The Reading Skill

The Reading Skill

by Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)

With grateful acknowledgements to all his RSA teacher trainers at the Ministry of Defence Language Institute (MinDef) in Kuwait (1988-89).

1. What does reading involve?

I. Visual task involving deciphering.

II. Cognitive task involving interpreting visual information and language.

2. Why do we teach reading?

I. To enable students to read without help in the real world at an appropriate speed and with adequate understanding.

II. To present language in a wider context involving sentences and paragraphs.

III. To consolidate language and structures presented in class.

IV. To revise and consolidate vocabulary and structures learnt previously.

V. As a change of pace and activity during a lesson.

VI. To introduce students to cultural and other background information on countries where English is spoken.

VII. Reading is a skill tested in EFL proficiency examinations.

VIII. Reading is an essential skill for study or working abroad.

IX. It is integrated in most course books.

3. Skills and activities involved in reading comprehension

· General understanding

I. Predicting - from title/topic

II. Skimming - fast extensive reading for gist (pre-set questions, matching paragraph titles, multiple choice questions for the main topic)

III. Own knowledge - (brainstorming, discussion of the topic as introduction or follow-up)

· Detailed understanding

I. Scanning - looking for specific information (comprehension questions, true/false statements)

II. Transfer - e.g. completing a grid.

III. Inference - deducing from information

IV. Focus on structures and lexis (reconstructing from prompts, rephrasing e.g. true/false statements, finding synonyms, matching words to definitions, word- building)

4. The evolution of the teaching of reading in the EFL classroom.

· The traditional approach:

I. No pre-reading activities - begin with text then answer questions.

II. Non-authentic texts and activities, often chosen and graded to illustrate grammar points.

III. No accompanying visuals.

IV. Questions poorly chosen and no logical order to activities.

V. More teacher control; no personal involvement of students.

VI. No obvious language development.

· The communicative approach.

I. Pre-reading activities - discussion or written questions to develop preconceptions and gives reading a purpose.

II. Mainly authentic texts - grade the task, not the text.

III. With visuals, varied layout and title.

IV. No dry comprehension questions - varied question forms and activities.

V. Student involvement is required, less teacher centred.

VI. Reading activity integrated with other activities.

5. Reading - the role of the teacher.

Reading skills do not have to be taught in the EFL classroom because the learners use them in their native language. The role of the teacher is to encourage the transfer of these skills from L1 to L2 by:

I. Providing suitable texts.

II. Providing activities that will focus students' attention on the text.

III. Giving purpose and interest to the reading.

IV. Providing lots of practice.

V. Providing varied tasks.

VI. Providing suitable tasks.

VII. Encouraging the extension of reading to speaking and writing.

VIII. Helping students to apply reading skills in general, not specifically to texts in class.

6. Problems involved in teaching reading:

I. Students may be reading in a script which is different from L1.

II. Reading speed may be a problem, with some students reading faster than others.

III. Students may want to understand everything.

IV. Course book reading materials may be inadequate.

7. Key points

· Define your aims clearly.

II. Testing (accuracy) or teaching (fluency or skills).

III. Decide how a native speaker would read the text.

IV. Decide what you might do after the reading activity.

· Involve students actively.

Get them:

I. Predicting

II. Asking questions

III. Checking information

IV. Evaluating

V. Inferring possible facts

· Use authentic texts.

Why?

I. Graded texts may remove system of references, repetition and redundancy.

II. They may remove discourse markers.

III. Difficulty of authentic texts does not usually depend on text but on the task set.

IV. Authentic texts have authentic layout - headings, photos etc. which may provide clues to understanding.

· Check global understanding first, then detailed understanding.

When developing reading comprehension exercises, start with overall meaning of the text: It's function and aim, before working on vocabulary or more specific ideas.

Why?

I. Build student's confidence.

II. Develop awareness of text organisation.

III. Aid student's anticipation of what the details are about and what comes next (prediction).

IV. Helps deduction of meaning from context.

· Make activities flexible and varied.

I. This is important to increase interest and motivation

II. Make sure different aspects of the text are covered e.g. writer's point of view, intention; facts; student's reaction.

· Integrate with other skills.

