http://top2learn.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-reading-teachers-should-know-about.html
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=1A246E3117A2B5D05EBC06F79DE06224.inst3_1b?docId=5002006607
WHAT EVERY EFL TEACHER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT READING
Reading is a multifaceted, complex skill made up of a number of psychological, physical, and social elements.
Unfortunately, in language pedagogy, too little attention is devoted to this skill. . Too often language teachers have no opportunity to obtain even an overview of the vast amount of research that has been done on the reading process.
Students must go beyond the language textbook if they are to achieve a level where they can read for the purpose of learning, let alone for pleasure and enjoyment.
By all measures, reading would seem to be the most attainable language skill for students in countries where English is not widely spoken. While it is almost impossible to achieve fluency in speaking without the opportunity to practice frequently with native speakers, reading requires only a text and a reader and possibility a dictionary. For, unlike interaction with a native speaker, an author will wait while the reader looks up a new word here and there.
With a better understanding of the nature of the reading process, of mature reading strategies , and of what a reading skill program should include, language teachers will be able to choose materials and activities that capitalize on their students interests.
Three basic methods
Learning to read us a process associated primarily with instruction in a student’s first language; however, language teachers in adult literacy and some bilingual programs must have an understanding of the early, code-breaking, stage of reading.
Each of the various methods, in what is sometimes called “the great debate”, has its strong adherents.
The methods most widely used are (1) phonics, that is instruction in the correspondence between English letters and sounds (also known as the “linguistic approach” particularly when the analysis of letter combinations and sounds is more precise); (2) whole word reading, which involves recognition of single words representing objects or concepts well understood by the learners and then moves into word groups: and (3)the language experience approach, in which learners tell a brief story or give a description or a comment, the teacher writes down the language they use, and the learners the read the language they have spoken.
Maturation, motivation, and meaning.
First, a level of cognitive maturation must be reached before a child is ready to read, although the age may vary widely.
Second, motivation must be present: reading specialists point out the benefits of a rich reading environment, one in which other family members read and in which there are ample materials to read. The third m is meaning: the child must know, in terms of real world experience, the content of the reading, or at least a good deal of it. After the child has broken the code, his reading skill should develop along with his cognitive abilities, if the three m´s of normal maturation (or growth), motivation, and meaning are present.
The third m, meaning, is particularly important for language teachers, who too often observe students reading word by word, trying to get meaning from individual words rather than from longer stretches of print. Reading specialists maintain that to become a mature reader it is necessary to move beyond deciphering letters and individual words, towards getting meaning from the printed page directly without decoding into spoken language.
What is mature reading?
Following are three quotations from scholars concerned with reading in a second or foreign language, all of which stress that active interaction must take place between the write of the text and the reader.
Reading is a long distance discussion between a reader and author... there is an essential interaction between language and thought in reading... the writer encodes thought as language, and the reader decodes language to thought
Reading is... not a reaction to a text, but an interaction between writer and reader mediated through the text... reading efficiency is a matter of how effective a discourse the reader can create from the text, either in terms of rapport with the writer or in terms of his purpose in engaging in the discourse in the first place.
Reading is... an active process, in which the reader must take an active contribution by drawing upon and using concurrently various abilities he has acquired.
What are mature reading strategies?
Significant research has been directed toward identifying the strategies of techniques used by people who read well.
1. Adjusting Attention according to the Material. Not all reading matter is the same: different reading modes. Some selections should be read quickly without bothering about details; others require careful, deliberate attention. Good readers continually shift and adjust their attention according to the nature of the reading matter as well as their objectives.
2. Using the total context as an aid to comprehension. The meaning of a selection lies not only in those pages of which it appears, but in a total context of the book or periodical. Good readers use all of the front matter (the table of contents, title page, etc.), as well as the chapter and section headings, as quick aids to comprehension. In newspaper reading, for example, the position of an article in the paper (whether it appears in the news section or editorial pages) adds to the total context and provides information that helps to understand it.
