Title: Teaching Reading
1Teaching Reading
2 Teaching Reading
- Topics for discussion
- How do people read?
- What do people read?
- What are the skills involved in reading?
- Principles for teaching reading
- Common types of activities in teaching reading
3For the responses of the author of the book,
please see pp. 185-6
4The nature of reading
Reading aloud Silent reading
Manner Utterance of every word Silent
Speed Usually slow Usually fast
Purpose Usually to share information Usually to get information
Skills involved Pronunciation and intonation Skimming, scanning, predicting Guessing unknown words Understanding details Understanding relations between sentences and between paragraphs Understanding references Understanding inferences
Activity type Collective activity Individual activity
Management in the classroom Easy to manage as it can be observed and heard Difficult to manage as teachers cannot see what is going on in the students minds
5What do effective readers do?
- Effective readers
- have a clear purpose in reading
- read silently
- read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word
- concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest,
and skip the insignificant parts - use different speeds and strategies for different
reading tasks - perceive the information in the target language
rather than mentally translate - guess the meaning of new words from the context,
or ignore them - have and use background information to help
understand the text.
6What do we read?
- We believe ESL/EFL reading textbooks should have
a great variety of authentic materials, as much
as the coverage allows. Of course, textbooks
should always be supplemented by extra materials. - A list of things we read in daily life
7Calendars Clothes size labels Magazines
Addresses Graffiti on walls Radio/TV guides
Phone books Childrens scribbling Advertisements
Name cards Informa1 letters Posters
Bank statements Business letters Travel guides
Credit cards Rules and regulations Cookbooks
Maps Electronic mail Repair manuals
Anecdotes Telegrams Memos
Weather forecast Fax messages Time schedules
Pamphlets Junk mail Street signs
Product labels Postcards Syllabi
Washing instructions Credit cards Journal articles
Short stories Comic books Song lyrics
Novels Newspapers Film subtitles
Plays Diplomas Diagrams
Poems Application forms Flowcharts
Handbooks Store catalogues Name tags
(adapted from Gebhard 1996189) (adapted from Gebhard 1996189) (adapted from Gebhard 1996189)
8- It is important for ESL/EFL teachers to bear in
mind what we read in real life, so that when we
select reading materials for our ESL/EFL
classroom, we not only have a greater variety but
also meet the needs of different students.
9- Besides authentic texts, ESL/EFL textbooks also
employ a lot of non-authentic texts, i.e.
simulated text. Simulated texts are aimed for
beginner students who are probably not able to
handle genuine authentic text. It is believed
that the reading of such texts will help students
to acquire the necessary receptive skills they
will need when they eventually come to tackle
authentic materials (Harmer, 1983).
10 Skills involved in reading comprehension
- Two broad levels in reading
- Visual signal from the eyes
- A cognitive task of interpreting the visual
information, relating the received information
with the readers own general knowledge, and
reconstructing the meaning that the writer had
meant to convey.
11Visual signal
Writers meaning
Readers knowledge
Visual information
Readers reconstruction
12Skills needed in reading
- Recognising the script of a language
- Understanding the explicitly stated information
- Understanding conceptual meaning
- Understanding the communicative value (function)
of sentences - Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items
- -
13- Understanding relations within sentences
- Understanding references
- Recognising indicators in discourse
- Recognising the organization of the text
- Making inferences.
14Strategic skills needed in reading
- Distinguishing the main idea from supporting
details - Skimming reading for the gist or main idea
- Scanning reading to look for specific
information - Predicting guessing what is coming next
15 Principles and models for teaching reading
- Principles for teaching reading
- The texts and tasks should be accessible to the
students. - Tasks should be clearly given in advance.
- Tasks should be designed to encourage reading for
the main meaning rather than test the students
understanding of trivial details. - Tasks should help develop students reading
skills and strategies rather than test their
reading comprehension. - Teachers should help the students to read on
their own, so that they eventually become
independent readers.
16Models for teaching reading
- The Bottom-up Model
- The Top-down Model
- The Interactive Model
17The Bottom-up Model
- This model of teaching reading is based on the
theory in which reading (and listening, too) is
regarded as a process of decoding, which moves
from the bottom to the top of the system of
language.
