DIPLOMARBEIT / DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit / Title of the Diploma Thesis „A comparative analysis of reading tasks in Austrian and Finnish upper secondary English textbooks“ verfasst von / submitted by Jasmin Brunnbauer, BA angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magistra der Philosophie (Mag.phil.) Wien, 2020 / Vienna, 2020 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / UA 190 344 347 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Lehramtsstudium UF Englisch UF Französisch degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Julia Hüttner, MSc Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ ii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... ii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. iii 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 2. The communicative classroom: the four skills ............................................................... 2 3. Literacy and writing systems ........................................................................................... 3 4. Theory on reading ............................................................................................................ 6 4.1. Defining reading ...................................................................................................... 6 4.2. Process vs. Product .................................................................................................. 7 4.3. Reading sub-skills: skimming, scanning, inferencing ............................................. 8 4.4. L1 vs. L2 reading ................................................................................................... 10 4.5. Transfer issues ....................................................................................................... 10 4.6. Bottom-up and top-down approach ....................................................................... 12 4.7. Variables that affect the nature of reading ............................................................. 13 4.7.1. Formal and content schemata ................................................................... 13 4.7.2. Knowledge of the language: the importance of vocabulary ..................... 14 4.7.3. Topic knowledge and interest................................................................... 15 5. Reading in the foreign language classroom .................................................................. 15 5.1. Why read in the L2 classroom ............................................................................... 15 5.2. Intensive Reading .................................................................................................. 16 5.3. Extensive Reading ................................................................................................. 17 5.4. Pre-/while-/post-reading exercises ........................................................................ 18 5.4.1. Pre-reading exercises ................................................................................ 18 5.4.2. While-Reading exercises .......................................................................... 19 5.4.3. Post-reading exercises .............................................................................. 20 5.4.4. Questioning: Post-reading questions ........................................................ 21 5.4.5. Manner of presentation, form and type of question ................................. 22 5.4.6. Diana Freeman’s (2014) taxonomy of comprehension question types .... 26 5.5. Reading assessment ............................................................................................... 28 5.5.1. Reliability, Validity, Practicality .............................................................. 28 5.5.2. Standardised tests ..................................................................................... 29 6. Textbooks– the role of textbooks ................................................................................... 31 6.1. Materials analysis and evaluation .......................................................................... 33 7. The study ......................................................................................................................... 36 7.1. Settings .................................................................................................................. 36 7.1.2. Finland ........................................................................................................ 36 7.1.3. Austria ......................................................................................................... 39 7.2. Aim, research questions and hypotheses ............................................................... 40 7.3. Method ................................................................................................................... 42 7.4. Findings ................................................................................................................. 50 7.4.1. The context-and-needs analysis................................................................ 50 i 7.4.2. The impressionistic method...................................................................... 53 7.4.3. The checklist and in-depth approach ........................................................ 62 7.5. Discussion of the study .......................................................................................... 83 7.5.1 The similarities ............................................................................................. 83 7.5.2 The differences ............................................................................................. 85 7.5.3 The challenges in comparing and the limitations of the study ..................... 89 7.5.4. Implications for teaching ............................................................................ 89 8. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 90 9. Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 92 10. Appendix .............................................................................................................. 99 10.1. Fact file .................................................................................................................. 99 10.2. Checklist .............................................................................................................. 103 10.3. Comprehension question types (Freeman 2014) ................................................. 106 10.4. Examples of reading exercises from the textbooks ............................................. 108 10.4.1. English in Context 7/8 .......................................................................... 108 10.4.2. Prime Time ........................................................................................... 111 10.4.3. Insights ................................................................................................. 113 10.4.4. On Track ............................................................................................... 122 10.5. Abstract ................................................................................................................ 128 10.6. Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch ........................................................................... 129 List of Tables Table 1: Checklist Item 1 - Topics ........................................................................................... 44 Table 2: Checklist Item 2 – Text types .................................................................................... 45 Table 3: Checklist Item 3 – Length of the texts ....................................................................... 45 Table 4: Checklist Item 4 – CEFR scales ................................................................................ 46 Table 5: Checklist Item 5 – Pre-/ While-/ Post-reading exercises and integrated skills .......... 47 Table 6: Checklist Item 6 – Aim of the pre-reading exercises ................................................ 48 Table 7: Checklist Item 7 – Aim of the while-reading exercises ............................................. 48 Table 8: Checklist Item 8 – Aim of the post-reading exercises ............................................... 48 Table 9: Checklist Item 9 – Activity format ............................................................................ 49 Table 10: Checklist Item 10 – Comprehension question types................................................ 50 Table 11: Ratio of texts to pages of the textbook series .......................................................... 59 Table 12: Checklist Item 2 Results – Text Types .................................................................... 65 List of Figures Figure 1: Insights skills and language system.......................................................................... 60 Figure 2: On Track skills and language system ......................................................................