PALS - PROFS D'ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE
AGRÉGATION INTERNE D'ANGLAIS
TEACHING READING
- enseigner la lecture -
Education (...) has produced a vast population able to read but unable to
distinguish what is worth reading. - G.M. Trevelyan.
classe d'anglais, enseigner la lecture
PALS - PROFS D'ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE
AGRÉGATION INTERNE D'ANGLAIS
TEACHING READING
- enseigner
la lecture -
Education (...) has produced a vast population able to read but unable
to
distinguish what is worth reading. - G.M. Trevelyan.
contents:
"An extensive reading program should include a library book session
once a week for at least twenty minutes. This is in addition to the reading that
the pupils should be doing at home during the week..."
.
"Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?" - Clarence Darrow.
Real books
are defined as books not written especially for the teaching of English. Some whole language projects guidelines indicate that
no "formal" teaching of grammar should take place; and that instead of
students buying a grammar book, the money will be used to buy "real" books...
This makes extremely good sense to me - if you doubt that this is good practice,
go into an elementary school that doesn't have an English library, and one that does,
and see the difference in how the students work.
My students like hearing/reading/experiencing "real" books much
more than trying to get through texts that weren't developed with their needs in
mind. And I have the freedom to help them "experience" those books with
whatever aids I choose to develop or use.This includes taking relevant words and
phrases out of the text and teaching them about how they are constructed, how they
sound and how we read them. And my students like this more because it is more relevant--it
helps them read their favorite stories. - Ellen Serfaty.
What I do
First, we have 15-20 minutes of silent reading once a week in class (when we have
a double lesson). Unfortunately, there are always kids that forget to bring their
books, so they reread the chapter we're working on in class. We have a nice library
in my school as well as the town library (Givat Ze'ev).
We received a nice present last year of 9,000 shekels to add to our small library.
We ordered so many individual books as well as class sets. We even have cassettes
for children with learning disabilities. We decided to make some kind of order as
far as levels go. Every company sets their own level but level one in one company
isn't the same in another. We put them in comparison level order and put colored
tabs to avoid confusion, on the pupils's part as well as our own. The town library
agreed to do the same.
I want the children to read for enjoyment as well as to enrich their english and
broaden their horizons. I don't want to force them to read on a certain level, although
I don't want them to take advantage of the situation. I strongly suggest a three
color level for a certain class. I explain that if the book is too hard they won't
enjoy it and if they don't see several new words, the book is too easy.
Now down to the nitty-gritty. They know about 6 weeks in advance when their book
task will be. In the past, they wrote their book tasks at home. I can tell dozens
of stories like the rest of you about the work I received. I decided that I can't
trust most of them. I'm sorry, but it's true. Therefore, I decided that all work
would be done in class. When we have a double lesson, they bring their book and a
dictionary. Every time they get different work to do. They can't plan in advance
nor will anyone else's work help them. If anyone is interested in the kind of work
I give,I would be happy to give some examples.
In the end, their work is their own and it's really hard to fake. Grading is the
next headache. The last work my pupils did, they had to choose only 2 long questions
to answer. Each question therefore was worth 50 points. At the end of the question
sheet, I made a point breakdown, which I filled in as I graded it.
Question #1
Spelling 5 points
Grammar 7 points
Vocabulary 8 points These are overall ratings.
Contents 25 points Yes, they are subjective grades.
Presentation 5 points
I give book tasks about 3 times a year. After Passover, my pupils give oral lectures
instead (not about books)...
Teaching Reading Styles
30 WAYS TO IMPROVE READING
A Teacher Trainer article
from AWL's ELT magazine
by Nick Dawson
Reading for meaning
1
Pre-reading activities: Before we read, we usually have some expectations
about what the text will contain. We also know our reading purpose - what
we want to take from the text. Our expectations and our reading purpose
will decide the best reading style. Pre-reading activities help students to
develop their expectations and decide the best reading style.
2
Previewing a text: Before we start to read a text we usually look briefly
at the form of the text. When you first looked at this text, you didn't
read every word - you looked at the section headings and the paragraph
titles to form some idea of what the text would contain and to decide how
you were going to read it (your reading style). Before students read at a
text they should look at the form - is it a list, a conversation, a
newspaper article, an essay, a story?
