Teaching reading

Teaching reading

1. People read for pleasure.

2. People read to get information.

3. Effective reading

   • Be able to understand as much of a passage as you need in order to achieve your purpose.
   • According to Simon Greenall and Michael Swan's effective reading means being able to read accurately and efficiently.
   • FRVR has a powerful effect on developent of literacy-related aspects of language.

4. The traditional approach

   • Reading texts are used as a vehicle for the introduction of new vocabulary and/or structures
     • Widdowson distinguishes between
       • Usage: The language user demonstrates his knowledge of linguistic rules.
       • Use: The extent to which these rules are used for effective communication.
       • His language courses are centre on usage
         • In most cases, passages produced in structurally graded syllabuses correspond to no normal conventions of language use and are not representative of any type of language discourse.

5. Reading is not a natural process.

6. Authenticity

   • Authenticity texts are samples of language used by or for native speakers.
   • Widdowson distinguishes between
     • Genuniness: Characteristic of the text itself and is and absolute quality.
     • Authenticity: Relationship between the passage and the reader appropriate response.
     • Authenticity is how the reader responds to the text.

7. Types of Questions

   • When finishing reading a text learners are asked to answer questions, which is related to authenticity
     • Widdowson divided questions into four types
       • Wh- question: These ones beging with "Wh" e.g. what, where, how, who, etc.
       • Polar questions: These can only be answered by going outside the text.
       • Truth assessment: These are focus on whether a statement is true or not.
       • Multiple choice: These allow students t choose from a number of possible answers.

8. A Top-Down Bottom-up Approach

   • Traditional way of analysing a text
     • These strategies use macro level cues to decode a text to get a genral meaning.

9. Reading activities

   • Extracting main ideas: Also known as skimming
   • Reading for specific information: Also known as scanning
   • Predicting: You try to guess what the text will be about
   • Checking comprehension.
   • Inferring: The reader has to infer information.
   • Writing summaries