Teaching Reading by Prof. Jonathan Acu単a Solano
Assumptions about Reading What do you think? True or False? •To read graphic symbols must be perceived and decoded •All words in a text need to be understood to comprehend the meaning in a passage •Meaning is only gathered from what is read •Text comprehension comes from the understanding of lexical forms
Assumptions about Reading Can you read this?
How long does it take you to read ‌ ? x
p
t
a
q
e
w
t
jam hot pin call did tap son tick
How quickly can you read and understand this?
Assumptions about Reading Read this as quickly as you can. The handsome knight mounted his horse, and galloped off to save the beautiful princess. On and on, over mountains and valleys, until his galloping house was exhausted. At last he dismounted ‌ where was the dragon?
The Facts Regarding Reading • When beginning to read a text, we depend on the de-codification of graphic symbols. • As soon as there is a meaningful context we tend to bring our own schemata. • Not all words in a text are understood, but a reconstruction of the message is done. • The more sense units there are in a text, the longer it will take to read it. • Penny Ur
The Facts Regarding Reading • If smaller sense units (words & sentences) are combined into bigger coherent ones (sentences & paragraphs), the whole is much faster read. • Our comprehension is based on far more than simple reception of words. • Reading, then, is the construction of meaning from a written text. • Penny Ur
The Facts Regarding Reading • The construction of meaning while reading is a symbiosis of bottom-up processes and top-down ones. • As a consequence, learners ought to be encouraged to combine top-down and bottom-up reading strategies to grasp the meaning from a text. • Penny Ur
What Kinds of Reading are There? Extensive Reading
Intensive Reading
•Done away from the classroom •Done for pleasure or joyful reading
•Usually done in class •Carried out with exercises
What about Reading Levels?
What about Reading Skills? Scanning •Identifying specific bits of information in a text or details
Skimming •Identifying what the general idea of a text is or the global picture
Jeremy Harmer’s Reading Advice • Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible • Students need to be engaged with what they are reading • Encourage students to respond to the content of a text, not just concentrate on its construction
Jeremy Harmer’s Reading Advice • Predicting is a major factor in reading • Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts • Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.
References • Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP • Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson