Lucas) about nonverbal communication. I found that it was an interesting topic which brought me much useful information. To start with, we should know what nonverbal communication is? To answer this question, both group authors gave the similar definition of nonverbal communication. It means that it is unnecessary to use words to express what we want and think, we can use body language such as facial expressions, gesture, posture and other nonlinguistic factors. However, the group authors- Gambles analyzed more deeply and compared nonverbal communication with verbal communication in order to show the similarities as well as difficulties. The first similarity is that both of them are ambiguous. Nonverbal messages may not mean what we think they do. The authors also gave information that all nonverbal communication must be evaluated or interpreted within the context in which it occurs. The second one is that both of them are contradictory. It means that there is a contrast between we say and we act. For example, when you say “I agree” but your face looks sad, it means you disagree. From these features of nonverbal communication I learn that if I want to make decisions or give judgment I should pay attention to not only what people say but also what I observe from them. On the other hand, the only difference between the nonverbal and verbal communication is that nonverbal communication is perpetual and frequently involuntary. Gambles group gave meaning example to support their views about nonverbal. Why

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nonverbal communication is perpetual and voluntary? The reason is that it is a natural reaction of our body and we can not stop sending nonverbal messages as well as stop behaving. Frankly, Teri Kwal Gamble and Micheal Gamble are more successful than Stephen E.Lucas because they defined nonverbal communication more clearly and compared it to the verbal communication to find the features of nonverbal messages.Furthermore, nonverbal communication includes many elements. To understand more about nonverbal communication, both of the two group authors concentrated on analyzing body language. Their common thing is that both of groups called body language “kinesics”, which has a lot of elements such as facial expressions, gestures and postures. They both considered that facial expression is the most important broadcaster of emotion. From their research, I know an informative fact “80 muscles in the face can create more than 7000 expressions”. However, to specialize facial expression, the Gamble group divided it into three general areas: the eyebrow and forehead, the eyes and the mouth. Each of area makes success in expression emotion without words. This division seems to be effective because it was divided into specific areas but it still belonged to facial expression system. Gestures and posture are the effective elements of body language. If gestures are the movements of our arms, hands, neck to broadcast nonverbal data, posture is the way we hold ourselves when sitting or standing, giving other information that they use to assess our thoughts and feelings.In my own points, two researches of two different groups of authors about one topic “nonverbal communicating (especially body language) attained some success and some similarities. For example, they gave the similar definition of nonverbal communication, the elements of body language. They both realized the importance of body language to achieve in communicating. After each opinion, they also gave effective example to support for their views. Another example, to prove nonverbal communication is perpetual and involuntary; the Gamble group gave a sample “Even if one partner is in a conversation suddenly leaves the room, he or she is still communicating”. However, the way they showed and analyzed had some great differences. The Stephen E.Lucas group only gave the general information about nonverbal communication; they did not deeply analyze as well as arrange the information clearly. On the contrary, the Gambles group not only gave general information but also gave the details to make their views clearer. I really like the way that the Gamble group divided some information into more specific ones but they were still in one system; this division has several advantages such as making ideas clearer but not overlapped and understanding something as well as analyzing them deeply.

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In short, after reading and understanding the text about nonverbal communication, especially body language, I know that communication have not only conversation by words, but the participation of nonverbal data or body language. It also means that what you hear is possibly wrong if you only hear it, so that before making decision or giving opinion about something, we should base on what we hear and what we observe or pay attention to both verbal and nonverbal communicational factors.

RF5-Relection 5In seven weeks, I read some texts:

1. Effects of technology

Source: http://www.essaydepot.com/essayme/2195/index.php2. Functions of television

Source: http://www/thetvaddiction.com/functions_of_television.html3. Television- Its advantages and disadvantages

Source: http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resource/71581-Television-Its-Advantages-Disadvantages.aspx4. The good things about television

Source:http://www.media-awareness.ca/englisgh/parents/television/good_things_tv.cfm5. Television’s impact on kids

Source:http://www.media-awareness.ca/englisgh/parents/television/tv_impact_kids.cfm6. How TV affects your child

Source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/posotove/family/tv_affects_child.html7. The influence of television on children

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Source: http://www.thetvaddiction.com/the_influence_of_television_on_children.html8. The influence of television on adults

Source:http://www.thetvaddiction.com/the_influnece_of_television_on_adults.html

From reading the above passages, I learnt more knowledge about the effects of television on people, especially children. The technology which surrounds almost everyone in the modern society, affects both work and leisure activities. One of them is television which is one of the greatest inventions of human an inescapable part of modern culture. To people, television brings both advantages and disadvantages.Firstly, we discover functions of television, they are informative function, management or social function, educative function. Because of its functions, more and more people watch television everyday. It also has brought about a revolution in the field of entertainment, education, and communication. Nowadays, people depend on television for entertainment, news, education, culture, weather, sports. Therefore, television has many advantages. People only stay at home, watch television and they still get much information on the world. Moreover, television is as a catalyst to get kids reading, and it also helps people relax after a hard-working day with many funny interesting programs. Besides advantages, television brings many disadvantages, especially its effect on children about some sides such as violence, healthy child development, and sexual content. According to many studies, there are three potential responses to media violence in children. They include “mean and scary world” syndrome, desensitization to real-life violence, increased aggressive behavior. Because nowadays, there are so many programs which contain violent contents, even in cartoons for kids. Television also lakes bad habits for children such as drinking alcohol, doing drugs, smoking cigarettes. In addition, television viewing is a sedentary activity which is main factor in childhood obesity. Children spend much time watching TV instead of meeting their friends. One more thing is that children today are bombarded with sexual messages and images in television. According to a 2001 study from the Kaiser Family foundation, entitled Sex on TV, three out of four prime time shows contain sexual references. Situation comedies top list: 84 percent contain sexual content. In shows that portrayed teens in sexual situations, only 17 percent contained messages about safe and responsible sex.

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A noticeable other issue is the influence of television on adults. People often discuss effects of television on children, so they rarely talk about those on adults. To adults, television’s influences depend on each person, on his culture, knowledge, intelligence and just on his attitude and preferences. About healthy problems, TV can make a negative effect on adults’ physical and metal health. However, adults have had consciousness about what is good or bad, so they can adjust themselves about watching television. An interesting thing is that some texts give ways of teaching good TV habits. Here are some practical ways to make TV-viewing more productivr in your home:

- Limit the number of TV-watching hours (keep TVs out of bedrooms, turn off TV during meals, don’t allow kids to watch TV while doing homework, etc.)

- Try a weekday ban. ( Do other activities instead of watching TV such as schoolwork, sports activities and job responsibilities, etc)

- Set a good example by limiting your own TV viewing.

- Check the TV listings and program reviews ahead of time for programs your family can watch together.

- Preview programs before your kids watch schedule that you all agree upon each week.

- Watch Tv together.

- Talk to kids about what they see on TV and share your own beliefs and values.

- Talk to other parents, your doctor, and teachers about their TV- watching policies and kid-friendly programs they’d recommend.

- Offer fun alternatives to television.

- The above texts have some similarities. About structure, all of them have introduction, supporting ideas and conclusion. Because of that, the reader can easily read and find the main information from the texts. From the, I also saw that knowledge and information about advantages and disadvantages of television are similar.

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Although the texts write the same topic, there are some differences about supporting ideas. In the fifth, the sixth and the seventh texts, they also write about effects of TV on children. However, in the two first texts, authors write about harms in violence, health and development of children because of TV’s programs and shows. In the seventh text, effects of TV on children are divided into smaller parts, and they aren’t also clear.In different texts, the main content is the effects of TV on children which are violence, risky behaviors, obesity. This issue has been discussed many times from past until now. Scientists gave advice to limit television’s effects on people. I think that this issue should be introduced extensively to everyone, especially parents to limit minimum disadvantages, and increase maximum advantages of television. More over, reading these texts, I practiced skimming skills and extensive reading to get information and understand content. In my opinion, reading portfolio is a good activity for students to improve their reading skills.

RL 6- Reflection 6 From the twentieth century, mass media has played a crucial role in forming and reflecting public opinion, connecting the world to individuals and reproducing the self-image of society. I really wanted to understand more about this issue, so I found and read five articles on the topic “Media and society”. The five articles I read are “The medium is the metaphor” by Neil Postman, “Steal this TV, how media literacy can change the world” by Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard, “Television and reading in the lives of young children” by Susan Neuman, “Can TV help save black youth” by Diane Goldner, and “Violence in the media” by J. Gonzalez-Mena. These five articles are both similar and different in some ways. Even though each article has its own style and content, they have several things in common. Firstly, all the articles are written to clarify the effects of TV and other kinds of media on the individuals and society. Two articles “Television and reading in the lives of young children” and “Violence in the media” both discuss the impact of the media on children’s lives. The second similarity is

