teaching_reading ingreek primary schools

8/10/2019 TEACHING_reading InGreek Primary Schools

1/13

Teaching Reading in Greek Primary Schools

The Funway Reading Programme

Introduction

One of the most interesting studies on the nature of reading was conducted by

Kenneth Goodman (1967), who considers reading a Psycholinguistic

guessing! "rocess# $lthough most of Goodman%s wor& deals with the

ac'uisition of reading by nati e s"ea&ers of nglish, mainly children, * belie e

that many of his disco eries are rele ant to the "roblems of reading in a foreign

language#

The purpose of this paper is to define the teaching reading "rogramme in

Gree& "rimary schools# *n other words, we will try to clear out who are the

Gree& learners, what is the use of the nglish boo&s and which a""roaches+

methods are used by the nglish teachers#

* was ins"ired to a""roach the abo e sub ect, because from my e-"erience as

an ./ teacher and as a school ad isor in the area of 0hessaly, * found out thatthe series of .unway nglish boo&s may cause difficulties both to the teachers

and to the students learning ./# *n this "articular "iece of wor& * will try to

gi e reasons for some of the difficulties as well as to clarify the "arameters

which enter these difficulties#

0he teaching of nglish in Gree& "rimary schools has been introduced 2 on a

wide scale 2 not more than twel e years ago#

0he "ur"ose the Gree& learners ha e is somehow indefinite#

*n a "rimary school class there are usually four &inds of learners3

a) 0hose who are already being taught nglish in frontistirions for one or e en

more years, b) those who are beginners at school and simultaneously at

frontistirions, c) those who begin nglish only at school because they ha e no

financial means or interest in learning nglish and d) those who are stri ing to

learn Gree&, let alone nglish4 0his teaching situation re'uires a well+ trained

teacher who will be ca"able of using his5her &nowledge to eliminate such

differences among learners and to "ro ide interest for the learners of such age#

1


2/13

$s far as the "rimary nglish boo&s concerned there is a series of two

courseboo&s one double for the two senior classes and one single for the third

class, which is considered to be difficult related to the "re ious one,

accom"anied by wor&+ boo&s# *t is "ro ided to students by the state and is

written by Gree& authors#

0he methodology teachers follow is already "redetermined through clear+cut

guidelines written in a se"arate boo&let, the 0eacher% boo&!# 0eachers are

ad ised to strictly follow the gi en methodology and the set time limits#

$uthors may ha e e-"ected to achie e unanimity by "ro iding guidelines in

teaching, (the teacher%s boo& first "ublished in 199 ) but they ha e not until

now e en though the boo&s ha e been corrected#

*n this article we will try to e-"lain the .unway reading "rogramme focusing on the

fourth grade class (students ust beginning to be taught nglish at school) but

before doing so, we should first consider some "hysical and "sychological as"ects

of reading8 in this way, we will be able to better understand the current a""roaches

to the teaching of this s&ill#

What is reading

hen you learn to read two main "arts of the head ta&e "art in the "rocess# *n

other words, learning to read has to do with the brain or mind ( Knowing,

:"elling!) and language ( saying, "ronouncing!), or else a lin& between word

recognition and understanding#( ( 0he reading boo&, ;/P ,1991)#

*n a general sense reading is what ha""ens when "eo"le loo& at a te-t and

assign meaning to the written symbols in that te-t# ( )#

On the other hand , reading is an interactive process +as well as con ersation#

0o ma&e it clear, when we con erse with "eo"le, it is ob ious that we de"end

on one another8 each "artici"ant relies on certain uns"o&en rules that the others

will follow# 0hese rules ha e been formulated as the so+called co operative

principle! $s it a""lies to reading, this "rinci"le might be e-tended along these

lines3

The reader assumes

that he and the writer are using the same code " the same language#$


3/13

that the writer has a message$

that the writer wants the reader to understand the message!

