Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Methodology 7reading PDF
Methodology 7reading PDF
2. The Text
There is a variety of text types. These can be grouped into categories, known as
genres, such as:
• functional or immediate reference information texts
• enjoyment and correspondence
• literary texts
• journalistic literature and topical information texts
• leisurely and incidental information texts
• professional, specialised or technical texts
• miscellaneous, etc.
Anca Cehan 3
Here is a short paragraph made up of well-formed, temporally
accurate and meaningful sentences. Do you think this text is
authentic? Why (not)?
I don’t know what to do for my holiday. It will start at the
beginning of October. I saved enough money for a really nice trip.
Last year I went to the Black Sea coast. It will be too late to go to the
mountains. I worked hard all year. I really need a break.
• Connectors:
• Reference:
• Ellipsis:
• Vocabulary:
Anca Cehan 4
• Coherence
Coherence refers to the way in which sentences and groups of sentences in a text
make sense in relationship to each other. Sometimes the writer indicates the relationship
between sentences by the use of connectors, such as: but, moreover, and yet, in contrast,
etc. Some other times the pupils will have to infer the writer’s purpose and the relationship
between the sentences.
Some texts achieve coherence through other means, too. In telling a story, for
example, or giving a report, the writer usually proceeds by telling what happened next. In
descriptive passages, coherence may be achieved by the writer describing different
aspects of the same object, person or scene.
The sentences below are both cohesive, but one has a problem
of coherence. Which is incoherent? How can you explain the
problem?
a. Yesterday I got up late and had to leave in a hurry.
b. Yesterday I got up late and it will have to fly away.
• Sequences
The sequence of sentences and paragraphs indicates relationships between ideas
and information. For instance, “They were watching television when we got home”
suggests that ‘we got home’ is more important than ‘they were watching television’. “When
we got home they were watching television” suggests that ‘they were watching television is
more important’.
• Grammar
Grammar also has a text function. If someone says “I was driving very fast. I had
overslept, you see”, we probably understand that ‘I had overslept’ is an explanation for ‘I
was driving very fast’. This is partly because of the sequence, partly because of ‘you see’,
but also because we expect the past perfect to be used to provide explanations.
3. Reading Styles
A crucial factor in reading is purpose. This determines the way we read. In real life
we may want to glance quickly through a sports article to see who won, or to go quickly
through a telephone directory to find someone’s telephone number. On the other hand, a
legal document requires much closer attention, perhaps several readings, because we
need to grasp the information in detail. We read different texts with different purposes and
at different speeds. In some cases we read silently while in others aloud.
• Reading aloud and silent reading
Reading is normally a silent activity and it should be encouraged as such in the
classroom. You can sometimes read aloud fragments, especially for beginners, but the
pupils should be asked to read aloud as rarely as possible. Reading aloud may have some
value as a means of testing pronunciation, but it does not help comprehension. Also,
excessive practice in reading aloud tends to prevent the pupils from developing efficient
silent reading strategies. Moreover, reading aloud is a highly specialised skill and very few
pupils will need this.
Other kinds of reading found in the classroom include silent reading and following
the text in the book while the teacher or individual pupils read aloud. Silent reading should
be encouraged in most cases, though you may sometimes need to read parts of a text
aloud.
Anca Cehan 5
• Extensive reading
Extensive reading consists of reading (longer) texts, usually for one’s own
pleasure. It involves rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer readings (e.g.
whole books) for general understanding, with the focus generally on the meaning of what
is being read than on the language. The emphasis is thus on the information content of the
text. Extensive reading is a fluency activity involving global understanding, in which the
pupils do not check every unknown word or structure.
There is one major condition for the success of an extensive reading activity: the
text must be enjoyable. The main criteria for choosing extensive reading materials are
length, appeal, variety and easiness.
The length of the text must not be intimidating. Beginners, especially, need short
texts that they can finish quickly, to avoid boredom or discouragement. The texts must be
appealing: they must look attractive, be well-printed (bigger print for elementary pupils)
and have (coloured) illustrations.
There must be a variety of texts to suit the pupils’ needs in terms of content,
language and intellectual development. The level of the extensive reading material must
be easier than that of the textbook used in the classroom. Otherwise, the pupils will not
read for pleasure or fluently.
An extensive reading programme is a supplementary class library scheme,
attached to an English course, in which pupils are given the time, encouragement, and
materials to read pleasurably, at their own level, as many books as they can, without the
pressure of testing or marks. Thus, the pupils are competing only against themselves, and
it is up to the teacher to provide the motivation and monitoring to ensure that the maximum
number of books is being read in the time available. The watchwords are quantity and
variety, rather than quality, so that books are selected for their attractiveness and
relevance to pupils’ lives, rather than for literary merit.
The following characteristics are among the most important:
• Students read large amounts of material
• Students usually choose what they want to read
• Reading materials vary in terms of topic and genre
• The material students read is within their level of comprehension
• Students usually take part in post-reading activities
• Teachers read with their students, thus modelling enthusiasm for reading
• Teachers and students keep track of student progress
An extensive reading programme can be the most effective way of improving both
vocabulary and reading skills in general. The more reading your pupils will do, the more
skilful they become at reading as there is compelling evidence that extensive reading can
have a significant impact on learners’ language development. Not only can extensive
reading improve reading ability, it can also enhance learners’ overall language proficiency
(e.g. spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and writing). In addition, extensive reading, with its
emphasis on encouraging learners to read large amounts of meaningful language, is in
line with current principles for foreign language pedagogy. Experts now agree that some of
the most important principles include providing a rich linguistic environment, respecting
and capitalising on learners’ contribution to the learning process, and giving more
emphasis to fluency than to accuracy.
Which kinds of texts are suitable for intensive reading, which for
extensive reading and which for either strategy?
Anca Cehan 6
The only way to become a good reader is by reading. If the average educated
native speaker can recognise about 50,000 words of the mother tongue in print, this is not
an objective that the foreign English student can reach without a great deal of reading.
Extensive reading is seen as having many advantages:
• enhanced language learning in such areas as spelling, vocabulary
grammar, and text structure
• increased knowledge of the world
• improved reading and writing skills
• greater enjoyment of reading
• more positive attitude toward reading
• higher possibility of developing a reading habit.
The effectiveness of extensive reading may be enhanced by such means as
students engaging in activities in which they talk and write about what they have read and
will read. This talking and writing can help make the reading more comprehensible and
may provide a means for students to ‘infect’ each other with the joy of reading. Talking and
writing also push students to move from the receptive language competence needed for
reading to the more demanding productive competence required for speaking and writing.
Extensive reading differs from intensive reading.
• Intensive reading
Intensive reading is reading (relatively) short texts to extract specific information.
For instance, we read poetry or legal documents intensively, focusing on the words used.
In the classroom, intensive reading is usually an accuracy activity. Students
normally work with short texts with close guidance from the teacher. The aim of intensive
reading is to help students obtain detailed meaning from the text, to develop reading skills
– such as identifying main ideas and recognizing text connectors – and to enhance
vocabulary and grammar knowledge. It is a way of focusing the pupils’ attention on
language rather than content. This kind of reading can contribute immensely to improve
the pupils’ language competence. However, intensive reading does not always contribute
to the development of reading skills.
Intensive and extensive reading should not be seen as being in opposition, as both
serve different but complementary purposes.
• Skimming and scanning
Skimming and scanning are necessary for fast and efficient reading.
Skimming involves reading for an overall understanding of the text. The reader is
quickly running one’s eyes through a text to get its essence, its general idea or gist.
Reading a few sentences, recognising a few words and expressions, a few main point(s)
and the function(s) may be enough. However, skimming involves some interpretation. For
instance, a reader may skim the review of a book to see if the reviewer thinks it is good or
bad.
Practice in skimming will show your pupils how much they can find out simply by
looking at the prominent elements of a text, by catching a few words or by reading
fragments. To train your pupils in skimming, you can remove a few sentences from a text,
or even whole paragraphs – making sure those parts contain only supporting details – and
ask our pupils to supply the missing parts.
Scanning is quickly going through a text to find particular information. Readers
look quickly through the text to find words that answer their specific questions. For
example, we may scan the TV times in search of a certain film, to see on what channel it is
on and when it is scheduled.
Scanning is a visual skill more than an interpretive one. When you practice
scanning in the classroom, make sure that you give your pupils clear instructions as to
Anca Cehan 7
what they need to find out. For example, if you ask them to scan advertisements for ideas
on where to spend a holiday, they would need to find out about accommodation, prices,
meals, contact names and addresses, etc.
Pupils will need practice in both skimming and scanning, as it is usual to make use
of both when reading a text.
Intensive, extensive, scan and skim reading do not exclude one another. We often
skim through a text to see what it is about before deciding whether it is worth scanning for
specific information. In real life, our reading purposes constantly vary and we need various
approaches to cope with our needs. That is why your pupils need practice in different ways
of reading. Their choice of reading style will depend on the nature of the text and the
purpose they have in reading it.
It is important to give your pupils practice in different reading styles. This is
achieved not by telling them to skim, scan or read intensively but by setting tasks that
encourage these styles. It is the task which provides the pupils with a purpose and enables
them to practice and develop a style. Classroom activities should ensure practice in all
reading styles so that your pupils do not use the same strategy for all texts.
In some reading classes, the only function the pupils can see seems to be “English
has to be learnt” or reading techniques have to be learnt. In such cases, the pupils’
motivation is low. If your pupils see no other purpose in reading other than that you make
them do it, then reading lessons will be unsuccessful.
Some classes can focus primarily on the development of reading skills, while
others can include reading skills as part of integrative practice. Classroom reading
activities are suggested by:
• The needs, interests and abilities of the pupils. You will need to emphasise
the kind of activities your pupils will encounter in English. You must ask your pupils and
yourselves what kinds of texts they read in Romanian and if the strategies and skills that
they already possess in Romanian can be transferred to English reading tasks.
• The aims of the particular lesson. The reading activities should be
harmonised with the aims and the other work that is practised during the lesson.
• The purpose for reading a certain text. Class activities should help your
pupils to become active decision makers and risk takers. They should become
independent readers who set their own goals and strategies for reading.
• The specific characteristics of the reading text. You often have to
determine what kind of reading the text invites and develop activities and contexts that
parallel the most realistic and appropriate approaches to a given text.
• Individual pupil needs. Individual pupils may require explicit instruction in
different aspects of reading: skimming, scanning, understanding organisational clues,
accessing prior knowledge, making hypotheses, etc.
First you must decide what your pupils need to get out of their reading, select
motivating texts and set clear tasks. Sometimes the pupils have no particular interest in
reading a text because the text is not motivating. Moreover, if the task is not very clear, it
Anca Cehan 9
may distract the pupils’ attention from the text or spoil their enjoyment.
Your purpose in teaching reading is to train your pupils to read fluently, without
help, and for their own enjoyment. Your role is to facilitate this process by selecting texts
suited to your pupils’ goals and interests and practising appropriate techniques. Your aims
for the reading classes should include the promotion of the sub-skills of:
1. reading texts with comprehension
2. using various reading styles
3. learning (both content and language) through reading
4. reading critically
Your aims will vary with the pupils’ age, interests, skills and knowledge, and the
time allotted to reading in your syllabus.
Your pupils should be able to identify the purpose and the function of a text, its
main topic and the way the topic is developed through different paragraphs. In spite of the
language problems that may arise from time to time, they should also be able to interpret
individual sentences, using techniques for dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary. Remember,
however, that not all texts need to be read for full comprehension.
Your pupils should be able to skim, scan, and read intensively and extensively,
according to their purpose. In order to develop flexible individual reading styles, you
should provide practice in a variety of text types. Many recent textbooks offer such a
variety of text types and further variety can be provided by using supplementary materials.
A common reason for reading in the classroom is to learn English. A reading text
is often used as a vehicle for presenting and practising grammatical structures and lexical
items. This is perfectly acceptable as long as both you and the pupils are aware that it is
not a reading lesson. Texts for this type of activity tend to be selected because they
provide lots of examples of a particular structure. The problem is that texts are often
artificially created round a structure, resulting in unnatural language.
While reading, your pupils will meet a great deal of new language and new
content. The pupils should be able to pick out the relevant information, evaluate arguments
and evidence, and distinguish between main points and details.
Lessons should address specifically the problems your pupils have. The following
could reasonably be lesson aims for reading lessons:
• to increase pupils’ awareness of how a clear purpose can make reading more
effective
• to present strategies for dealing with individual unfamiliar words
• to increase pupils’ awareness of different reading styles
• to provide practice in intensive reading or in scan reading
• to present various aspects of British culture enabling them to make useful
predictions.
The areas of language knowledge which have an effect on pupils’ ability to read
effectively are usually addressed in separate lessons. The following could well be such
lesson aims:
• to introduce and provide practice in collocations (e.g. nice and easy, out and
about, peace and quiet).
• to provide practice in ‘mixed conditionals’ focusing attention on the meaning of
each clause.
• to present contrast conjunctions (e.g. though, however, although)
• to present a way of dealing with unfamiliar words by breaking them down into
parts
• to provide practice in recognising foregrounded information by looking at clause
orders in sentences
Anca Cehan 10
If you prefer you can state your aims in a more learner-centred way:
• to help the pupils increase their understanding of how they can make correct
inferences using background knowledge
• to help pupils use their extensive background knowledge to make correct
inferences, etc.
• to enable them to consolidate their understanding of the function of
conjunctions (e.g. however, although, though) and of their place in the
sentence.
It is quite easy to guess the meanings of the nonsense words in these sentences,
and for general understanding it does not really matter whether gart is “morning” or “day”.
Discovering the meaning of unfamiliar items making use of contextual clues (syntactic,
logical and cultural) is called inferring. When you use a new text, you do not always need
to explain the difficult words and structures beforehand. You can encourage your pupils to
guess the meaning of unknown items, based on word-formation or context. Efficient
readers generally read in groups of words, without looking at everything in a given piece of
writing, and going for the overall meaning of a text.
• Knowledge of text structure
This involves knowledge of how a text is organised, of the rhetorical structures and
conventions, of specific logical patterns.
Your pupils must know the language of the text they are reading: the content
words and what they mean, though perhaps not all of them. Also, they must know the
syntax and the effect of structural words, of word form, and of word order. A competent
reader of English is aware that a sentence like “She shouldn’t have been there at that
time” cannot stand alone and must refer to a situation already mentioned in an earlier part
of the text. The identity of ‘she’ must already be known and the place and time signaled by
‘there’ and ‘at that time’ must have been specified already. Exercises in which pupils are
asked to search for and underline or circle cohesive pairs in a text are recommended.
It is also important to train your pupils to look first at the basic sentence pattern
(subject + verb) and then at the other elements and their contribution to sentence
meaning. To practise this, you can ask them to divide passages into sense groups and
analyse the important elements.
Another important ability is that of recognising and interpreting discourse markers,
such as then, next, after this, which show the sequence in which events occur. Other
markers, such as for example, all in all, as already noted, indicate that the writer is
exemplifying, summing up or referring to a point made previously. However and moreover,
signal that the writer is making an adjustment to a previous statement or adding further
evidence. You need to teach your pupils to recognise the various devices used to link
sentences and ideas. You may offer them exercises in recognising the function of
connectors, finding equivalents, completing texts with the missing link-words, transforming
disconnected sentences into text by joining sentences and adding connectors.
Understanding the meaning of individual sentences is important, but insufficient.
Your pupils should be able to recognise the purpose of the text as a whole, to see how it is
Anca Cehan 12
organised, and to understand the relationship between sentences. They should be able to
follow the writer and see how the sentences and the paragraphs are related to each other,
and make sense of the text.
• Content and background knowledge
This involves prior knowledge of content, background or culture. All readers bring
their ‘knowledge of the world’ to a text: life experience, familiarity with a particular topic and
with different text types, but also knowledge of a particular culture or way of life.
Whether knowledge of the world will help your pupils to understand the text will
depend on the nature of the text and their knowledge. The cultural background of your
pupils, if different from that of the writer, may cause additional difficulties in understanding
a text. If you want your pupils to be able to read a text effectively, you have to provide such
knowledge or enable them to access it in some way before the reading. However, you do
not need to prepare your pupils for everything that they will encounter in the text. Very
often reading also means learning.
2. 5.
3. 6.