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that the audiences from whom the authors want to draw attention are people who have good background knowledge about media and good critical thinking skills. However, these writings are different in some ways. The first difference is the tone the authors use. “Can TV help save black youth” has encouraging and hopeful tone whereas “How media literacy can change the world” has academic tone “and “The media is the metaphor” has scholarly tone but a little bit irony. In “Television and reading in the lives of young children” and “Violence in the media”, the authors ‘tone is professional and analytic. The second difference is the patterns of organization the writers use to achieve their purposes. In “The medium is the metaphor” and “How media literacy can change the world”, Neil Postman and Don Adams use argumentation to present their ideas while “Can TV help save black youth” and “Violence in the media” are cause and effect essays where Diane Goldner and Gonzalez-Mena both show the influence of TV programs on children and adolescences. “Television and reading in the lives of young children, on the other hand, is a research of Susan Neuman and a comparison and contrast between common assumption and her actual findings about the effect of TV on young children. In this paragraph, I will summarize the main ideas of the five texts I mentioned. In “The medium is the metaphor”, Neil describes how oral, literate, and televisual cultures radically differ in how information is processed and prioritized by giving examples about the politicians, journalists as well as celebrities. He also argues that different media are appropriate for different kinds of knowledge. In the article “How media literacy can change the world” Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard show the importance of the implementation of public policy for media education. According to the authors, we have to look at what role media should play in our society and how people can participate in shaping television and the other mass media that affect all of our lives. This article is clearly a call for action and change in media education. Unlike Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard, Diane Goldner, in “Can TV help save black youth”, discusses the “tragic morass of violence and the increase in homicide rate for young people, which is extremely serious. She she hopes that television series will make the audience more open to this subject; and entertainment can be the “elixir” to changing people’s thoughts and attitudes. In the article “Television and reading in the lives of young children”, Susan Neuman presents her observations of three family to see the impact of television on the reading activities of the children. She also discusses the differences between the findings of her research and the three common assumptions about the relationship of television viewing to cognitive development and creativity. In “Violence in the media”, the writer

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shows the relationship between aggression and television watching and the ways to take advantage of positive effects and limit negative side of mass media. In my opinion, these articles are really worth reading. “The medium is the metaphor” and “how media literacy can change the world” are not easy to understand from the first time of reading; however, if we read them slowly and think about the ways the authors approach the problems, the language they use, and the messages they want to send, we will find them very interesting and informative. All the authors succeed in persuading the audience as they presents strong arguments and gives vivid examples as well as facts and statistics. Perhaps, the article I like the most is “Television and reading in the lives of young children”. Although it a kind of research, a kind of observations, it is not dry and boring as I thought at first. The writer presents her work, her observations in a fairly understandable way and clear structure. However, the most surprise is the findings of her observations which contradict with the common assumptions about the effect of television viewing. It turns out that watching television does not stifle children’s imagination and creativity, take time away more worthwhile pursuits as well as displace activities serving children needs for novelty and information. One interesting thing I found after reading these articles is that while the other four articles emphasize the positive as well as negative influences of television and the media, “Television and reading in the lives of young children” seems to suggest that television does not have such much power since children tend to choose other active and social activities rather than sitting at home and watching television. However, to my mind, we also cannot deny the power of media and its impact on individuals and the society. It is human beings that are affected by media a great deal as the way we think, the way we live, the way we communicate somehow are decided by the images that media creates. Hence, I agree with the writers Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard that media education is vital because it will make our society has become more “media literate” to avoid mass media displacing and undermining social life, community activities as well as other creative pursuits. Besides, through these texts, I also learn a lot of vocabulary such as “fast-paced entertainment”, “metaphor”, “media literacy”, “quasi-public authorities”, “elixir”, “imaginative play”, etc; and the way to write an academic piece of writing. In conclusion, these five texts are really interesting, persuasive and informative, and all show clear ideas and patterns organization. Besides, they provide a wide range of vocabulary and structures from which I can learn to improve my reading, writing as well as critical thinking skills.

