recognizingthesignificanceofreadingintheesl 100301154237-phpapp02
TRANSCRIPT
Reflecting on the significance of
Reading in the EFL classroom
G. Ledwith - 2/2010
Student’s Attitudes to Reading
Students are reluctant to read in mother tongue
Reading only enables them to answer comprehension tasks
Associated with memorizing & regurgitating
Passive = Boring
Reading no longer a pleasure
World of reading unaccessible and avoidable
Often a waste of valuable timeTeacher’s
Attitudes to Reading
Provide limited range of activities
Deprive students of time for grammar instruction
Limits student’s responses
Feel very little acomplished
Teachers have the possibility to convince students
Pleasure of reading
Perceive writer’s skillsVoice one’s ideas
Experience language in meaningful context Picture other
lives, places, times
Theme, plot, setting, character
No right / wrong answers
Entertainment
Sharing with others
Enables students to continue in contact with L2
While inmersed in wide range of language tasks and vocabulary building
Raise student’s curiosity
Pre reading activities
Motivate student’s interests
Put into play strategies such as hypothesis, prediction.
Provide opportunities for reflection
* One type of pre-reading task is to introduce targeted vocabulary.
Contribute to comprehension *
Activate background knowledge
help students build up their expectations and understandings about a text before they actually begin reading it.
Pre reading activities
Prediction
Hypothesis
Vocabulary building (ladders)
K-W-L- Chart
Spot the genre
Anticipation Guides Character anticipation
Background information
While reading
Observation Diary
Cause and Effects
Follow the clues
Who said What and Why
Sizing up the Setting
Predictions
Agree – Disagree: Before and After
Herringbone TechniqueNotes and quotes
Dear diary
Post reading
From me to you!
Story Tree
SWBS: Plot Chart
Opinion Page
Story Board
Building a Story
Comic Strip Template
Inferring word clues + experience = inferences Readers who infer… Draw conclusions about their reading by connecting the
text with their background knowledge. Synthesize new ideas and information. Create unique understandings of the text they are reading. Make predictions about the text, confirm or disconfirm
those predictions based on textual information, developing comprehension of the text as they read
Extend their comprehension beyond literal understandings of the printed page
[For narrative text] Can you predict what is about to happen? Why did you make that prediction? Can you point to (or identify) something in the book that
helped you to make that prediction? [Or] What do you already know that helped you to make that prediction?
What did the author mean by _________? What in the story (text) helped you to know that? What do you already know that helped you to decide that?
It is not enough to know how to read.
If one is to become a lifelong reader, it is imperative that one has the desire to read.
Skill makes reading a possibility. Motivation makes reading a reality.
In your hands...
Bibliography
Oliver Keene, Mosaic of Thought. The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction. Heinemann
Jean Greenwood, Class readers. OUP
Debbie Miller Comprehension Strategy – Drawing Inferences - www.readinglady.com/.../Inferences%20handout%20by%20Deb%20Smith.doc
International Reading Association – Read Write & Think - http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/action-character-exploring-character-175.html