The choice of Input material$ccording to the choice of in"ut material the authentic te-ts, for many years an

indis"ensable tool of the communicati e a""roach to teaching, ha e long been

considered as a moti ating in"ut8 learners could best co"e with real world! te-ts

when they had e-"erienced them in class# :tudents, though, should also learn

ocabulary, synta- and grammar# hat &ind of authentic! res"onse might then be

elicited by reading, for e-am"le, a "oem to learn ocabulary? $n ada"ted or

s"ecially written te-t, on the other hand, not reflecting the target language

su"erstructure! ( @eaumont, 1996, Anit 3 ) may cause similar "roblems# *t is

concluded that in reading authenticity does not rely on the te-t but on the

interaction between reader and te-t3 any te-t that readers find suitable for their

"ur"ose is authentic! to them#

The content role

0he 'uestions which should be arisen are3 hy do you read ? hat do you want to

get from it? as it only information? hen students are confronted with a written

"age, a "ur"ose must be "ro ided to stimulate their interest# ;ontent becomes

im"ortant#


4/13

acti ate the learner%s e-isting &nowledge (schemata), a ery influential factor for

the nature of com"rehension# Asing schemata learners ma&e guesses about what

they hear and can let go of the belief that they ha e to recogniFe and understand

e ery single element of the message# 0his is called redundancy! and it hel"s

listeners antici"ate what is li&ely to come ne-t, select which elements to "ay more

attention to reduce the memory load and set u" further "redictions during the on

going "rocess of reading# ( ;arrell 19CD, 19C , 1C97 , umelhart, 19CH)#

Teaching Reading

Fun way is a teacher centered boo&8 teachers are in a status of su"eriority as

they use the in"ut material and the tas&s according to their own "erce"tion of

what the students need to learn# :tudents res"ond to a &ind of teaching which

resembles a testing situation8 they need to "roduce correct answers and satisfy

the teachers% demands, not theirs#

$rna PeretF ( 19CC3 1C1+19H) mar&ed the transition from the 0raditional

0eacher+:tudent oles! to the restructured :tudent+0eacher oles!# 0his

learner centered approach, the most current of fi e "hases in de elo"ing and

refining reading (outlined in @eaumont, 1996, Anit 3 6+1 ), holds that studentsshould assume res"onsibility for their learning and become aware of what they

need to learn and how to accom"lish it# 0hus they can de elo" intellectually

(they de elo" a critical mind towards what they read) socially (they use

language for real+life communication goals) and linguistically (they learn in a

creati e en ironment)# 0he teacher assumes the demanding role of a

coach5classroom organiFer5 trouble+shooter5 consultant5 "ersonal manager5

catalyst ( illiams, 3 19C63 )#

Purposes, approaches strategies and skills in reading! The Fun way

reading process!

$ccording to the @eaumont%s theory (1996) reading may fulfill four "ur"oses

for the learner#

a) eading for "leasure, usually during our free time, (recreational "ur"ose)


5/13

b) eading in e eryday life for e-am"le reading directions, ad ertisements, labels

and so on, (functional "ur"ose),

c) eading that "ro ides an authentic "ur"ose in the classroom (educational

"ur"ose)#

0he authors of Fun way tried to insert material that will train students to become

com"etent in all four uses of the language#

@ut to my o"inion all these "ur"oses cannot be achie ed at the same time# eading

for "leasure could be the first ste" because, children at such age can be moti ated

by watching, doing things and en oying themsel es#

0herefore teachers ha e to organiFe a bas&et of Good boo&s% in order to ma&e

students gradually get familiar with the boo&s# e &now that children need time to

loo& through a boo& get familiar with it and feel confident as a reader#

0he functional reading "ur"ose could be the second ste" and reading for

educational "ur"ose "lus reading at home could be the third ste"#

Iowe er , Funway& authors tried to train students to use all four uses of language

by e-"osing them to the most im"ortant a""roaches in reading, such as3

a) scanning, which trains students to focus on the main ideas the te-t wants to get

across, b) skimming that "uts the focus on s"ecific details, c ) extensive reading

that encourages students to read for gist and d ) intensive reading which is used tostimulate students to "ic& out s"ecific "ieces of information# 0he "ractice students

get on the abo e is not always enough for them to master because they are not

gi en the o""ortunity to use them fre'uently# FunWay is sometimes o er

ambitious3 many and different strategies, s&ills and acti ities a""ear and both

students and teachers are e-"ected to co"e and ma&e good use of them in a ery

short limit of time#

:tudents are also e-"ected to res"ond to se eral s&ills and strategies# One of them

is inferring. 0he te-t will ne er fully re eal itself# 0he amount of shared &nowledge

