Reading in English

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• Reading

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1. Reading

• Reading is one of the four basic skills needed to
  gain competence in mastering a language.
• It is a written receptive skill.
• To achieve full comprehension and interaction
  between the information given and the readers
  expectations is necessary.

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2. Reasons for reading and text selection

• The ability to read effectively is fundamental
  for survival in our western society.
• Whenever we read, we have a specific purpose in
  mind.
• Sometimes, we read simply to get the gist of the
  text or to locate a concrete piece of
  information.

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2.2. Reasons for reading and text selection
Reasons for reading Text selection
To get information or search for information Travel brochures Train timetables Bus schedule Public signs Weather forecasts Menus Internet web sites
To satisfy to curiosity about a topic Magazine articles Newspaper editorials Advertisements Internet
To follow instructions To know how to use a game Recipes Maps
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2.2. Reasons for reading and text selection
Reasons for reading Text selection
To keep in touch Postcards Letters Notes Messages Invitations Emails
To find out when and where Announcements Programmes
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2.2. Reasons for reading and text selection

• Texts should be adapted to the learners
  cognitive development.
• Texts should cover a wide variety of topics in
  order to reflect the diversity of interests
  present in the classroom.
• Texts should enhance motivation and promote
  self-esteem.

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2.2. Reasons for reading and text selection

• Texts should reflect situations where the learner
  can activate his/her schemata and enrich the
  interpretation.
• Texts should introduce some of the most important
  cultural references of the target language.
• The selected texts should be the result of a
  needs analysis.
• By means of a needs analysis the teacher can
  gather a great deal of valuable information which
  will result in a more accurate selection of the
  reading material.

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2.3. Types of knowledge required to make sense of
the text

• Six types of knowledge likely to help the reader
  to make sense of the text

Types of knowledge Examples
Syntactic knowledge Position of articles Position of auxiliary verbs Position of adjectives and adverbs
Morphological knowledge Word formation (affixation, compounding) Cohesive devices
General world knowledge Background knowledge
Sociocultural knowledge Cultural references
Topic knowledge Previous ideas related to the content
Genre knowledge Science fantasy novel Tale Poems
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3. CHARACTERISTICS OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Permanence The reader can access the information in the written form as many times as needed. Oral language, on the contrary, vanishes after being uttered.
Processing time The processing time needed to decode the information is greater and readers can read at their own rate.
Distance The context in which the text is written is different from that in which it is read. Consequently, readers interpret the written material using their background knowledge and trying to minimise the effects of the passing of time and sociocultural conventions. Besides, the reader cannot confront the author and question him/her about the text.
Orthography Written language is materialised through graphemes. These are accompanied by punctuation marks, pictures or charts. Thus, it may be more difficult to interpret written language than oral language since this is enriched with suprasegmental features (stress, rhythm, juncture, intonation, pauses, volume, voice quality settings) and non-verbal language (gestures).

• Differences in comparison to spoken language.

Complexity Written language tends to have longer clauses and more complex sentences than spoken language.
Vocabulary Written language usually presents a more varied and a more formal lexical register. The writer makes use of more precise lexical items since he/she has more processing time and lower-frequency words often appear.
Formality Written language makes use of conventionalised forms which enable the reader to recognise the type of text. In addition to this, a written text presents some rhetorical devices which the reader should know in advance in order to make sense of it. In Browns words (2001306) conventions like paragraph topics a logical order for, say, comparing and contrasting something . openings and closings and a preference for non-redundancy and subordination clauses, etc.
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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• 4.1. Bottom-up process Based upon the assumption
  that the reader starts from decoding the most
  specific levels of the language before grasping
  the most general ones.
• The reader first recognises individual letters,
  forms words, these in turn make up phrases, then
  clauses, sentences, texts
• Later on, he/she makes use of his/her linguistic
  mechanisms to make some sort of sense of the
  data.

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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• Numerous activities to develop the learners
  bottom-up strategies and subsequently allow
  him/her to process the text in this way.
• a) Identifying words by letter combinations
• b) Difficult sound clusters
• c) Re-ordering scrambled words and matching
• d) Discriminating minimal pair sounds
• e) Reading and stress

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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• 4.2. Top-down process
• The process starts from the higher levels of
  processing and proceeds to use the lower levels
  selectively.
• Background knowledge plays a key role since the
  reader combines what he/she already knows with
  the new information from the text to achieve a
  personal interpretation.

