Nowadays, the English language plays an important role in the increasing
development of science, technology, politics, culture and international relations in
Vietnam. Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English throughout
the country for different purposes. This has resulted in changing the outlook of the
Ministry of Education and Training for the teachingand learning of English. English has
become a compulsory subject in the state examination and it is one of three subjects for the
entrance exam of some universities.
To meet the demand for teaching and learning English in Vietnam, the Ministry of
Education and Training has recently decided to introduce a new series of English textbook
for grade 10. The introduction of the new textbooksis considered as the first step towards
the achievement of better quality of English language teaching and learning in secondary
schools. Therefore, although the two curricula for general students and for those
specializing in English remain, the shared objectives have recently been adjusted for a
better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening,
speaking, reading and writing” (Hoang et al., 2006a:33).
Becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of
important benefits for the learner. First, reading in the target language helps students
consolidate the learning that has taken place. Second, it may help students to increase
knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical
structures. According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most
important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign
language”. Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills at high schools is still far
from satisfactory for various reasons. Despite the teacher’s effort, sometimes the students’
motivation for intensive reading is still low and the reading lesson is said to be a boring
one.