between writer+reader, acti ation of rele ant schemata and a""ro"riate use of

bottom-up "rocesses ("rimary em"hasis on te-tual decoding from lower le el

"rocesses such as letter and word recognition) will determine inter"retation# Top-

down processes ("rimary em"hasis on reader inter"retation and "rior &nowledge)

will also "ro e indis"ensable# ;ommunication should be, but is not, iewed as a

reasonable inter"retation rather than e-traction of meaning ( iddowson 19793

17 8 @yrne, undated3 )# Goodman% "sycholinguistic model of teaching, as it has

>


6/13

been referred abo e, "ro ided the well &nown definition for reading as a

"sycholinguistic guessing game! (Goodman 19673 1 6, 'uoted in illiams

19C 3D) in which the reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message encoded

by the writer as a gra"hic dis"lay!#

0he abo e model does not seem to ha e been ta&en into account in FunWay #

*nferring, which may hel" students o ercome ocabulary "roblems, is rather

undermined as a s&ill to be de elo"ed# /earners should also be trained to use

redundancy of the easily "ercei able words or structures in the te-t, a strategy

which facilitates reading because we normally read in grou"s of words and more

attention should be gi en to the words which con ey some &ind of meaning+

content words#

0raining on the abo e s&ills results in "utting less load on /0= ( /ong 0erm

=emory) and retrie al of information will be easier# $s teachers of the language we

should also consider the o"inions of illiams # (19C63 D) and $lderson (19C 3 1+

7) who welcome the recent em"hasis on teaching a""ro"riate s&ills and strategies

but they, rightfully, claim that a minimum language threshold is necessary before

reading s&ills and strategies can successfully o"erate!# Jo one, though, "ro"oses

any &ind of close linguistic analysis of te-ts+ it is not real life so its outcome will

be abnormal! ( ;# allace 19C93 7C) 2 as it may conse'uently de elo" distortedreading strategies#

The class of the research

0a&ing into account the e-isting theories we will try to come into a Gree& "rimary ./

class and set the case of a "ilot study#

0he "rimary school * isited was chosen accidentally# 0his is3 0he 1D th Primary

school of Eolos (it is a "ro incial city of about 1HH#HHH inhabitants in the center "art of

Greece)#

0he students in this "articular class are all 9 years old# *t is a class of H students , boys

and girls# .rom these students there are 9 sts, who ha e been learning nglish in a

frontistirio for one year, 7 sts who started nglish in a frontistirio last :e"tember, 1 is

bilingual, and three sts who do not attend nglish out of school because of financial

"roblems (one of them is an $lban )#

0hey ha e three nglish sessions a wee& which last > minutes each#

6


7/13

0he ./ teacher is D> years old, female, with C years of e-"erience in this "rimary

school#

:he has designed the following lesson from .unway @oo& 1# (Part @),Anit 7 #

0his reading "assage has been introduced by the teacher after about months of

teaching all four s&ills#

' sample (esson

The lesson adapted from the students&hand%ook

Time) > minutes

'ims 3 /inguistic3 gi e orders, reading for gist#

*ther 3 follow instructions

+escription 3 :tudents read the instructions that a grou" of children ha e to follow in

order to arri e at the treasure# 0hey draw the itinerary on the ma"#

Preparation) 1# Pre"are a handout with the ma"

# =a&e co"ies of it for all the students in class#

D# Braw the ma" on the board#

The ProcedureStep

Pre reading activity) a

0each students new ocabulary3

i) erbs used to gi e orders and directions# 0his can be done with ha ing

students act out the mo ements in class# 0he teacher gi es the orders and

some students stand u" in front of the class and follow them#

T: John, stand up.Come here. Go to the door. ar!, stand up and fo""ow John: go

to the door, too.

0he "rocedure goes on until most (but not all) of the new erbs are taught#

Step -

Pre reading activity) %

*ntroduce the sub ect#

T: #ou are going to read about some chi"dren who are "ooking for a treasure. $t%s a

game ca""ed &The treasure hunt'. $ know that !ou a"so p"a! it sometimes.

Step .

7


8/13

:et a "ur"ose for reading#

T: (ead and draw a "ine on the map in the handout to show the wa! the chi"dren

must fo""ow. #ou don%t have to understand ever!thing. Just find the a!. #ou have

* minutes.