Anca Cehan 14
5.2 Models of Reading: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes
“Mircea is a conscientious student. When he is told he will be tested (…),
he looks up every unknown word in the dictionary in an effort to fix the information in
his memory. Despite his extended preparations, he doesn’t do well on the test,
though he says he spent hours preparing. Lia, on the other hand, excels on the
exam, but she has approached the text in a very different way. Before she reads the
chapter, she skims through it, looking at subheadings and graphics so as to give
herself a general idea of what the text will be about. As she reads, she connects the
material in the chapter to what she already knows. She frequently asks herself
questions about the text, looking back or ahead to link one part of the text to
another. When she is puzzled by the content, she searches for clues in the context,
tries to paraphrase, or considers what she knows about the text structure. In short,
Lia is reading like an expert, while Mircea is relying on just one technique. The
difference between the two is in their use of reading strategies.” (Joy Janzen, 287)
Reading strategies are “plans for solving problems encountered in constructing
meaning (Duffy, 1993, p. 232). They range from bottom-up vocabulary strategies, such as
looking up an unknown word in the dictionary, to more comprehensive actions, such as
connecting what is being read to the reader’s background knowledge. Research has
demonstrated that strategy use is different in more proficient and less proficient readers.
More proficient readers use different types of strategies, and they use them in different
ways.
The top-down model recommends that readers should start with the global
understanding and move towards details rather than the other way round. This means that
you need to offer your pupils relatively little practice in intensive reading and a lot of
practice in anticipating the content of texts, guessing, increasing reading speed, and
practice in skimming.
Thus, when constructing or using comprehension exercises on a given text, it is
preferable to start with the overall meaning of a text, its function(s) and aim rather than
working on specific details or vocabulary. The activities that help the pupils in gaining or
accessing background knowledge also facilitate top-down processing. Among these there
are pre-reading discussions, reading within a topic area, extensive reading, and sustained
silent reading. All these involve the pupils in reading large amounts of text for general
comprehension.
• Procedures for developing top down reading skills
If you want to apply a top-down reading approach, you can choose from among
several procedures:
present typical text patterns (e.g. a typical essay paragraph pattern is “Topic
- Restriction – Illustration”; a typical advertisement pattern is “Problem – Solution –
Evaluation”)
while pupils read topic sentence or introduction, help them to predict what
might come next
ask pupils to use white correction fluid to cancel unfamiliar words - this may
help them to work out the approximate meaning from context.
help pupils to predict next utterance, word or phrase by referring them to
discourse markers: not only... helps predict but also.., and another thing helps
predict additional information, opinions, etc. or referring them to grammar markers:
e.g. ‘When I got home I discovered...’ helps predict the past perfect.
However, the importance of lower-level processes should not be underestimated,
as fluency of reading is especially important. Less proficient readers often have difficulty in
recognising the English words rapidly and accurately and spend their time attending to the
graphic form. Knowledge of syntax and vocabulary is also critical.
It seems that below a certain language proficiency threshold in English, it is
Anca Cehan 15
unrealistic to expect your pupils to be able to transfer and use effectively the reading
comprehension processes they use in Romanian. Language plays a critical role in reading
abilities, and reading is fundamentally a balanced language and thinking process.
• Procedures for developing bottom-up reading skills
These procedures fall into two main categories: a) helping pupils to cope with
unfamiliar vocabulary and b) helping them develop text analysis skills.
a) developing vocabulary decoding skills
teach suffixes and prefixes and ask your pupils to work out the meanings of
unfamiliar words with such suffixes and prefixes
help your pupils recognise words ‘families’ by getting them to complete word
grids:
6. Reader Response
To make your pupils active in the reading process, you will have to ask for a
response from them. Their response can be either linguistic or non-linguistic.
Anca Cehan 16
• Linguistic responses
Linguistic responses can come in the form of answers to comprehension
questions. These can take a variety of forms: yes/no, true or false, multiple choice, grids or
charts to be completed, and open-ended questions. Answering comprehension questions
orally round the class is a very common technique used for developing reading
comprehension. A variety of different question forms will enable your pupils to use their
different skills in appropriate ways.
An alternative way of using questions is to ask the pupils to think up and ask the
questions themselves. Their questions will show their current understanding of the text,
their current perception of what is difficult and important in it. This understanding will
change and develop as they continue reading.
Asking questions may be not always a very successful activity for large classes.
As (usually) only one pupil answers a question, the rest of the class does not need to pay
attention. Thus, it may be difficult for you to see whether your pupils have really
understood a text. To maximize the pupils’ participation, you can divide the class into
groups and give each group a different fragment to read. In their groups the pupils discuss
their interpretations and then compose the questions they want another group to answer.
