The way reading is taught in many classrooms seems fairly fixed. In reality, do we actually teach reading at all or are we more focused on testing our learners?
Reading is complex!
We need:
- to decode the combination of
letters quickly;
- to match that to our lexical
knowledge;
- use grammar knowledge to group
words into meaningful units;
- use discourse knowledge to
understand how one piece of text relates to another;
- use
background knowledge;
- make inferences to understand what is not explicitly stated
Why we read:
- Reading to search for
information (skimming and scanning);
- Reading for quick understanding
(skimming);
- Reading
to learn;
- Reading
to integrate information;
- Reading to evaluate, critique
and use information - do I like it? What I didn't like?;
- Reading for general
comprehension (in many cases reading for interest or reading to
entertain);
Authenticity. It is good when it is appropriate for our learners. It is a question about appropriate use of materials.
Authenticity of task - we
should ask learners to respond to the text in a way they would respond to it
outside the class.
Reading in
the classroom.
The pattern for a reading
lesson is established:
- build
interest
- pre-teach
voc
- set
a task and read
- check
- set another task and read again
- check
- activity related to the task
(eg: discussion)
Build
interest involves understanding your learners' background
knowledge. What they already know about the subject.
How much support do my
learners need with this subject?
Pre-teaching
vocabulary
It may help with activating
background knowledge
It is a way of adjusting the
level of the text
Testing
comprehension
Problems of testing reading:
- A
single right answer;
- A
lack of authenticity;
- A
lack of joy;
- Often only superficial
understanding required;
- Often focusing on trivial,
insignificant information;
Teaching reading
- Promote reading - it's fun and
interesting;
- Promote fluency and sometimes
revisit texts;
- Promote authentic responses to
texts;
- Teach vocabulary and lots of it,
particularly common words and highlight morphology;
- Teach grammar, particularly
where it is salient in a text;
- Teach
discourse patterns;
- Help learners to set themselves
goals;
- Help learners to monitor how
much they understand;
- Help learners to develop
flexible reading skills (academic reading; a menu in a cafe);
Promoting an authentic response
Read the text and add these
symbols as appropriate
Promoting fluent reading
- Select 3 texts of the same
level
- Use
one text a week
- Prepare a simple self assessment
grid (I understand nearly all of the text; I understood a lot etc)
- Use
an online stopwatch
- Learners time themselves reading
each text
Understanding discourse structures
- Highlight discourse markers in
the text (for example; such as; also etc);
- Explicitly teach the function of
these discourse markers;
- Take a text and select some
sentences that contain discourse markers;
- Dictate up to the discourse
marker and ask learners to complete the sentence in a logical way;
Activities
- damaging text - swipe the second part of every second word
- swapping words - it helps students read fluently, to keep monitoring their
understanding. We change words in the text. (She was a surprise choice
-> she was astar choice)
Links:
This is based on the webinar
"Teaching Reading" - Peter Watkins - http://www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/eventdetail/2045/teaching-reading
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