Reading Challenge in L2 – part 1 For more READING in our schools! Reading… Reading, what for? This seems to be an easy question with a straightforward answer – at least for us, adults, teachers, parents; for our teens, though, the reasons why they should read are not so obvious; we want those answers to be meaningful for the time being and want them to internalise those reasons for the future. It is useless to force them to read. They will have to be the ones to recognise the importance of reading, to feel motivated to grab a book and read it with joy. But how, you ask, how can we reverse this apathy, this lack of goals in reading, mainly among our teens, who face so many other (and far more attractive) challenges? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer and an isolated reason will not persuade these brilliant minds who learn what is wrong so fast but take loooooooong to accept what is good for them; much less, then, can they be convinced at our first attempt – if we ever manage to do it! It is not easy to get solid and varied reasoning to turn around a reluctant reader. Adults’ motivations are a whole lot different and therefore the approach that works with one student may not work with another and even so it is up to us, adults, to insist, reinforce, repeat. We cannot waste an opportunity to remind them of these reasons, cannot afford to let our teens forget them nor give up at the first setback. Some of the reasons I usually point out to persuade reluctant readers are Reading is rewarding: the more we read, the better we read and the better we write! Reading promotes vocabulary acquisition; its consolidation and extension take time and can only be achieved through more and more Reading The more Reading, the more knowledge, the more connections we are able to establish and the more sense we retrieve from the world around us Reading influences cognitive development: as I have already written in the last APPI JOURNAL, Reading for children stimulates their imagination and creativity; Reading during adolescence will enrich and will inevitably broaden their knowledge; when getting older, any person should keep themselves mentally busy to decrease the chances of developing Alzheimer’s or any other form of insanity. Reading also derusts our brain! Reading broadens one’s horizons, opens doors to different and diverse realities – even to college and prepares teens for the world of work. Ours is a fast changing world and neither schools nor Alexandra Duarte ©
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