Step /

While reading # :tudents read silently and draw the itinerary on the ma"#

Step 0

0he teacher goes around the class to monitor the acti ity and sort out any

difficulties#

Step 1

0he teacher reads the te-t and as&s one learner to draw the itinerary on the ma" on

the board, so all the students can chec& their "erformance#

Step 2

0he teacher can as& se eral students to read aloud "arts of the te-t#

Step 3

Post reading activities)

a# Bifferent students can gi e instructions to their "eers who will act them out in

front of the class#

b# 0he teacher or 1+ students may "retend that they ha e hidden the treasuresomewhere else on the ma" and gi e their own instructions to the rest of the

class to find the new itineraries#

c# 0he teacher can di ide the class in grou"s and gi e them instructions to find a

treasure! that the teacher has hidden somewhere in school#

d# 0hey could also fill in "assage where words had been left out, words taught

and "racticed in this lesson#

4valuation

C


9/13

$fter obser ing this "articular reading lesson * had a discussion with the teacher who

e-"lained to me in details the "lan of the reading lesson she used the aim of the reading

lesson and the methodology she followed#

:he mentioned the following3

0he lesson * chose to ada"t is from .unway 1# *t is not clear either from the

boo& itself or from the teacher%s boo& if this is su""osed to be a reading lesson

or ust another way to introduce ocabulary and structures only# =y main

reser ation is that if it were to ha e been a lesson to "ractice the s&ill of

reading, then * would at least re'uire some &ind of "re+reading "hase or some

"ost+reading tas&s, e en a few 'uestions about the te-t# 0here are no such

things# 0he "ost+reading tas&s ha e no real connection to the reading the

children ha e done#

0herefore what * did was to &ee" the te-t intact and insert tas&s that co er all

three stages in reading# * "ersonally belie e that because teachers are obliged to

use this handboo& they should not re ect it as a whole8 no boo& deser es this

&ind of treatment# 0hey should &ee" its main guidelines and in"ut material and

ada"t the tas&s, at the same time s&i""ing the acti ities that don%t seem to be

"ur"oseful for their students#

hat it is im"ortant to me is that my student could read for gist by inferringfrom the "assage without being e-"lained all the un&nown words but only a

few#(ste" 1)# hen the time came for them to chec& their "erformance (ste" C)

* was amaFed to see that all of them had co"ed with it# .eedbac& was

immediate and this was something the students welcomed as it ga e them

confidence for their "erformance and they were not being tested but rather

gi en the chance to "lay the game themsel es!#

.rom my own "oint of iew, the teacher followed a methodology that made the

reading "rocess ac'uire authenticity3 the students read silently at the beginning to get

the gist, something we normally do when we read instructions and then followed them

to arri e at a "ur"ose# $t ste" C, ust before the "ost reading "hase the teacher ha e to

read the te-t aloud so that the students can udge their com"etence at reading and

correct themsel es without feeling embarrassed if this tas& had occurred in front of all

their mates# =a&ing students feel embarrassed about their "erformance is something

the teacher should a oid at all costs as it might ser e as a constraint in the future#

9


10/13

.inally, at "oint 9 the students should be feeling confident enough to read the te-t

aloud#

0he "ost reading acti ities do not only integrate the different s&ills but are also

en oyable for the learners, a &ind of welcome reward for their efforts#

5onclusion

.rom this "articular teacher%s e idence as well as from my own e-"erience, * ended

in some conclusions about the .unway reading "rogramme, which * belie e will

hel" all the "rimary school ./ teachers to better understand not only the role of

reading but also to de elo" new teaching methodologies in their classes#

eading is introduced ery soon in Fun Way %ooks 8 :tudents learn to s"ell the words

and read them from the beginning lessons# $bout a month after this initial stage of

learning words and sim"le sentences they are introduced to "assages written in the

form of dialogues, which are used as the in"ut material for the teaching of all four

s&ills# eading "assages are introduced later on, after about months of teaching#

$ccording to ;#Juttall%s theory (1996) there are three stages in teaching3 "re+reading,while+reading and "ost+reading#