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READING LIST

1. The medium is the metaphorAuthor: Neil PostmanSource: “Currents of Inquiry” (Pages 242-251) Nancy Morrow-Marlene Clarke The McHraw-Hill companies, INC.1998

2. Steal this TV, how media literacy can change the worldAuthors: Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard Source: “Currents of Inquiry” (Pages 286-291) Nancy Morrow-Marlene Clarke The McHraw-Hill companies, INC.1998

3. Television and reading in the lives of young children Author: Susan B. Neuman

Source: “Currents of Inquiry” (Pages 292-313) Nancy Morrow-Marlene Clarke The McHraw-Hill companies, INC.1998

4. Can TV help save black youthAuthor: Diane Goldner,

Source: Multitude Cross- Cultural Readings for Writer (Page 481-485) Chitra B. Divakaruni The McGraw-Hill companies, 1997

5. Violence in the mediaAuthor: J. Gonzalez-Mena

Source:http://www.education.com/reference/article/violence-media-impact-children/?page=2

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RF7-Reflection 7As a result of many efforts, I selected and finished reading a lot of articles relating to the “Cohabitation” topic. All of them are very helpful in providing its background knowledge to the young adults, especially students.In this reflection, there are four relevant readings:

1. Cohabitation

http://family.jrank.rog/pages/279/Cohabitation.html

2. The facts are behind cohabitation

Hrrp://www.civitas.org.uk/hwu/cohabitation

3. Should we live together?

http://www.smartmarriages.com/cohabit.html

4. Cohabitation before marriage by Joseph M. champlin

http://www.americanatholic.org/Newletters/CU/ac0603.asp

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Cohabitation is becoming more and more popular in the world. This is a burning problem causing many arguments in the world that should be banned or not for its obscure and even taboo meaning. In most countries, cohabitation is not yet perceived as a legitimate variant to marriage from the perspective of the state. For example, in US there are six states launching legislation to object to the cohabitation and in Indonesia, it is punishable up to two years in prison for cohabiters. In contrast with two countries, the Legislation Assembly of Mexico City has established legal rights and duties for two people who are living together. In Vietnam, cohabitation increases more and more, however, it is considered illegal and unacceptable.Commonly, cohabitation often refers to only young people and their intimated relations; however, it is not enough. Cohabitation is also misunderstood despite of the fact that it is not a new phenomenon now. Before reading this portfolio carefully, I thought that cohabitation only happen with young people in a short time for about some months or maximum some years with the main purpose is to test whether they are suitable with each other or not. I also have little logical knowledge of the bad influences of this phenomenon. After reading; however, I improve my knowledge in term of exact definition cohabitation:” Cohabitation, sometimes called consensual union, refers to unmarried heterosexual couples living together in an intimate relationship” which means that people who cohabit together can last for their whole life if they are not really Mr or Mrs. Right of each other.As I read this chain of material, I find the most disadvantages of cohabitation like following:Firstly, cohabitation cannot guarantee for the children lived in happy family. As the third article three quarters of children born to cohabiting parents will see their parents split up before they reach age sixteen, whereas only about a third of children born to married parents face a similar rate. This finger will rise by the time of modern life as the roaring of cohabitation. Of course, a child with broken parents will grow up in the lack of many things. For example, they have no support of love, of care, of finance, and especially easy to be abused. In recent year, children abuse has become a major national problem, and has increased dramatically, by more than 10% a year according to one estimate. Surprisingly, the available American date do not enable us to distinguish the abuse that takes place in married-couple households from that in cohabiting-couple households. Meanwhile, the higher levels of child abuse than is found in intact families.Secondly, the cohabiting couples get the bad influence themselves when they split up. From the article second and the third, annual rates of depression

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among cohabiting couples are more than three times among married couples. And women in cohabiting relationships are more likely than married women to suffer physical and sexual abuse. Some research has shown that aggression is at least twice as common among cohabiters as it is among married partners. More seriously, when domestic violent happen, at least, the cohabiting women will not get the support from family, friends and even the social prejudices.Thirdly, cohabitation causes the risk of instability for society. Cohabiting relationships are fragile. Both men and women in cohabiting relationships are more likely to be unfaithful to their partners than married couples. Cohabiting couples accumulate less wealth than married couples, etc. because this is mental phenomenon, it is difficult to prevent even when the government have the strict legal. When having law, many couples tend to ignore it and try to continue cohabiting. In Vietnam, it is hardly to accept cohabitation not only by law but also by traditional thinking. Of course, there are also a lot of cohabiting couples come to get marriages in the end. Nowadays, young adults aren’t too confused to decide cohabiting together. This thinking should be criticized strict.There are many controversially different ideas around cohabitations. A lot of countries suppose cohabitation by giving law to control this impossible abandon mood suitably. From my point of view, I strongly agree that cohabitation should be banned all over the world without any reasons. The style of reading is easy to understand both meaning and reading skills. All the passages are so informative with many detail support for the bad cohabitation effects.In my opinion, my collection materials also exist many weak points. For example, mo advantages of cohabitation are given scientifically. Many couples cohabit with acceptable reasons such as religious, region differences. However, nothing can sure that they can live together forever if no law is established to tie down among them. Therefore, I completely agree with the fact disadvantages are given in this material.In conclusion, cohabitation is not avoidable all over the world. However, through the material I select, there are no advantages of this problem. Therefore, each of us has to confirm our stuff to defend all seducing of life. The civil life and the healthy life is the future we purchase in our whole life.