The questions do not need to have only one answer. When they have completed their
discussion and agreed on the questions, the pupils pass the fragment and their questions
to another group to answer. Thus they try out possible solutions to the problems they
identify in the text. They can call you in when they need you. Such an activity requires
repeated readings of the text and stresses the process of understanding. Also, listening,
speaking, and writing are naturally integrated in such class interaction.
• Non-linguistic responses
Many activities that do not involve verbal responses can also prove your pupils’
understanding of the text:
comparing text and image by matching passages of the text and diagrams;
rendering the information into the form of a diagram;
performing an action, finding a solution, making a decision using the
information from the text.
What other things can your pupils do with the information from a
text to prove their understanding of it?
•
•
Anca Cehan 17
7. Reading in English vs. Reading in Romanian
There are both similarities and differences between reading in a foreign language
and reading in the mother tongue. The differences concern the acquisition of the
respective foreign language, the training background, language processing and social
context. For instance, most foreign pupils who study English, begin reading in English with
different knowledge from native readers. Before they begin reading in school, English
children already have a large vocabulary store (5,000 to 7,000 words) and a good intuitive
sense of the grammar. The typical Romanian children who learn to read in English have
not yet learnt a lot of vocabulary, nor have they acquired a complete sense of the grammar
of English 1. However, a number of useful sub-skills which can be transferred from L1 to L2
reading:
• Letter-sound correspondences for beginning reading and the transfer of a few
correspondences from Romanian to English
• Word recognition and the processing of words in a text
• Recognition of vocabulary
• Reading rates for processing
• Graphic representations for comprehension instruction
• Value of extensive reading
The differences between the L1 and L2 and between L1 and L2 reading instruction
explain why the pupils encounter many difficulties caused by language processing
differences. Transfer effects, as in the case of ‘false friends’ (e.g. library, terrible, sensible,
etc) can influence vocabulary recognition. Orthographic differences, unfamiliar syntactic
structures, word order, and other structural differences between English and Romanian
mislead your pupils, particularly beginners. The pupils’ incomplete knowledge of the
language may cause serious difficulty with some texts. In fact, a fundamental difference
between the native readers and the foreign readers is that the former use the language to
help them read, whereas the latter use reading to learn the language.
1
See also section ‘Difficulties Related to Reading in a Foreign Language’.
Anca Cehan 18
8. The Three-Phase Approach to Reading Activities
R. White suggests three stages and a general procedure for a reading lesson: he
recommends the use of pre-, while- and post-reading activities. The procedure relies on
the pupils’ knowledge of language and knowledge of the world and uses this as a basis for
involvement, motivation, and progress. It also leads to the integration of language skills.
Pre-reading activities are meant to introduce and arouse interest in the topic, to
motivate the pupils by giving them a reason for reading and to provide some language
preparation for the text. In real life, we usually have a purpose in reading: something we
want to find out, to check or clarify. We also have a purpose in reading when we read
stories for pleasure: we want to find out how the story develops, ‘what happens next’.
Moreover, we always have some idea of what we are going to read about and as we read
we address the writer questions in our mind. Based on these, we may be able to make a
number of predictions or guesses. Headlines, chapter headings or book titles often make
us think about the text before we begin to read.
In the classroom, it is important to give the pupils some reason for reading or
problems they want to find the answer to. These may consist in questions for them to think
about as they read. (The answers will be discussed afterwards.) These questions are
called guiding / signpost questions: e.g. “What would you like to know about…? Write
down at least five questions, which you hope the text will answer” or “You are going to
read a text about…. Here are some words and phrases from the text. Can you guess how
they are used in the text?”
Another type of pre-reading activity may be true / false questions: the pupils are
given sentences that refer to the text, and they guess whether they are true or false.
Alternatively, they are given a summary of the text with gaps; their task is to guess what
words should go in the gaps. They may also be given the topic of the text and may be
asked to write a list of things they know and things they do not know about the topic. If the
text puts forward an opinion, the pupils discuss the topic beforehand and give their own
point of view.
Although you are not supposed to teach every word or structure in the text that
you think your pupils are not familiar with, you should ensure that your pupils would be
able to do the text tasks without being hindered by language difficulties. On the other
hand, language preparation can be carried out by the pupils themselves.