3 Mouth reading or eye reading?:
Reading aloud is a difficult, slow and
inefficient method of decoding the meaning of a written text. Eyes can read
much faster than mouths. In mother tongue we try not to 'mouth read'
because it is too slow. Learners of English often sub-vocalise. They like
to 'listen silently' to the words they are reading because it helps
comprehension.
4
Selecting the appropriate reading style: The appropriate reading style is
decided by [a] the form of the text, [b] the length of the text, [c] the
time you have available and [d] your reason for reading. These factors will
decide your reading style - whether you will read quickly or slowly,
whether you will read every sentence in sequence or whether you will jump
around, whether you will start at the beginning or in the middle.
Teaching Reading
Styles
Reading for specific information
5
Quick or slow?: Students usually learn to start reading at the first word
on the top left of the text. They then read word by word, until the reach
the end of the text. This reading style is very slow and students often
lose interest before they reach the end.
6
Finding specific information: Students know that names of people and
places begin with capital letters. Teach them to scan through a text very
quickly to find this type of information. You have two minutes to find the
names of six towns in this text about Australia. Students will find names
of people, rivers, companies, towns and mountains. They will need to 'read
around the word' to learn which are the names of towns.
7 Time
limits: Giving students strict time limits for reading is the only
way to increase their speed and efficiency. The best reading style is the
one which will give you the understanding you need in the fastest time.
8
Looking for key words: If students are trying to answer simple
comprehension questions, they should learn to search for key words to find
the information quickly. What colour are the taxis in New York? Students
don't need to read the whole text in detail. They need to find the word
'taxi' and then 'read around the word' to find the colour.
9
'Reading without reading': Finding a specific word in a text involves
running your eyes over the words without reading them, just looking for the
key word.
Reading for gist
Reading for gist means reading to get a general idea of the topic and
content of a text without searching for specific information or trying to get a
detailed understanding of the ideas.
10 One
slow reading or repeated reading in different styles?:
The slow detailed reading style described in [5] above is less efficient than fast,
repeated readings in different styles.
11
Looking at pictures and headlines: Many texts are printed with headlines
in larger type and photographs with captions. These are designed to attract
the reader, give an idea of the topic and encourage further reading.
Students should learn to exploit all these special features.
12 Finding
the topic sentences: Before students start detailed reading,
they should have some idea of the topic and content of the text. A quick
way of getting this information is to read the first sentence in each
paragraph. This is usually the topic sentence and introduces the main idea
in that paragraph. Together, the topic sentences will give you a fair idea
of the main content of the text.
Reading for detailed understanding
Students in schools, when reading texts books, need to read for detailed
understanding. This style of reading should never be attempted before
reading for gist or general understanding.
13
The P3RU procedure: The procedure involves five stages:
[1] PREVIEW the text,
[2] READ the text carefully,
[3] RECORD the main points of the text in note form,
[4] REVIEW or REVISE the text by reading it quickly to answer any
outstanding questions or parts you did not understand,
[5] USE the information from the text in discussions with your friends
and in writing essays.
Reading between the lines
14
Training students to infer: Comprehension questions should not
only refer to information which is stated plainly in the text. Students should
not always be able to copy their answers directly from the text. They
should encourage students to infer ideas. If Mrs Simpson put on her warm
coat before she went out, we can infer that the weather was cold. If
parking is forbidden from Monday to Saturday, we can infer it is permitted
on Sunday.
15
Can you really infer?: As students learn to infer, they should also
learn what cannot be inferred from the text. If Sally says "I have a sister
called Mandy," we cannot infer that she has only one sister, or that she
has no brothers.
16 T/F/DK: These curious letters stand for True, False
and Don't Know. It
is as important for students to know what a text doesn't contain, as it is
to know what it does contain.
Reading beyond the lines
'Projective reading' involves the reader in a personal response to the
text. Students should be encouraged to formulate and express their feelings
about texts they read. This ability, not only helps students become more
involved with the text, it is also necessary for critical reading of both
literary and non-literary texts.