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RL 8-Reflection 8Recently, I have heard lots of news about a great deal of Toyota cars

recalled as well as lawsuits against this world's automobiles giant. As far as I know Toyota has been the most reliable motor corporation in the world for ages, so I was very surprised at these news. Therefore, I decided to find out the reason why Toyota Corporation is meeting with such difficulties as well as points of view from consumers and many magazines about this automaker’s problem. Here are some sources where I found many interesting articles concerning Toyota:

http://www.toyoland.com/history.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/future.htmlhttp://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2007/10/toyotas_qu

ality.htmlhttp://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/buying-advice/who-

makes-the-best-cars/overview/index.htm

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8495132.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/business/05recall.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8588334.stm

http://www.sourcejuice.com/1304248/2010/02/09/Toyota-lower-sales-goal-China-competitors-want-capture-market/

http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2010/03/201032611435544514.html

http://newschaser.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/american-consumers-defend-toyota-gov%E2%80%99t-drumbeats- accelerator-issue/

http://www.collegecarguide.com/blog/1042639_toyota-plans-to-win-back-consumers-in-march-media-push

Firstly, through the article on the website http://www.toyoland.com/history.html , I knew a lot of information about Toyota Corporation’s history and process of development in the world market. This automaker was set up nearly 80 years ago, however only until the 80s decade, it became a famous brand name all over the world. For decades, the Japanese automaker has carefully nurtured and perpetuated a reputation for producing reliable cars and trucks. Toyota’s cars have been loved by a lot of people thanks to its quality. Toyota car owners said that they satisfied with its quality because their cars could be used for more than 30 years with safe condition.

Nevertheless, what happened to this automobile giant? What has made it have to recall 8 million vehicles and face up with so many complications from lawsuits? Through the above articles, I partly understand Toyota’s problem. The main cause is the sticky accelerator pedals. However there was an accident happening to a 77-year-old former autoworker who drove her 2005 Toyota Camry. Her family claimed that there are also problems with the electronic system that controls the throttle and engine speed in Toyotas. According to documents I found, there was no evidence for that claim. Moreover, I think that the woman was too old to drive the car safely. In addition, I think that she was not used to drive this kind of car because according to the article on the website http://www.nytimes.com/ , she only used Buick for ages. In general, most magazines and consumers approve of Toyota Corporation. They said that although the complications affect this

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automobile giant’s finance as well as reputation, the current recall will impact the Japanese car maker only in the short term. Certainly, there are also complaints about Toyota service. However, I do not really believe their point of view because I do not know who they are. Maybe they are employees of other Toyota’s competitors.

Among a lot of article concerning Toyota, I like the one on the website http://newschaser.wordpress.com most. The writer’s idea is very clear and persuasive. Firstly, he supplied the readers with detailed information about Toyota’s difficulties, then he also gave the same difficulties that other automobile giants had, then he told reader Japanese characteristics. He seemed to understand Japanese people very much. He said that the lawmakers should take time to understand the Japanese business mindset from several different viewpoints. It will help to understand their decision-making process. The Japanese always respect efficiency, quality and hard work. When they apologize, they do so often because a noticeable failure is a shame on the honor of the name, the brand, the family. The apology is not for something done morally wrong as much as it is for something not done well and in the true spirit of an arrangement. For the Japanese mind, an effort must be good from the outset and one must strive for quality, a kind of perfection. I do not mean that Toyota is innocent in its efforts to correct the problem–I currently do not have enough information. It is, however, an observation on how the Japanese mindset works and it leads one to another great quality of their products. The Japanese will try their best to get it right, when they finally recognize a major mistake or failure. The language he used is very easy to understand, and the lay-out of the article is also clear and logical. As a result the readers are easily persuaded by his point of view. Objectively, I must say that Japanese people are very reliable and intelligent. In my opinion, Toyota is very responsible for their customers; they quickly recalled the entire models that were found out problem to protect consumers’ life. In addition, as far as I know recalls are not uncommon among automakers. For example, Ford ignition fires during the 1980s involved 8.6 million vehicles, Honda recalled 3.1 million vehicles in 1995 and GM’s tailgate cables failure in 2004 recalled 4 million vehicles. Therefore, Toyota’s consumers should not be too disappointed and give up Toyota trade hastily. In my opinion, Toyota is very responsible for their customers; they quickly recalled the entire models that were found out problem to protect consumers’ life. For all the reasons above, I am sure that quality of Toyota cars will be improved soon.