18The Bottom-up Model
DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhon
emes
Linguistic knowledge is used.
19- In the Bottom-up Model, the teacher teaches
reading by introducing vocabulary and new words
first and then going over the text sentence by
sentence. This is followed by some questions and
answers and reading aloud practice.
20The Top-down Model
- This model of teaching reading is based on the
theory in which reading is regarded as a
prediction-check process, a psycholinguistic
guessing game (Goodman, 1970). - In the Top-down Model, not only linguistic
knowledge but also background knowledge is
involved in reading.
21The Top-down Model
DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhon
emes
Linguistic Knowledge Background Knowledge
22The Top-down Model
- Therefore, it is believed that in teaching
reading, the teacher should teach the background
knowledge first, so that students equipped with
such knowledge will be able to guess meaning from
the printed page.
23The Interactive Model
- This model of teaching reading is based on the
theory in which reading is viewed as an
interactive process.
24- According to the Interactive Model of reading
(also called as the Schema Theory Model), when
one is reading, the brain receives visual
information, and at the same time, interprets or
reconstructs the meaning that the writer had in
mind when he wrote the text. This process does
not only involve the printed page but also the
readers knowledge of the language in general, of
the world, and of the text types.
25The Interactive Model
DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhon
emes
Schemata to be activated the schema of
language the schema of content the schema of
forms
26The Interactive Model
- Based on such understanding, teaching reading in
the classroom divides reading activities into
basically three stages, in which bottom-up and
top-down techniques are integrated to help
students in their reading comprehension and in
increasing their language efficiency in general.
27- The three stages are pre-reading, while-reading,
and post-reading.
28 Pre-reading activities
- The purpose of pre-reading (also called Lead-in)
is to facilitate while-reading activities. - predicting,
- setting the scene,
- skimming, and
- scanning
29Predicting
- Predicting will get the readers mind closer to
the theme of the text. - Ways of predicting
- predicting based on the title,
- predicting based on vocabulary,
- predicting based on the T/F questions.
30Predicting based on the title
- A Nation of Pet-Lovers
- Save the Jungle Save the World
- Police Hunt for Child
31If the students are not good at predicting, the
teacher can help them by asking certain
questions.
- Text 1 What is a pet? What are pets for? Why do
people love pets? Are there any problems with
pets? - Text 2 What is a jungle? Where can you find
jungles? What do you think has happened to the
jungle? - Text 3 What happened to the child? How do you
think the parents would feel? What could the
police do?
32Predicting based on vocabulary
- Having made predictions based on the title,
students can be asked to predict some lexical
items that they think are likely to occur in the
text. Then the students read the text to confirm
their predictions. - A variation of this prediction activity is that
the teacher provides students with a list of
words, and asks the students to predict which of
the words are used in the text, and to read the
text and confirm their predictions.
33Predicting based on the T/F questions
- e.g. Reading How to behave at a job interview
34(p. 120) (For the text please see pp. 193-4.) Before reading After reading
Always try to please the interviewer.
Do not try to dominate the interviewer.
Never interrupt the interviewer.
If necessary, disagree with the interviewer.
Never change your mind.
Always try to please the interviewer.
35Setting the scene
- Setting the scene means getting the students
familiar with the cultural and social background
knowledge relevant to the reading text. - The culture-bound aspect of the text can start at
the beginning with the title. e.g.
36- The culture-bound aspects of a text are often of
great interest to students, and they can be used
to provoke an interesting discussion not only
about the other culture, but also about the
home culture. (e.g. Eskimos, p.121)
37- ESKIMOS
- Eskimos love in the polar areas between latitude
66 N and the North Pole. There are Eskimos in
Northern Canada, Greenland and Siberia. This
means that they are the only people who have
their origins both in the Old World (Europe an
Asia) and in the new world (America). - It is difficult to make an accurate estimate but
there are probably about 50,000 Eskimos. Eskimos
are not usually tall but they have powerful legs
and shoulders they have a yellowish skin and
straight black are. Eskimos have a common
language and can understand members of another
group although they may come from many thousands
of miles away. The most important unit in Eskimo
society is the family. Marriage is by mutual
consent the Eskimos do not have a special
marriage ceremony. - In the Eskimo community, the m0st important
people are the older man. They control the
affairs of the group. The economic system of the
Eskimo communities works like a commune they
share almost everything. Eskimos live by hunting,
fishing and trapping. When they go to hunt seals,
they sail in Kayaks (light boats made from skins)
and when they hunt animals, they travel across
the ice in sleds pulled by teams of dogs. The
Eskimo snow house is very well known, but, in
fact, Eskimos usually live in houses made of wood
and turf. When they are not hunting and working,
Eskimos like to carve they use ivory and wood
and they often make very beautiful objects.