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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• Activities
• a) Deducing from context.
• Can you deduce from context the meaning of
  resort, hike, and sunbathers? Are these words
  essential for the comprehension of the passage?
  Why?

What a marvellous coastline! This is an excellent
resort for a holiday. People can hike on the
rocky hills and, if they want to, they can swim
or do water sports in the blue sea. A holiday
here suits those visitors who like the mountains,
and those who like the beach. There is plenty of
vegetation on the hills and a small sandy beach
for sunbathers!
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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• b) Relating written text to general world
  knowledge.
• Relate his/her world knowledge or background
  knowledge to the written information from the
  text.
• c) Drawing inferences.
• The reader not only needs to understand
  explicitly stated information but also implicit
  messages.

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4. APPROACHES TO READING IN A FOREIGN/SECOND
LANGUAGE

• 4.3. Interactive process
• Eclectic approach The reader, depending on
  his/her purposes, the type of text, etc.,
  activates different strategies which shift from
  bottom-up to top-down and vice-versa. This has
  come to be known as interactive reading.

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5. COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR
LANGUAGES THE READING SKILL
PROFICIENT USER C2 The reader can read without difficulty almost all forms of texts, including abstract, structurally or linguistically complex texts such as manuals, specialised articles and literary works.
PROFICIENT USER C1 The reader can understand long and complex factual and literary texts, appreciating distinctions of style. The reader can understand specialised articles and long technical instructions, even when they are not related to his field.
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5. COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR
LANGUAGES THE READING SKILL
INDEPENDENT USER B2 The reader can read articles and reports connected with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular attitudes or viewpoints. The reader can understand contemporary literary prose (short stories and popular novels).
INDEPENDENT USER B1 The reader can understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency everyday or job-related language. The reader can understand the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal letters.
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5. COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR
LANGUAGES THE READING SKILL
BASIC USER A2 The reader can read very short, simple texts. The reader can find specific, predictable information in simple everyday material such as advertisements, prospectuses, menus and timetables. The reader can understand short simple personal letters.
BASIC USER A1 The reader can understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on notices and posters or in catalogues.
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6. STYLES OF READING APPLICABLE TO THE READING
CLASS

• Reading aloud or reading silently.
• Silent reading
• scanning,
• skimming,
• intensive and
• extensive.

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6.1. Reading Aloud

• FOR
• In the first years of Primary education,
  storytelling plays an important role in the
  process of learning.
• More effective if the story is told (or read)
  aloud due to the fact that learners become more
  involved and consequently more motivated.
• Students can show that they recognise written and
  spoken forms and the relationship between form
  and meaning.

• At early and intermediate levels it can be used
  to check bottom-up processing skills or simply
  pronunciation.

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6.1. Reading Aloud

• AGAINST.
• It is not a very authentic activity.
• It is a boring activity because while one student
  is reading, the others can easily lose attention.
• It is not an interactive activity because
  students only have to recite.

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6.2. Silent Reading

• The most common and natural type of reading.
• Different goals can be pursued depending on the
  predetermined purpose of reading

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6.2. Silent Reading

• 6.2.1. Scanning Search of specific information
  within a text relevant dates, numbers in a
  directory, times on a timetable or key concepts
  in an academic text.
• 6.2.2. Skimming
• Very common in everyday life used to get a
  global impression of the content of a text (the
  gist of the text).
• Requires a definite reading competence because it
  implies an overall view of the text.
• Develops students self-confidence since they
  obtain a lot of information without needing much
  reading.

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6.2.3. Intensive

• Focuses on linguistic and content accuracy.
• It is very important in some educational contexts
  because it is used to exemplify different aspects
  of the lexical, syntactic and discourse systems.
• Full understanding of the literal meaning
  presented in the written passage.

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6.2.4. Extensive

• Oriented towards grasping a general understanding
  of the text for the purpose of enjoyment or
  learning.
• Texts are usually long such as books or articles
  and reading them takes extended periods of time.
• Extensive reading is not usually performed during
  class time but it is known that this activity
  helps students to improve their reading
  abilities.