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In conclusion, consumer should continue approve of Toyota. I believe that with the development of technology, the strength of Toyota Corporation and the approval from consumer, Toyota will lead the automobile industry to a new step as to protect environment and save energy. In process of getting information from these articles for this reflection, I have to use some of reading skills such as skimming, reading closely scanning, summarizing, paraphrasing, analyzing and synthesizing. Those articles are very useful to me because I have learned a lot from the way to use language to the way to write persuasively.

RF 9-Reflection 9Marriage is a problem which most people are concerned about.

Different regions, culture, and religions have different views of marriage. Therefore, I read books, and searched on the Internet to find out marriage customs, traditions and views of many countries. Following texts will present some general knowledge about marriage.

The first text is Social science finds: “marriage matters” in book ““Read, reason, write. An argument text and reader” by Dorothy U. Seyler, The Mc Graw- Hill companies. It is about some marriage aspects which have a big influence on marriage. Firstly, the author presents a quick view at

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marriage patterns today compared to 1950. Then he gives some evidences proving that men and women do better because they are married. When they are married, they gain many good things such as better health, wages, more wealth and improved sex life.

The second text is Gay marriage, an oxymoron by Dorothy U. Seyler, The Mc Graw- Hill companies. The writer presents some points to prove that same-sex marriage does not suit to nature, religion and even law.

The third text is on the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage. It includes completely most of problems related to marriage such as definition, history, different views from European and Asian countries, sex, law, religion, taxation, and contemporary views on marriage. The article makes us understand clearly about marriage from many aspects and many countries.

The last one is on the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/relationships/couples/life_whymarry.shtml. The article presents briefly good and bad reasons to marry.

In my opinion, these texts are very useful, practical and informative. All of them have theory and give many specific examples. They point out general knowledge about marriage, especially some advantages and disadvantages of getting married in human life and other matters which effects on marriage. Texts 1 and 4 have the same content. Both of them present advantages and disadvantages of marriage. On the other hand, the authors develop their own text in different ways. Text 4 seems to list main ideas, and there are no examples to prove his ideas. However, it is brief and clear, so it is easy for readers to understand and remember all information in the text. Text 1 not only gives some benefits of marriage but also points out a few matters, which have a big influence on marriage such as health, wealth, wage, etc. The author also provides statistical data from many researches to make his text more convictive. Text 2 reflects the author’s personal view about same-sex marriage. Personally, I do not agree that “Marriage is essentially a lifelong compact between a man and woman”. I think if two people love each other, and they want to live together, they can get married whether they are opposite sex or not. Among four texts, I find text 3 the most informative and interesting because of following reasons. Firstly, it presents most of marriage problems including definition, overview, law, sex, etc. Secondly, it also introduces many marriage customs from many areas in the world, including Europe, China, United State, etc. The information I like most in this text is about marriage and religion. It reflects marriage customs and traditions of many religions in the world such as Christianity,

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Protestantism, Latter-day Saints, Hinduism, etc. Each religion has their different views, and customs about marriage. Last but not least, the article also points out the homosexual relationships, a new and vexed problem.

From these texts, I learned many things. Firstly, I understand more exactly and completely about marriage. I can widen my knowledge about marriage of many different cultures in the world. Secondly, I can improve my English. I learn many new words, structures. Moreover, I also learn the way how to write an article and a research effectively from writers’ styles. Specifically, I learn the way how to arrange a theory point and write with scientific language. Besides, I can practice reading skills. When reading these texts, I used reading skills such as scanning, skimming, identifying the author’s important points, and noting useful information, etc. Since then, I have increased my reading speed in long texts and many other reading skills. Last but not least, I have a chance to practice analyzing and evaluating skills and critical thinking.

