Helping children develop reading skills in EFL Dr. Foteini-Vassiliki Kuloheri EFL teacher
Learning to read • «The development of reading skills in a FL is greatly assisted if pupils have developed strong reading skills in L1.» (Cummins, 1979) • In L1, children develop: awareness and knowledge of print as a representation of speech, graphophonic knowledge (i.e. how sounds occur together and are represented by letters), lexical knowledge (i.e. that certain words are very common, and that they collocate), semantic knowledge (i.e. knowledge and experience of the world that create expectations), and syntactic knowledge (i.e. knowledge that phrases can be chunked and thus ability to predict what may follow in a phrase or a story).
Reading at the middle school ages of primary school • Research has shown that encouragement of learners to use comprehension strategies can help them understand a written text more effectively. (Wallace 1992) Necessary for EFL teachers: to focus in class on the development of reading skills to design reading tasks suitable for the text to explain to learners what they are looking for while reading.
Design of reading tasks (1) • Study the text carefully and see the use of which skills it renders itself for. • If these skills are more that one, select which one you wish the class to focus on. Remember that setting short-term and achievable goals works more than setting long-term goals. • Select the information children can discover in the text. • Design tasks that cater for different skills, and different learning styles and intelligences. E.g. do not overuse gap-filling and MCs.
Design of reading tasks (2) • Write short, clear and precise instructions. Avoid using unknown words. • Include pre-, while- and post-reading tasks, as this reading process reflects the reading process in real life, and thus prepares children for it.
Insist at the face of difficulties! Consult relevant (practical) sources! Have trust in you!