CHAPTER 6: READING
Reading is considered by many to be the neglected aspect of language teaching. It is a
shame that it is considered so. How has this come about? Many teachers focus on
presenting and practising language; they practise the skills of speaking and listening in
class; they might set writing tasks for homework but where does reading come into the
programme? It is easy to see how it can be neglected.
However, it is essential for students to practise the skills of reading; they need to be
introduced to and given opportunities to practise various sub-skills. If we give students
the right sort of support to tackle a text in the
classroom,
we can hope that they will
continue to do the same out of the classroom. Reading is a great source of language
learning: language can be acquired from reading as opposed to studied directly (for a
definition of acquisition, see Chapter 1). If overt study is preferred, structures and
vocabulary can be seen in context and paragraph construction can be analysed.
There is a great choice of texts for use in class: apart from textbooks and other EFL
resource books, we can take texts from magazines, newspapers, the Internet,
brochures, menus. The opportunities are endless. If we encourage reading in the
classroom, we can expect students to continue doing the same long after they have
stopped studying with us.
Reading is similar to listening in that it is a receptive skill. It involves students
interacting with visual input of language, which they need to process and understand. I
say interacting because reading is most definitely an active process; the efficient
reader interacts with a text, predicting what will come next, and bringing his or her
knowledge of the subject and language to the text. For example, a British person
reading about the Victorians will bring to the text his or her knowledge of the period:
industrialisation, puritanical ideas, empire,
strict upbringing for children, etc. It is
essential to train our students in these skills and to encourage their use.
I will start by describing the various sub-skills that are involved in reading and then
provide a template, which you can use when designing your own reading skills
lessons. You can also use the template to analyse reading exercises in your course
book; if you see that any of the stages of the plan below are not covered in your
coursebook you might decide to add some activities. The approach is similar to a
lesson to practise listening skills; I am repeating it for those readers who do not intend
to read the entire book and are just dipping into chapters. However, if you are looking
to have a thorough view of the skills of teaching, don’t skip this chapter.
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