There is some new information that contradicted to what I had known before reading the passages. For example, according to text 3 in Ancient Greece, there were superstitions that being married during a full moon was good luck. Moreover, a woman whose father dies without male heirs can be forced to marry her nearest male relative—even if she has to divorce her husband first. These strange traditions make me feel surprised. The second thing which makes me surprised is that same sex marriage was a socially recognized institution at times in Ancient Greece and Rome, and some regions in China. Before reading this text, I think that homosexual relationships only appeared in modern life.

In general, each author has their own view about marriage and problems related to it. Besides, I personally find doing reflection very useful for students. This is a chance for us to find out many interesting topics and many cultures in the world, and also improve both reading and writing skills. It is a time for me to reflect my thoughts and opinion about one specific topic. I think that this assignment should be continuous in next semesters.

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RL10-Reflection 10 All over the world, there are many languages being spoken; each country has it own language with different character. According to the latest research, there are about 7000 languages existed; however, half of them will be in danger of extinction. In fact, a plenty of ingenuous tongues has been vanished and the trend of languages disappearance makes not only people speaking it but also many experts actually worried about. Therefore, a number of researches and experiments have been done for this urgent issue. Among them, I find really absorbed in 6 articles which indicate clearly this problem.

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In general, these six articles all show the most clearly the real situation as well as the methods to preserve our languages. Language death is not a new phenomenon as it begun as soon as the language appeared as the author of “Language contact and dying languages” mentioned. Particularly, the article” A Chinese village struggle to save the dying language of a once powerful dynasty” tells in detail about a language standing at a risk of disappearing; the special thing is that there are very little number of people can use this tongue, but they have trying their best to save their own language. Almost these texts admitted that only language of small culture become extinct as they are spoken by a handful of people and they even do not have any letters or scripts. Moreover, the texts also provide us with information about five hotspots where languages are lost gradually such as Northern Australia, central South American, North America’s upper Pacific coastal zone, Eastern Siberia, and Okalohama and the southwestern United States. Some reasons for language disappearance are that they are ingenuous tongue, and they are dominated by other powerful languages, especially, the global languages- English. However, the author of the text “Disappearing languages of the 6000 languages still on the earth, 90 percent could be gone by 2100” shows some different reasons, he says that the vanishing of languages is natural, just like “plants and animals have appeared and disappeared over the millennia, languages evolve, grow, and spread, and eventually dwindle and die”, and has the same reasons like species, which are due to population pressures and the spread of industrialization”. In my opinion, these reasons above are all true and they support for each others. Losing our language is an extremely dangerous and concerned problem because ‘languages define a cultural”, once a language dies, their culture also does not exist any longer, too as the writer of “losing our world’s language” indicates. Nevertheless, the author of the article “Why it is not so bad when languages disappear” sees the issue in an optimistic way. He says that we must think it as “signaling rather than causing the loss of cultural identity”, and he also affirms that language play no role in the greater whole. Personally, I think that language is a very important part in each people, each country; and losing own language means that we are fading our identity, and the next generations can not understand his peoples’s history as well as culture. In order to preserve and prevent language extinction, many measures have been carried out in every nation. Some of scientists and linguists recommended and used the XML (Extensive Markup Language) record as the most effective method. However, some problems existed; technology will change with rapid speed in years to come, therefore, this type of format will

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become out of date and they will be difficult for us to preserve and operate them. Meanwhile, the others suggested that Internet should be a ideal store for keeping records, but linguists said that it could be dangerous if sensitive materials like these put on Internet as “they are easily to abused, exploited, even for commercial gain. Among these articles, it is the text “Language contact and dying languages” that attracts me most as the writer dug deeply in the problem and the way he analyses is very attractive. In this research, he has used a variety of other’s research result and exact examples to support for his ideas; thus, the readers are easily to catch his points. He analyzes the language death in various aspects: cultural, socio linguistic and linguistic, Moreover, he also informs readers two possible reason of dying languages, which are “dysfunctional loss of rules and structure or loss of speakers”. Overall, these articles are really informative ones since they supply readers with more knowledge about language death phenomenon. Loosing languages is always a hot issue that most countries concern much about because language is a means of communication and a typical way to define culture, history of each nation. It is admitted that language plays a very important role in the greater whole, so, saving language is saving our culture, too.

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