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7. AN EXTENSIVE READING PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN

• 7.1. Goals for an extensive reading programme

• Take into account institutional goals and
  expectations for learning (students goals,
  language abilities, L1 and L2 reading
  experiences, students motivations and attitudes
  toward reading in general and particular goals of
  the curriculum).
• Plan reading curricula in relation to specific
  goals (hours of instruction per week, available
  resources, etc.), topics, texts and tasks.

Curriculum
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7. AN EXTENSIVE READING PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN

• Select appropriate text materials and supporting
  resources according to levels of difficulty.
• Diversify students reading experiences (reading
  in different places class, lab, library or home
  reading for different purposes).

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7. AN EXTENSIVE READING PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN

• Work with texts within a pre-, during- and
  post-reading framework.
• Recognise the complex nature of reading through
  meaningful instructions (vocabulary development,
  careful reading of the texts, awareness of text
  structure and discourse organisation, the use of
  graphic organisers to support comprehension,
  strategic reading, student motivation and
  integrated-skills tasks).

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7.2 Types of texts

• Authentic texts refer to readings which have not
  been adapted or modified in any way for teaching
  purposes.
• Pedagogic texts are readings that have been
  especially written for the language classroom
• Adapted texts or Graded Readers aim to facilitate
  the language and content of the text in order to
  make it more accessible to the language learner.

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7.3. Materials

• 7.4. Chart for keeping track of students readings

STUDENTS NAME DATE OF READING TITLE BRIEF SUMMARY WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE MOST? WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE LEAST? WHICH CHARACTER DID YOU IDENTIFY WITH?
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8. TASKS TO DEVELOP READING SKILLS

• 8.1. Tasks before reading.
• To introduce the topic of reading and to activate
  schemata, that is, previous world knowledge.
• The teacher may also decide to introduce the
  structural items (vocabulary, discourse markers)

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8.1. Tasks before reading

• Five main goals of pre-reading instruction
• it enables the reader to access background
  knowledge
• it stimulates student interest
• it provides specific information needed for
  successful comprehension
• it sets up student expectations
• it models strategies that students can use later
  on their own

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8.1. Tasks before reading
PRE-READING TASKS AGE RANGE SUGGESTED
Identifying the topic of the text From 7 years onward
Anticipating and predicting possible information to be included From 11 years onward
Remembering what kind of information he/she is asked to extract From 9 years onward
Checking his/her assumptions and background knowledge the text should be related to the learners own knowledge From 9 years onward
Exploring key vocabulary. From 7 years onward
Using any available visual support (accompanying diagram, picture, photo, table) From 6 years onward
Reflecting on or reviewing information from previously read texts in light of the topic of the text. From 11 years onward
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8.2. Tasks during reading
WHILE READING TASKS AGE RANGE SUGGESTED
Following the spelling Understanding the punctuation Reading in word-groups Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items, through understanding a) word formation and b) contextual clues Understanding information stated explicitly Making inferences Understanding figurative language Understanding the communicative function of sentences Understanding relations within the sentence Moving from phrase to phrase and sentence to sentence (understanding the techniques of sentence linking, etc) Understanding relations between parts of a text through lexical and grammatical cohesion devices Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details Extracting salient points to summarise Understanding headings, numbers, different font/print types (e.g. bold print) Skimming to obtain the gist, or a general impression of the text Scanning, to obtain specific information Using reference works (dictionaries, glossaries) appropriately Distinguishing opinions from facts Looking for answers to questions posed during pre-reading tasks Writing predictions of what will come next From 6 years onward From 6 years onward From 6 years onward From 8 years onward From 8 years onward From 9 years onward From 10 years onward From 10 years onward From 10 years onward From 10 years onward From 11 years onward From 9 years onward From 9 years onward From 8 years onward From 11 years onward From 11 years onward From 9 years onward From 11 years onward From 9 years onward From 9 years onward
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8.3. Tasks after reading

• Post-reading instruction extends ideas and
  information contained in the text. It also
  focuses on ensuring that the main ideas have been
  perfectly grasped and understood.

POST-READING TASKS AGE RANGE
Eliciting readers own interpretations Eliciting reasons to justify their point of views Relating the content to other reading (intertextuality) Summarising the content Proposing information transfer tasks Answering comprehension questions Completing a graphic organiser From 9 years onward From 9 years onward From 11 years onward From 8 years onward From 9 years onward From 8 years onward From 8 years onward
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