Teaching  Reading/Wri/ng

     

ALLEX  2016  (based  on  slides  by  Ginger  Marcus)

•  Primacy of the Spoken Language •  Pedagogical Implications: when to

teach reading/writing  •  Reading strategies •  Reading activities •  Writing

Overview for today

•  written language is based on the spoken language

•  spoken language came before written language historically

•  written language is basically an imprecise representation of the spoken　

•  for daily communication, spoken language is necessary

•  we speak more than we write (most of us)

•  spoken language is more efficient for getting meaning across

Evidence  for  the  Primacy  of  Speech:

•  spoken proficiency in a foreign language helps in learning to read but the reverse is not true

–  Curtin (2012), first year J-lang learners who checked the dialogue in the textbook first and then used media materials performed worse in class

•  no culture uses only written language –  there are many spoken languages in the world but not all

of them have a writing system.

•  natural order of acquisition: spoken before written

Evidence  for  the  Primacy  of  Speech:

•  What happens if you introduce reading…

Before the spoken? Simultaneously with the spoken? After the spoken?

Pedagogical  Implica/ons:  

•  Leads to DECODING (the translation of symbols into sounds only; no processing for meaning) 　At radiological evaluation, there were bilateral patchy alveolar

and/or interstitial infiltrates in 16 patients (62%), and solitary pneumonic involvement in 10 patients (38%).

•  Focus on orthography decreases time spent developing oral skills

Before  the  spoken  language:  

•  Could have a negative effect on spoken skills •  Sensory/memory overload

•  Authenticity issues (e.g., all in hiragana)   しょうしょうおまちください。 　　　　　　少々お待ちください。 •  Remember that there is a difference between

pedagogical transcription and reading in the target language.

Simultaneously  (no  /me  lag):

•  Trained to think about all 4 skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing)

•  Time is short; let’s do everything at once •  Academic pressure •  Native speaker’s own experience in school •  Native speaker’s perception of L2 learning •  Easier to teach reading/writing •  Easier to quantify

Reasons  people  believe  in    simultaneous  introduc/on:

•  subvocalization is possible •  native orthography is not efficient for

representing sound; what is efficient? –  pedagogical transcription

•  vocab, structures, usage, pronunciation already known

•  follows natural order of acquiring skills •  avoids memory overload •  authenticity—can present text authentically •  reading reinforces the spoken language

AMer  the  spoken  (/me  lag):

Basic assumptions •  Fluent reading involves: 1. Graph-sound connection 2. Graph-meaning connection 3. Sound-meaning connection •  Reading practice for beginners must begin with

automaticity training •  Vocab building: repeated exposure in many different

contexts is key •  Balance of Top-Down and Bottom-up skills

-from Nara in Acts of Reading

Meaning

Top-­‐Down

BoQom-­‐Up

Reading  Strategies

Bottom-up strategy

•  Focus on orthography •  Focus on meaning of words, phrases •  Focus on grammatical structures •  Paraphrasing (to check comprehension) •  Translating M

VOC 字 GR

Top-down strategy

•  Prediction •  Inference •  Association with prior knowledge

M

Info Infer Pred

Vocabulary 字 Grammar

Meaning

General  Info Infer Predict

Top-­‐Down

BoQom-­‐Up

Reading  Strategies

Local or intensive reading

•  Reading for specific information •  Scanning activities (scanning: looking for a

particular word or information) •  More focus on linguistic code (bottom-up

strategy)

Global or extensive reading

•  Reading for general information •  Skimming activities (skimming: reading to

get the main idea) •  More focus on meaning, context (top-down

strategy)

 Summary  of  strategies  for  reading:  

•  Previewing:  reviewing  /tles,  sec/on  headings,  and  photo  cap/ons  to  get  a  sense  of  the  structure  and  content  of  a  reading  selec/on    

•  Predic/ng:    –  using  knowledge  of  the  subject  maQer  to  make  predic/ons  about  content  and  vocabulary  and  check  comprehension    

–  using  knowledge  of  the  text  type  and  purpose  to  make  predic/ons  about  discourse  structure    

–  using  knowledge  about  the  author  to  make  predic/ons  about  wri/ng  style,  vocabulary,  and  content    

from  hQp://www.nclrc.org/essen/als/reading/stratread.htm

 Summary  of  strategies  for  reading:  

•  Skimming  and  scanning:  using  a  quick  survey  of  the  text  

to  get  the  main  idea,  iden/fy  text  structure,  confirm  or  ques/on  predic/ons    

•  Guessing  from  context:  using  prior  knowledge  of  the  subject  and  the  ideas  in  the  text  as  clues  to  the  meanings  of  unknown  words,  instead  of  stopping  to  look  them  up    

•  Paraphrasing:  stopping  at  the  end  of  a  sec/on  to  check  comprehension  by  resta/ng  the  informa/on  and  ideas  in  the  text    

 from  hQp://www.nclrc.org/essen/als/reading/stratread.htm

Reading Activities

•  Pre-reading activities •  Reading the text •  Post-reading activities

Prereading exercises --Why?

--to prepare the reader --to activate prior knowledge --to contextualize the text --to help the learner predict

Yongfang Zhang 21

Yongfang Zhang 22

Post-­‐reading  ac/vity  When  do  you  read  a  business  card?  What  might  be  a  performance?    Time?  Place?  Roles?  Audience?  Script?  

