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Reading comprehension of informational texts has been largely debated and introduced at all levels of education across western countries. However, it has not received enough attention in developing countries including Vietnam. This paper aims to investigate the procedure of reading and comprehension of informational texts in high schools in Vietnam. The study surveyed 588 teachers and 2744 high school students across all regions of Vietnam. The survey questionnaires asked teachers and students' opinions on the teaching and learning of informational texts. Through statistical analysis with Excel sheets, the results show that the part of informational texts in the curriculum was small when compared with literary texts. This shows that there is very little requirement of teaching and learning informational text in high schools which results in students' limited ability in reading informational text. The findings also suggest that understanding and reading informational texts have been contended as essential to the educational performance of students. The research also revealed that both teachers and students need to be more prepared in the classrooms to teach and learn informational texts. It is recommended that Vietnamese general education curricula should include a greater amount of informational texts in textbooks and instruction on informational texts should be given more attention to improve students' understanding.

Historical nonfiction is effective in teaching rhetoric for two main reasons. First, historical texts communicate through a real-world lens that students can understand and find familiar. Students study history and are exposed to current events through the news, school, and each other. Second, since history affects people's lives so broadly, its texts--both written and visual--take form in many genres. History is not confined to books but is available in texts ranging from online archives, websites, and blogs to documentaries, videos, photographs, and editorial cartoons, and from documents such as meeting minutes and government reports to personal writing such as diaries and memoirs and literary sources such as poetry and song lyrics. Reading all these genres helps students to think differently about what constitutes a "text." If students are to "read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world," then authentic, multigenre historical nonfiction provides an appropriate teaching resource for the language arts. Working historical nonfiction into an existing curriculum to teach rhetoric is not difficult. The author uses a rhetorical and comparative analysis essay to introduce students to rhetoric and textual analysis and she uses a research essay to teach students how to use the research process and synthesize texts. The research essay builds upon the skills learned in rhetorical analysis so that students progress in their analytical writing and critical thinking. In this article, the author explains how she introduces rhetoric and focuses the assignments, and she offers examples of student work that show how the assignments fulfill the goals of using authentic and multigenre texts.

The nonfiction literature of the Vietnam War is accessible and engaging to students, and it deals with issues that speaks to students in powerful ways. In addition, the literature can help students better understand their parents and grandparents and the effect on them of the Vietnam War. A number of teachers who have taught the nonfiction literature of the Vietnam War report that student response always exceeds their expectations (Carter 1991; Endress 1984; Johannessen 1992, 1993; Kroll 1992; Oldham 1986). In this article, the author discusses a number of reasons for students' powerful responses to nonfiction Vietnam War literature, explains why students should study this literature, and describes some strategies for teaching this literature. A bibliography of Vietnam War nonfiction is included.

Describes how a film and a book containing a collection of letters written by soldiers stationed in Vietnam can be successfully used in the reading and writing classroom. (KEH)