The use of visuals, such as photographs, maps, diagrams, the drawing up of lists,
and the setting or answering of questions (oral or written) may all be part of pre-reading.
While-reading activities usually start from a general understanding of the text, and
then move to smaller units: paragraphs, sentences and words. The larger units provide a
context for the smaller ones. The activities aim at helping the pupils understand the writer’s
purpose, text structure and content.
The traditional comprehension questions, placed either at the end, at the
beginning or inserted at various points within the text, are a typical example of a while-
reading activity. Completing diagrams or maps, making lists, taking notes are other types
of while-reading work.
Post-reading activities enable the pupils to consolidate and reflect upon their
reading and to relate it to their own knowledge, interests, or views. Post-reading activities
may deal with reactions to the text and to the while-reading work. The pupils may be asked
to say whether they liked the text and the activities or not, or whether they found them
useful or not. Other post-reading activities are:
• writing an outline of a paragraph or longer text;
• drawing a list of main ideas from the text and then working individually or in
pairs to locate supporting details;
• matching, in pair or group work, a column with main ideas from a passage with
a column of details;
Anca Cehan 19
• underlining generalisations and supporting details or creating topic sentences
for portions of the text;
• determining the function of each sentence in a paragraph or longer text
(stating a generalization, supporting it, catching and holding the reader’s
attention, etc.);
• choosing a main idea (or best title) for a passage from among several choices,
or creating one on their own;
• doing a jigsaw reading in which the pupils are given different parts of a text,
and working together to create a logical sequence. Each pupil is given a
sentence or a passage from a text and they have to look for significant details
that will give them clues to the development of the whole text. Using these text
indicators (referring either back to something mentioned before or announcing
something to come), each pupil has to interact with the others until they find
out where their passage belongs in the text;
• role-play a story;
• design a poster to advertise the text/the book;
• read interesting/exciting/well-written parts aloud;
• copy interesting words and useful expressions into a notebook;
• write a letter to the author
• share views about the text / the book with a small group of classmates.
Exploring the relationship of ideas in a text can be carried out at almost any
proficiency level. Beginners can develop semantic maps that are entirely schematic,
containing basic words or no writing, with pictures. Here is an example of such a semantic
map, drawn around the concept of house:
HOUSE
wall kitchen
door bedroom
chimney sitting-room
Tasks addressed to more advanced pupils are more sophisticated. They are
usually based on complex thinking and engage the pupils with the language in different
ways. Both texts and tasks approximate more closely to the kind of texts and tasks that the
pupils tackle in Romanian. The tasks involve longer, multi-stage, integrative activities,
entailing extended speaking, listening and writing. Some pieces of writing demand a
personal response such as interpretation, application to other contexts, criticism or
evaluation.
Anca Cehan 20
In which of the three phases, pre-reading, while-reading or
post-reading, would you use the following activities:
Summary
As a foreign language skill, reading is very important; in fact, one may argue that it
is the most important, especially for those pupils who may never actually have to speak
English. However, in the regular classroom reading should not be separated from the other
Anca Cehan 21
skills, since in real life there are few cases when reading is not linked to these.
The unit offers a classification of reading texts and refers to the importance of
some text characteristics for efficient reading. A number of reading styles are described,
while the idea that the purpose of reading determines the reading style chosen is
underlined. Formulations of aims for reading activities and types of reading activities that
cultivate various reading sub-skills are also suggested.
Further Reading
Grabe, William. 2002. “Dilemmas for the Development of Second Language Reading
Abilities” in Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A., 2002. Methodology in
Language Teaching. pp. 276 – 286. Cambridge: CUP.
Grellet, Françoise, 1981, Developing Reading Skills, CUP
Janzen, Joy. “Teaching Strategic Reading” in Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A.,
2002. Methodology in Language Teaching. pp. 287 – 294. Cambridge: CUP.
Nuttall, Christine, 1982, Teaching Reading Skills in Foreign Language, Heinemann
Renandya, W.A. and Jacobs, G.M. “Extensive Reading: Why Aren’t We All Doing It?” in
Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A. 2002. Methodology in Language
Teaching. pp. 295 – 302. Cambridge: CUP.
Richards, Jack C. and Renandya, Willy A., 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching.
Cambridge: CUP.
Silberstein, Sandra. 1993, Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading, OUP
Anca Cehan 22