38Skimming
- Skimming means reading quickly to get the gist,
i.e. the main idea of the text. - Some suggestions
- Ask general questions. e.g. Why did the writer
write the article? - Ask the students to choose a statement from 3-4
statements. - Ask the students to put subtitles for different
parts of the text into the right order. e.g.
39Headings Where can we put it?
- Confirming Action
- Greetings
- Interrupting without insult
- Closing the call
- Getting to the point
40Text
- Top tips for telephone English
- If you're looking for a challenging situation to
practice your English, just pick up the
telephone. Not being able to see the person
you're talking to and the body language they're
using can make chatting on the phone one of the
most difficult forms of communication. Never
fear, though! We've compiled some tips to guide
you through an average telephone conversation in
English.
41- (Which heading should be here?)
- Every phone call should begin with a polite
greeting such as, Hi, how've you been? or Nice to
hear from you. Even if you're calling a business
contact for a specific purpose, it'd be rude to
jump right into business without a little small
talk at the beginning.
42- (Which heading should be here?)
- There always comes the point, however, where you
want to move on from friendly banter and get down
to business. For this situation, use the phrase
I'm just calling to ... to transition to the
topic at hand. For example, I'm just calling to
see if you'd like to set up a meeting. If the
situation is reversed, however, and you are
waiting to find out why someone called you, you
can guide the conversation by saying, So what can
I do for you?
43- (Which heading should be here?)
- If you happen to be speaking with a very
talkative person, it may be difficult to get a
word in edgewise or contribute to the
conversation. If someone is going on and on, and
you'd like to interrupt, be sure to do it
politely. For example, begin with I would like to
say something here, if I may or Allow me to make
a point. Or, you could just ask May I interrupt
you for a second? - If you're making plans on the phone, be sure to
confirm the details toward the end of the call.
Begin with phrases like Please let me confirm...
and So, let me make sure I've got things
straight... and follow up with the details as you
understand them.
44- (Which heading should be here?)
- Sometimes this can be the trickiest part of the
conversation! It may be the time to offer some
good wishes, such as good luck on that interview
or hope you feel better soon if it's appropriate.
Additionally, you may want to confirm any plans
you've made I'll see you on Friday, then.
Sometimes it's easiest to just say you enjoyed
speaking to the other person. Also, keep in mind
that strategically saying the word well at the
beginning of a sentence can indicate that you are
ready to end the conversation Well John, it's
been a pleasure talking to you.
45Scanning
- Scanning means to read to locate specific
information. - The key point in scanning is that the reader has
something in his mind and he or she should ignore
the irrelevant parts when reading.
46- Questions for a scanning activity are often about
specific information. - We can also ask students to scan for vocabulary.
- We can pre-teach some words within the semantic
area of the theme. This does not mean that we are
teaching reading following a Bottom-up model,
because the schema of content is activated after
the students have scanned the text.
47- We can also ask students to scan for certain
structures, e.g. tense forms, discourse
connectors, particular sentence structures.
48Something to bear in mind when conducting scanning
- Set a time limit.
- Give clear instructions.
- Wait until 70 of the students finish.
- Make clear how you are going to get feedback.
- Answers to the scanning questions should be
scattered throughout the text rather than
clustered at one place.
49 While-reading activities
- While-reading activities focus on the process of
understanding rather than the result of reading. - Information transfer activities
- Reading comprehension questions
- Understanding references
- Making inferences
50Information transfer activities using transition
devices
- Transition device A way to transfer information
from one form, e.g. the text form, to another,
e.g. a visual form.
