Teaching ReadingTeaching Reading

What do effective readers do ?

• have a clear purpose in reading.

• read silently.

• read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word.

• concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and skip the insignificant parts.

• use different speeds and strategies perceive the information in the target language

• guess the meaning of new works from the context, or ignore them.

• have and use background information

What do we read?

• Short stories

• Tales

• Essays

• Diaries

• Plays and poems

• Biographies

• Textbooks

• Calendars

• Clothes Size Labels

• Magazines

• Addresses

• Graffiti On Walls

• Radio/TV Guides

• Business Letters

• Phone Books• Children’s Scribbling

Advertisements• Name Cards• Informal Letters• Posters• Bank Statements• Travel Guides

• Credit Cards• Rules And Regulations• Cookbooks• Maps• Electronic Mail• Repair Manuals• Anecdotes• Fax Messages

• Memos• Weather Forecast• Junk Mail• Time Schedules• Pamphlets• Postcards• Street Signs• Product Labels

• Greeting Cards

• Syllabi

• Washing Instructions

• Comic Books

• Journal Articles

• Short Stories

• Newspapers

• Song Lyrics• Novels• Diplomas• Film Subtitles• Plays• Application Forms• Diagrams• Poems

• Store Catalogues

• Flowcharts

• Handbooks

• Posters

• Websites

• Notice

• Name Tags

What is reading?

• reading is the construction of meaning from a printed or written message.

Day and Bamford(1998:12)

reading comprehension

• involves

• extracting the relevant information from the text

• connecting the information from the written message

two levels of reading

• i) a recognition task of perceiving visual signals form the printed pages

• ii) a cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating the received information with the reader’s own general knowledge, and reconstructing the meaning that the writer had meant to convey.

reading strategies

• (Adapted from Grabe and Stoller, 200:83)

• Specifying a purpose for reading

• Planning what to do/what steps to take

• Previewing the text

• Predicting the contents of the text

• Checking predictions

• Skimming the text for the main idea

• Scanning the text for specific information

• Distinguishing main ideas from supporting details

• Posing questions about the text

• Finding answers to posed questions

• Connecting text to background knowledge

• Summarizing information

• Making inferences

• Connecting one part of the text to another

• Paying attention to text structure

• Rereading

• Guessing the meaning of a new word from context

• Using discourse markers to see relationships

• Checking comprehension• Identifying difficulties• Taking steps to repair faulty comprehension• Critiquing the author• Critiquing the text• Judging how well objectives were met• Reflecting on what has been learned from the

text

sight vocabulary

• words that you can recognize with both sounds and meanings without special effort from your brain.

Fluent reading

• It depends on

• an adequate sight vocabulary

• a general knowledge about the target language

• some knowledge about the topic

• wide knowledge about the world

• enough knowledge about text types

Models for teaching reading

• Bottom-up model

• Top-down model

• Interactive model

Reading comprehension questions

• Questions of literal comprehension.

• Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation.

• Questions for inferences.

• Questions for evaluation or appreciation.

• Questions for personal response.

Questions of literal comprehension

• The answers to the questions are directly and explicitly expressed in the text.

Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation

• The questions require students to obtain literal information from various parts of the text and put it together in a new way or reinterpret it.

Questions for inferences

• This type of question requires students to consider what is implied but not explicitly stated.

Questions for evaluation or appreciation

• These questions involve making judgment about what the writer is trying to do and how successful he/she is in achieving his/her purpose. It may also involve the reader in making judgments about whether the writer’s biased or dishonest in delivering his/her message.

Questions for personal response

• The answers to these questions depend most on the reader’s reaction to the content of the text rather than the writer’s such as Type 4 questions.

Post reading activities

• Discussion questions

• Reproducing the text

• Role play

• Gap-filling

• Discussion