Reading activity can lead onto:

I. Writing activity - summarising, mentioning text in a letter or note-taking exercise.

II. Speaking activity - discussion, debate, role play.

III. Listening activity - Comparison of text with radio or tv report, use recorded information to solve a written problem.

· Use the text to do something:

I. Write a letter

II. Follow instructions

III. Follow directions

IV. Solve a problem

V. Compare with students' knowledge

8. Reading activities in EFL course books.

I. In the early stages of a course many course books don't have reading texts at all, just a series of disconnected sentences.

II. Texts are often contrived and distorted because of the need to include numerous examples of language items, such as tenses or vocabulary.

III. Texts often reflect spoken rather than written usage.

IV. Texts convey no message.

V. Texts are over-explicit, spelling out the details. Possibility of inference removed.

VI. The linguistic content is more important than the message, thus defeating the point of reading.

9. Dealing with longer texts.

I. Use previewing and predicting - students are encouraged to make predictions based on:

Title, Front cover and back covers, Chapter headings

II. Use skimming and scanning techniques.

III. Students should be encouraged to evaluate the relationships between various parts of a longer text.

IV. Stimulate reading outside the classroom.

V. Encourage graded readers as these help build confidence.

VI. Monitor progress as a student reads a book - telling the story as they read.

VII. After finishing, students evaluate the texts either in a writing exercise or orally.

10. Graded readers

· Types:

Graded readers are books with structures and vocabulary suitable for the specific level of the students. These may be :

I. Stories specifically written for language learners

II. Simplified versions of novels and short stories by well-known authors.

III. Short stories in their original form.

· Why use graded readers?

I. To motivate the students to read for pleasure.

II. To maintain contact with the language outside the classroom.

III. To fix and reinforce classroom instruction.

IV. To provide knowledge and information - particularly of the culture behind the language.

V. Some examinations (Cambridge FCE) include writing about a book as an option in the writing paper.

· Qualities of a good reader

I. Interesting and motivating (appropriate to the age range and interests of the student e.g. a reader for an adult should be adult in topic, approach and illustrations).

II. Well-written (suitable style, development of the story and characters, and follow the plot of the original in the case of a simplified version)

III. Adequately controlled information (number of characters or sub-plots should not overtax students' understanding/memory. An excess historical or cultural information may obscure the basic plot and remove the story too far from the students' understanding).

IV. Control of structure and vocabulary (this includes sentence length and complexity as well as range of structures used. It should be possible to deduce the meaning of new vocabulary from context rather than resorting to a dictionary. Illustrations, synonyms, context and/or a glossary should help students deal with more difficult words. Repetition of a new vocabulary item in the text may help the learner's retention of it).

§ How to use readers

Just giving the book to the student and asking them to read it may not be enough, students may need some impetus to start reading. Activities in class can interest students and motivate them to read as well as showing them the link between the classroom and language outside the class. Use follow-up activities in class to maintain this link.

· Things to do before reading

I. Read a particularly exciting part of the story aloud to interest the students.

II. Record part of the dialogue from the story and use it as a listening comprehension exercise (some readers have an accompanying cd).

III. Introduce the characters in the story.

IV. Have a discussion connected with the theme or topic.

V. Get them familiar with the book by practicing some scanning techniques with it.

VI. Set questions for homework.

VII. Make sure that students are aware how much reading can help them outside the classroom.

· Things to do after reading

I. With short stories, students could read different ones and retell them in class.

II. They could make questions and ask each other.

III. Teacher uses a short passage from the book and deals with it intensively (structure, vocab., register, inference, style etc.)

IV. Use a short dialogue for reading aloud (students play characters that they know and therefore should be able to interpret the language)

V. Take a new structure or function from the book and teach it, or use the book to practice something already taught.

VI. If a conversation is described in narrative form, not in dialogue, the students can write the actual conversation which took place - or transform from dialogue to narrative form.

VII. Changing the register of a dialogue - perhaps by changing the characters who were speaking.

VIII. Discussing, explaining and comparing cultural points that appear.

IX. Discussing the characters in the book.

X. Analysing literary points - irony, humour etc.

XI. Part way through the book, students could try to predict what will happen next, or the ending.

XII. Students retell the story (lower levels can do this in their own language) and then write a summary for homework.