17 How
do you feel about the text?: Would you behave in the same
way as the central character? Could this happen in this country? Do you
think the story is true? All these questions encourage students to formulate
and express their personal opinions about a text. Remember that there are no
'wrong' answers to these questions!
Critical reading
We read to increase our knowledge and develop our opinions. As the reader
reads he/she 'converses' with the writer - asking questions and being given
answers. The reader will not necessarily agree with all the opinions of the
writer. The reader will not necessarily believe everything the writer says.
Critical reading involves understanding what the writer is trying to
communicate and analysing the writer's techniques. This may be followed by
a discussion of how the text could be improved.
18
Reading commercial letters: Before you start reading a commercial
letter, you need to know who it is from, who it is to and when it was
written. If you start reading before you know these things you cannot form
expectations of the contents and your comprehension will be very
inefficient.
It is important to understand the communicative purpose - why the letter
was written. If this is not clear, then the letter has failed in its
communicative purpose.
Extensive graded reading
for pleasure
19 Why use graded
readers?: For many years, teachers
have realised that
providing students with graded extensive reading material and encouraging
them to read at home is the easiest and cheapest way of helping them to
improve their learn English. The material is graded to give them an
experience of reading (without the help of a dictionary) which is similar
to reading in the mother tongue.
20
Does graded reading replace authentic reading?: Graded readin
is a preparation for authentic reading. Many of the techniques for exploiting
authentic texts can be introduced through using graded texts. Graded texts
can be very useful, but they are not replacement for authentic reading.
Classroom reading Activities
21 Why should the teacher read aloud?:
Reading stories to students is an
important listening activity. Research has shown that it also helps
students to be come better readers.
22
Should the teacher read a text aloud?: In general, we say that reading
texts should be read silently and not used for reading comprehension.
However, many teachers find (particularly with classes of poor readers)
that reading the text aloud helps the students to get to through the whole
text. The momentum of the teacher's voice carries the students and prevents
them from getting stuck on difficult words. So, read aloud occasionally but
not always!
23
Should students ever read aloud?: Students should not be asked to read
aloud any text which they have not previously studied and understood.
Provided that they understand a text they may enjoy reading aloud -
particularly plays, poetry and other forms of 'dramatic writing.
24
Using very short reading texts: Robert O'Neill has used very short
reading texts like "They didn't enjoy their holiday because the hotel was
bad and the weather was terrible." He uses this type of short text to
encourage students to imagine details of the situation - Who were 'they'?
Where did they go on holiday? How long did they stay? What did they do?
Describe the weather and the hotel in more detail.
Vocabulary problems in
reading
25
Ignoring unknown vocabulary: Depending on the reason for reading,
it is usually possible to ignore unknown words or be satisfied with partial
understanding. Take a reading passage at about the students' level and
black out a few words. Then show them that they can understand a lot
without knowing these words.
26
Don't zoom in, zoom out!: When students come across an unknown word,
they usually 'zoom in' on that word and ignore the context. It is more
important to 'zoom out' and try to infer the meaning from the context.
27 Using
Italian [or French] to understand English: Many words look
or sound similar in English and Italian [or French] . Students should always examine
the spelling (or more frequently, the sound) of the unknown word to see if there
is a similar word in your language.
28
Examine the grammatical context: This will often tell you if the unknown
word is a noun, verb, adjective, preposition etc. This is a good start to
guessing the meaning.
29
Examine the prefixes and suffixes: Prefixes like dis-, inter-, intra-,
un-, give a clue to the meaning of the word. Since they are mostly Latin or
Greek in origin, the meaning is often the same in Italian.
Suffixes usually tell you
about the grammatical form of the word
30
Use a dictionary, but use it well!: A good learner's dictionary is a
valuable resource for students and should be on their desks throughout the
foreign language lesson. However, they must also be taught how to use the
dictionary properly!
© Nick Dawson 1997
Profs d'Anglais
Langue Seconde & Agrégation
interne d'anglais
Top Competitive Exam for
Teachers Recruitment and Promotion in the French System
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