Teaching Reading in Second Language

Teaching Reading in Second Language

1. Reading is a conscious and unconscious thinking process in which the reader compares the information in the text to the background and prior knowledge. For this, he/she applies strategies to reconstruct the meaning that the writer tried to convey.

   • Top-down mode: when the reades focuses primarily in what he/she already knows.
   • Bottom-up mode: when the reader relies priarily on textual functions and information to comprehend
   • AHA!: a process that occurs when the reader is satisfied and has matched the text and his/her prior knowledge and there's place for comprehension.
   • Readers' first language and mental schemata: it determines what they notice in a text and how they apply their mental schemata to that information.
     • Readers' second anguage and mental schemata: based on the first language and cultural background.
   • Literacy: a set of attitudes and beliefs about the ways of using spoken and written language that are acquired in the course of a p erson's socialization into a specific cultural context.
     • Learning to read and comprehend a second language requires learning a secondary literacy: alternative cultural interpretations.
       • Second language students need to learn how to "think in English" in order to read effectively in English.
         • Students will learn to read in English best in a class that includes the following components: Substantial amounts of extensive reading for pleasure, with opportunities for talking about their books with people who can model the literate skills required in English-language contexts. Focused, interactive lessons on specific reading skills, with opportunities for students to explain their thinking, and direct instruction on applying the skills strategically to a variety of texts. Training and practice in fluency development (skimming, scanning, previewing) and reading rate improvement. Vocabulary activities that include direct instruction in high-frequency words, multiple opportunities for exposure to and manipulation of the target words, and plenty of extensive reading.
   • Extensive reading: an individualized approach to improve reading. For this, students select their own books and read at their own pace.
   • Reading skills: cognitive processes that readers use in making sense of a text. E.g.: scanning, skimming, guessing the meaning of unknown words, locating topic sentences, classification of ideas, summarizing.
   • Reading fluency: this process can be defined as reading fast with good comprehension and adjusting the reading rate to suit the purpose for reding. Fluency in silent reading promotes improved comprehension by allowing the student to read for ideas rather than for individual words.
   • Vocabulary development: Reading comprehension depends on vocabulary knowledge and vice versa. The more students read, the better their vocabulary becomes. And the more vocabulary they know, the better they can read.
   • Extensive reading, comprehension skills, reading fluency, and vocabulary building—these four components clearly overlap, as they should, because they are all an integral part of the development of effective second-language reading.