3. Skimming. Reading quickly to get an overall idea of the subject matter of a selection is called skimming. The first, quick reading can be for the purpose of finding the main ideas of paragraphs or larger chunks of print. Newspaper writing lends itself to skimming, since the main ideas are contained in the lead paragraph; after the lead, everything else is details. Mature readers use the technique of skimming with all kinds of materials to determine whether an item deserves further attention.
4. Search Reading. A more attentive approach than skimming. Search reading is usually appropriate for expository prose. The reader makes use of key words or groups of synonymous words and expression which the author has utilized to avoid the fault of repeating the same word too often. The reader looks for repeated elements of all kinds that present no new ideas or themes. For example, Much expository writing in popular journals contains elaborations in which the writer piles up many examples to illustrate a few main ideas. These are the passages to skip over quickly.
5. Predicting/ Guessing/ Anticipating. These three words describe what good readers do as their eyes quickly go down a page of print; picking up meaning in bunches, so to speak. On the word level, the reader guesses the meaning of unfamiliar words by using the context. On the syntactic level, he/she uses what he/she knows about the form of the language to extract meaning without actually reading all the words. The idea of a dialogue between author and reader is part of the process of predicting and anticipating. The reader tends to anticipate the author’s words before he/she encounters them on the page.
6. Critical Reading. A more sophisticated form of predicting is reading critically, or reading “between the lines” by looking for the meaning behind the author’s words. This involves strategies such as looking for inference, implication, tone of voice, etc.
7. Receptive Reading. Careful reading it called for when the reader needs to use the information, typically in a learning situation. In this kind of reading, associated primarily with information-dense material, the reader gives attention to the supporting ideas that back up arguments, and uses such strategies as reading paragraph by paragraph, summarizing the main ideas of each paragraph, underlining, making notes in the margin about questions to ask later, and writing a summary after reading in order to retain the material or make it his/her own.
8. Scanning. A strategy distinct from skimming, although sometimes confused with it, scanning involves looking for particular information, usually facts that one has read recently. One scans the pages of a new paper to find a particular article. One scans the pages of a telephone directory or the index of a book looking for a particular item.
9. Using textual discourse devices. Effective readers make us of all the syntactic and rhetorical features the author has provided. Textual-discourse devices provide unity or coherence to a piece of writing. In narrative writing, for example, unity comes from a sequence of events set out in chronological order. In expository writing, unity is achieved through the words and phrases the writer employs to connect the ideas in sentences, paragraphs, and larger segments. The good reader makes use of this prescription to writes: “Te the reader what you are going to say, say it, then tell him what you have said”
10. Synthesizing Knowledge. The most elusive, but probably most crucial, strategy is making use of previous knowledge. Even for extremely proficient readers, it is a tedious difficult task to read about totally unfamiliar subject matter. In all reading, one should bring to the activity all of one’s cultural knowledge and experience in the real word, to get sent from the printed page.
What should a foreign or second language reading ski program provide?
A solid reading program should teach strategies explicitly through intensive reading lessons appropriate to the developmental level of the students. For example, when reading first introduced as a separate skill, attention should be give to word-attack activities such as finding word groups and phrases, guessing new words from local context clues, and finding main and supporting ideas.
Learners should be encouraged to use guessing and predicting strategies when they read, and teachers should support them in this activity. The teacher can increase the students’ motivation to read a difficult selection by providine background information through an overview of the contents. It is more important for a selection to come close the learners’ interest and concerns tan to suit the teacher taste. As much as possible, learners should read about fact events, and ideas with which they are already familiar through their everyday lives.
Another important activity of the reading program “reading at the drop of a pin.” Since reading is primarily individually activity, the teacher should provide a quiet time when individual reading is the primary activity. The teacher as well as the students should remain quiet during the silence reading period. Talking about the content of the selection can come after the individual reading, either between partners or in small groups.
In planning for extensive reading, the teacher should provide of the idea that reading yields enjoyment and pleasure. Seen in this perspective, reading in an English course comes closer to reading in the native language. The activities for a reading program should be planning with the final objectives of reading competences in mind at all times.
