Language functions: discussing issues; reading comprehension

Vocabulary / Topic area: reading; books; types of fiction; education; raising children

BOOKWORM
ST UDENT W OR KSH EET

Reading is to the mind what exercising is to the body.

Richard Steele

focus on talki ng
ACTIVITY 1
In pairs, ask and answer the questions below.

• How much do you enjoy reading? How old were you when you
learnt to read? Who taught you to read?

• How often do you read? Do you think you read enough? Would
you like to read more? What would make you read more?

• Where do you read most often? At home, work, school, during

your journey to work …?

• Are you reading anything at the moment? If yes, what book is it?

• Do you often buy books? How many books do you think there
are in your home?

• How often do you talk with your friends, colleagues or members

of your family about books you have read?

• How do you choose books to read? Do you read book reviews?

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ACTIVITY 2
Now answer the questions in the questionnaire and then compare your answers in pairs.

READING QUESTIONNAIRE

I read because
• It helps me understand the world

• It is fun

• It helps me find out what I want or need to know

• I know I should

Which of the foll owi ng do you read?

websites  newspapers  magazines 
factual books  fiction  comics 
manuals  emails  poetry 
plays  catalogues  encyclopaedias 
travel books  audiobooks  text messages 

Which types of fi cti on do you li ke readi ng?

adventure  horror /  romance 
ghost
crime stories  historical  Suspense/thriller

about animals  fantasy  science-fiction 

comedy  about spies  about wars 

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readi ng comp rehension
ACTIVITY 3
Now read the article and decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1. Parents should put more pressure on their children to read literary classics.
2. Horowitz does not think we should worry too much about children’s reading.
3. The review of literacy in primary schools by Cambridge University suggests
that the national literacy strategy has been successful.
4. According to Horowitz, schools should allow children to discover that reading
is fun.
5. Contemporary children’s literature is not as good as the books read by
previous generations.
6. In Horowitz’s opinion the best way to encourage a child to read is to make
them read a book for 15 minutes a day.

Don’t force young to read classics,

says Anthony Horowitz
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
The Times

Parents risk putting children off reading by dragging

them around bookstores and force-feeding them
literary classics, leading children’s writer Anthony
Horowitz has suggested.
Horowitz, author of the bestselling Alex Rider series of
action adventure books, said the current public concern
about children’s reading had been fuelled and
“hijacked” by the overanxious, white, middle classes.
“Reading is not an issue we should keep banging children over the head with,” he told
The Times.
Horowitz’s comments follow publication yesterday of a major review of literacy in
primary schools by Cambridge University, which suggested that gains in reading skills
at school through the national literacy strategy had been achieved at the expense of
pupils’ enjoyment of reading.
He also called on schools to set aside more time for children to read for pleasure and
less time for deconstructing texts line by line.
At home, parents should not worry about trying to get their children to read books they
read as a child as children’s literature was now in a golden era, he said.

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“As children, my generation were given the books that our parents read. Now children
can discover their own writers. There have never been so many good living young
writers.”
Horowitz suggested that the best way that parents could encourage a child to read was
to set aside 15 minutes a day to read to them.
“We are all so busy as adults that we tend to forget the inestimable value of spending
15 minutes a day reading with our child. There is no better way to get to know your
child than to share their books with them.
“It’s not going to be for ever and they may not thank you for it by the time they are
teenagers, so that makes it more valuable,” he said.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk – November, 2007

focus on vocab ula ry

ACTIVITY 4
Find these words and expressions in the article.

1. discourage; cause someone lose interest - ..…………………...

2. take someone somewhere even if they do not want to go - ..…………………...

3. too worried - ..…………………...

4. ability to read and write - ..…………………...

5. causing harm to - ..…………………...

6. to save or keep something for a particular purpose - ..………………………………

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