Business  Card  Reading  Performance  from  Lesson  7  in  New  Prac,cal  Chinese  Reader

•  Ding  Libo：  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐请问，您是我们学院的老师吗？  

•  Prof.  Zhang：是，我是语言学院的老师。  

•  Ding  Libo：  您贵姓？  •  Prof.  Zhang:  我姓张，我们认识一下，这是我的名片。  

•  Ding  Libo：  谢谢。（看名片）啊，您是张教授。我叫丁力波，她叫林娜。我们都是语言学院的学生。  

•  Ding  Libo：  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐Excuse  me,  are  you  a  teacher  in  our  ins/tute?  

•  Prof.  Zhang：  Yes,  I  am  a  teacher  in  the  Ins/tute  of  Language  and  Culture.  

•  Ding  Libo：  What  is  your  name?  •  Prof.  Zhang：  My  last  name  is  Zhang.  

Let’s  get  to  know  each  other.  This  is  my  business  card.  

•  Ding  Libo：  Thank  you.  (Reading  the  business  card.)  Ah,  you  are  Professor  Zhang.  My  name  is  Ding  Libo,  and  she  is  Lin  Na.  Both  of  us  are  students  in  the  ins/tute.  

Some pre-reading activities •  Identify the text and discuss the physical

appearance: website? newspaper article? job ad? menu? horizontal? vertical?

•  Skimming (getting the gist) •  Scanning (for specific information)--use

authentic texts; build motivation

日程（現地時間）

７月１日（1:00  PM) アルゼンチン スイス

７月１日（5:00  PM) ベルギー アメリカ

７月４日（1:00  PM) フランス ドイツ

７月４日（5:00  PM) ブラジル コロンビア

７月５日（1:00  PM) アルゼンチン ベルギー

７月５日（5:00  PM) オランダ コスタリカ

７月８日（5:00  PM) ブラジル ドイツ

７月９日（5:00  PM) アルゼンチン オランダ

Pre-reading Activities

•  Discussion about the topic, genre, style •  The text’s role in society (who reads this

kind of text, where does it appear,etc.) •  Author and possible intentions •  What learners might expect to see in the

text

Reading the text

•  When should learners actually read the text?

•  What about reading aloud in class? •  Silent reading •  Authentic tasks

Post-reading Activities --discussion of the text; opposing

viewpoints; summarizing --writing exercise (e.g., commenting on a

blog post, a response email, text message, shopping list)

--ordering in a restaurant --exchanging a business card --making a hotel reservation --buying tickets online

Beginning-level activity: Reading a Chinese menu

•  Pre-reading activity – Discuss kinds of food learners like – Types of restaurants they like – Chinese dishes they like – Different types of restaurants in Taiwan – Restaurant culture

Beginning-level activity: Reading a Chinese menu

•  Post-reading activities (Performances) – Place an order – Ask the server about dishes – Discuss what you ordered and why

Beginning level activity: Train Schedule

•  Pre-reading activities – Discuss train travel in Japan – Discuss what kind of information you would

expect to see on a train schedule board – Show pictures of a train station, schedules

Beginning level activity: Train Schedule

•  Post-reading activities (Performances) --Find out the departure and arrival times of your friend’s train from Tokyo to Kyoto --Report the information to another friend who does not read Japanese

Advanced Level Activity: Reading a newspaper article

•  Pre-reading activities --Discuss the type of article, type of newspaper and expectations

– Discuss the topic, issues that might be raised – Discuss student feelings about the topic

Advanced Level Activity: Reading a newspaper article

•  Post-reading activities – Discuss the author’s viewpoint – Compare viewpoint with those of learners – Discuss learners’ reactions, compare with

native reactions – Give oral or written summaries (report to a

friend what you read) – Debate the issue brought up in the article

About writing:

•  Writing is not recoding. – Recoding: opposite of decoding; i.e., direct

translation from base language into target language

•  Writing is not just producing discrete symbols to represent sounds.

•  Writing is not calligraphy. •  Writing is not just composition (i.e.,

structure or grammar).

Writing involves knowledge of: •  Orthography (writing systems) •  Grammar/vocabulary (linguistic knowledge) •  Different styles (formal, casual, polite, expository) •  Genres (filling out a form, email, chat, blog entry, letter) •  Rules of organization (envelope, essay, letter,

PowerPoint presentation) •  Culture (what and how to write is determined by the

culture/social context; how to persuade, how to disagree, how to present information)

•  Domain (knowledge about the topic)

Wri/ng  Ac/vi/es  

•  Can  focus  on  process  or  product  •  Process  involves  pre-­‐wri/ng,  draMing,  revising,  feedback.  – Why  do  we  include  process  in  our  instruc/on?    

•  Authen/city  is  essen/al  – Form  and  task  –  (must  know  the  conven/ons,  etc.)  

Reading/Writing Activities

•  Keep the goal in mind: fluent reading/writing (doesn’t happen overnight)

•  Build-up is necessary; activities should lead to fluent reading

•  Need to be designed to help the learner achieve the goal (automaticity in performance)

•  Must be appropriate for the learner’s level of proficiency