Pre-reading tasks rarely a""ear in FunWay and, when they do, they are mostly used

to gi e a rough account of what students are about to read# 0hey could, howe er,

ser e more com"le- "ur"oses3 acti ate the learners% schemata, "ro ide information

about new schemata to be created or older ones to be modified, inform about the

situation, the characters, acti ate the "rocess of "rediction and, e en more im"ortantly,

set a "ur"ose for reading# @rown (197C3 CD) belie es that the s"adewor& in

teaching com"rehension comes before the student is e-"osed to the te-t and not after

it!#

While-reading activities do not a""ear in Fun Way # hate er the acti ities, they

a""ear after the reading was done# eading is not de oted to de elo"ing the students%

s&ill of eliciting messages, so too many facts need to be stored in long term

memory( /0=) and burden it# :tudents are again faced with a testing rather than

teaching situation#

1H


11/13

hat is also left to the imagination of the teacher is post-reading tasks # *f a teacher

restricts to the instructions of the boo& then students will not ha e any chance to

integrate different s&ills# 0his should be the ma or aim of "ost+reading tas&s3 "ro ide a

meaningful conte-t for such integration# :"ea&ing could be "racticed by re"orting

orally about their findings or e-changing information about what they read# Gi ing a

written account of what was read or writing about something similar could be a

welcome "ost+reading acti ity# 0he numerous "ost+reading acti ities that could be used

will form a com"lete cycle for reading "ractice and this will reflect the way s&ills

normally interact#

To sum up, Fun Way is a teacher+centered boo *f a teacher is familiar with the new

a""roach to teaching, not only the reading s&ill but all the other s&ills, where

e erything re ol es around the learners and their needs, he5she will ha e to wor& a lot

in order to a""ly this method in class# *t will be necessary to constantly modify the

materials in the handboo& and be "rom"t to im"ro ise#

0his is not to duc& the issue, howe er# 0he teaching of reading in a Gree& "rimary

school still remains neglected and students are mostly taught to read aloud "assages

and com"lete com"rehension 'uestions after the reading is done# 0he "rocesses and

s&ills that need to be de elo"ed in order for students to become acti e and

autonomous readers are still left to the teachers to foster# *t becomes e ident thatteachers must be informed about the new teaching methodologies and get trained to

use them effecti ely in their classes#

6i%liography

'lderson 7! 5!, (19C ), eading in a .oreign language3 a eading or a

/anguage Problem?! in


12/13

6eaumont 8!, " 19C6), eading in a foreign language at elementary le el!, *n

=atthews, $# et al# (eds)# $t the ;hal&face dward $rnold#

6rown G!, ( 197C), Anderstanding :"o&en language! in T /+ 0uarter"!,

1 , ""# 71+ CD#

5arrel P!(!," 329%#, :ome issues in studying the role of schemata or

bac&ground &nowledge in second language com"rehension!, in (eading in a

foreign "anguage , 1( )3""# C1+9 #

5arrell P!(!, (19C ), :chema theory and :/ reading3 classroom im"lications

and a""lications!, odern +anguage Journa" , 6C, ""# DD +D D#

5arrell, P!(!, (19C7), ;ontent and formal schemata in :/ reading!, T /+

0uarter"!, 1 (D), ""# 61+ C1#

5arrell P! +evine 7, 4skey P!, (19CC), $nteractive 1pproaches to econd

+anguage (eading, ;AP3 ;ambridge#

Goodman :!S! (1967)! eading 3 a "sycholinguistic guessing game! Journa"

of the (eading pecia"ists 2 345-4*6).

7ohn T!, +avies F!, ( 19CD), 0e-t as a ehicle for information3 the classroom

use of wtitten te-ts in teaching reading in a foreign language!, (eading in a

oreign +anguage , 1 (1), ""# 1+19#

;uttall 5!, (1996), Teaching (eading ki""s in a oreign +anguage,7einemman Pere ( ),

""# D7+ 9C#

Widdowson =! G!, (1979), 0he "rocess and "ur"ose of reading!, in

xp"orations in app"ied "inguistics, OAP,""#17D+1C1#

Williams 4!, ( 19C ), eading and readers!, in (eading in the "anguage

c"assroom, =acmillan, /ondon, ""# 1+1D#

1


13/13

1D

teaching_reading ingreek primary schools

Documents