Sophisticated Input (SI)
Transition Device (TD)
Output (OP)
Transition devices can be used to make
information in text form effectively processed
and retained.
51Some transition devices
- Pictures, drawings, maps, tables, tree diagrams,
cyclic diagrams, pie charts, bar charts, flow
charts, chronological sequence, subtitles
(providing subtitles), notes (taking notes while
reading), etc.
52Bar chart
53Pie chart
54Examples of using transition devices
- Example 1
- Read the following passage and complete the
table, which compares the two earthquakes.
55At 513 on the morning of April 18th, 1906, they city of San Francisco was shaken by a terrible earthquake. A great part of the city was destroyed and a large number of buildings were burnt. The umber of people who lost their homes reached as many as 250 000. About 700 people died in the earthquake and the fires. Another earthquake shook San Francisco on October 17th, 1989. It was Americas second strongest earthquake and about 100 people were killed. It happened in the evening as people were travelling home. A wide and busy road, which was built like a bridge over another road, fell onto the one below. Many people were killed in the cars, but a few lucky ones were not hurt. Luckily the 1989 earthquake did not happen in the centre of town but about 50 kilometres away. In one part of the town a great may buildings were destroyed. These buildings were over 50 years old, so they were not strong enough. There were a lot of fires all over the city. The electricity was cut of for several days too.
56 Time Date Location Number of people killed Damage
Earthquake in 1906
Earthquake in 1989
57- It is important that students fill in the table
while they are reading rather than after they
finish reading. - Then a follow-up output activity can be conducted
based on the results. - e.g.
- The teacher can ask questions like Which
earthquake caused more damage and why?
58Example 2
59Summary on transition devices
- The purposes of TDs
- Focus on the main meaning.
- Simplify sophisticated input.
- Allow students to perform while reading.
- Highlight the main structural organization, and
show how the structure relates to meaning. - Involve all students.
- Go step by step.
- Conduct follow-up activities for oral and written
output.
60Reading comprehension questions
- Questions for literal comprehension. (Answers
directly and explicitly available in the text) - Questions involving reorganization or
reinterpretation. (Require Ss to obtain literal
information from various parts of the text and
put it together or reinterpret it) - Questions for inferences. (what is not explicitly
stated but implied) - -
61- Questions for evaluation or appreciation. (making
a judgement about the text in terms of what the
writer is trying to convey) - Questions for personal responses. (readers
reaction to the content of the text)
62Understanding references
- All natural language, spoken or written, uses
referential word such as pronouns to refers to
people or things already mentioned previously in
the context. - e.g.
63(No Transcript)
64Making inferences
- Making inferences means reading between the
lines, which requires the reader to use
background knowledge in order to infer the
implied meaning of the author. - e.g. What can you infer from the following?
65- Blandida is a country which has every climatic
condition known to man. - When she came into the room, the large crowd grew
silent. - The painting had been in the family for years,
but sadly Bill realised he would have to sell it.
66 Post-reading activities
- Post-reading tasks should provide the students
with opportunities to relate what they have read
to what they already know or what they feel. - In addition, post-reading task should enable
students to produce language based on what they
have learned. - e.g.
67(No Transcript)
68Discussion questions
- Do you think he was a good doctor?
- How do you think the young man felt?
69Reproducing the text
- Tell part of the story from these prompts
- A doctor village annoyed.
- People stop street advice.
- Never paid never money made up his mind
put and end
70Role Play
- 1. Act out the conversation between the doctor
and the young man. - 2. Act out an interview between a journalist and
the doctor.
71Gap-filling
- One day the doctor ________ by a young man. The
doctor _________ to be interested. He felt the
young man __________ in the street with his
tongue ______ out.
72False summary
- The teacher provides a summary with some wrong
information, and asks the students to correct it.
73Writing
- Writing based on what the students have read,
e.g. producing a tourist brochure, an
advertisement, a short summary, etc.
74 Conclusion
- The teaching of reading should focus on
developing students reading skills and
strategies rather than testing students reading
comprehension. - We should view reading as an interactive process.
- Reading in the classroom can be divided into 3
stages pre-reading activities, while-reading
activities, and post-reading activities.