LECTURES ON READING

LECTURES ON READING1. IntroductionWhat is reading?True or False?(F) 1. As a receptive skill, reading is a passive skill.(T) 2. Reading is a silent activity. Reading aloud does not help much with comprehension.(T) 3. Reading is an individual activity.(T) 4. Reading with a purpose is more effective than reading without a purpose.(F) 5. We read everything with the same speed.(F) 6. We need to know all the words in order to understand a text.(T) 7. The lack of cultural knowledge may affect the rate of reading comprehension.(F) 8. It is helpful to use a dictionary to check and note down the meaning of all the new words while reading.(T) 9. Reading can be best improved by being engaged in reading and reading more.Reading: a passive skill?Reading: an active process!Read aloud?●Reading aloud in the classroom does not often help students focus on the meaning of the textbecause they have to concentrate on pronunciation, intonation, pausing and the recognition of new words.●Reading aloud is much slower than silent reading. We can read “ten lines at one glance”while reading silently.●Reading aloud without comprehension can be very difficult and it can easily destroy readers’self-confidence.Reading: a silent activity●When we talk about teaching reading or developing reading skills , we are mostly referring tosilent reading.●Effective readers read silently. Reading aloud is considered more useful for pronunciation. Itis not a common real-world practice.Reading: an individual activity●People always read at different speed, so they cannot read together. Though two people mightbe using one book, they are reading individually.What is reading?●Reading is an active process, which constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking andasking oneself questions.●Reading is a silent and individual activity because the writer’s intention is for the text to beread rather than heard.Effective readers …have a clear purpose in reading.read silently.read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word.use different speeds and strategies for different reading tasks.guess the meaning of new words from the context, or ignore them.have and use background information to help understand the text.Implications for teaching:Focus on the process of understanding rather than the results of reading.Tasks should be designed to help students comprehend rather than test their comprehension.Teaching should be based on what learners already know and engage learners in learning activities.Tasks should be clearly given in advance.Start with global understanding and move towards detailed understanding.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 printedpage.2. Ways of ReadingWe often read distinctly different ways for different purposes. Sometimes we do preliminary or exploratory reading rather than reading whole texts thoroughly. This kind of reading can be divided into two types, scanning and skimming.When scanning a text, you look quickly through it to find some specific information, for example, looking through a telephone directory for a specific number, a sports article for the result of a specific soccer game, or a textbook for the mention of a specific topic.When skimming, you look quickly through a text just to get a general idea of what it is about, in other words, the gist.3. Reading ActivitiesThree stages are generally recommended to make reading more realistic and interesting:●Pre-reading●While-reading●Post-reading(1) Pre-readingThis stage is to prepare the learners for what they are going to read, just as we are usually prepared in real life.Teaching ideas:a.Guess the topic of the text from the headings, illustrations, etc.b.Brainstorm around a topic word on the board.c.Predict what the text will say.d.Write questions that may be answered by the text.Purposes:a.To interest and motivate students.b.To activate students’ prior knowledge.(2) While-readingThis stage is to help the learners understand the text. They may first do an easy scanning orskimming task, and then a task requiring more thorough comprehension. As with listening, you should help your learners understand the text rather than just testing their comprehension the whole timeTeaching ideas:a.Scan for two to four items of information.b.Skim for the general idea.c.Answer questions.plete sentences.plete a table, map, or a picture.f.Ask each other questions.Purposes:a.To get to know the content of the materialb.To discover structures and patternsc.To train reading skillsd.To consolidate linguistic itemse.To understand the purpose of writing(3) Post-readingThis stage is to help the learners to connect what they have read with their own ideas and experience, just as we often do in real life, and perhaps to move fluently from reading to another classroom activity.Teaching ideas:a.Discuss what was interesting or new in the text.b.Discuss or debate the topic of the text if it is controversial.c.Do tasks on the language or structure of the text.d.Summarize the text, either orally or in writing.Purposes:a.To check the fulfillment of reading tasksb.To evaluate the application of reading strategiesc.To apply what has been learnedd.To integrate reading with other skills4. After-class Reading●If your school cannot afford to build up a library of readers, you could ask if the learnersthemselves are prepared to buy a different book each and build up a class library that way.●At higher levels you can bring copies of articles you have selected from magazines, and letlearners choose one to read at home. This might encourage them to read English language magazines by themselves.●Extensive reading is an excellent way to extend vocabulary and consolidate grammar, as wellas to develop a general communicative command of the language.。