ELT5-Teaching Macroskills

Reflection and Review for

Syllabus Design and Instructional Planning for the L2 Reading Course

(READ Chapter 5 of Teaching Readers of English Students, Texts, and Contexts)

Instructions: Answer any 5 of the following IN NOT MORE A PAGE per questions:

1. How can student background variables (e.g., primary/home language(s), L1 and L2 literacy
experiences, prior education, and so on) affect student learning and performance in an L2
literacy course? How can a methodical account of these variables positively affect
literacy instruction?

2. How might we distinguish between learner needs and preferences? Why might this contrast be
important in the NA process and in implementing NA results?

3. Identify the distinctions between goals and objectives. How are the two categories interrelated,
and what roles should they play in shaping course syllabi and literacy lessons?

4. Why is specifying goals and objectives in performative terms (e.g., in SWBAT format) useful?
Evaluate the following literacy course objectives, decide which most fully meet the
criteria presented in this chapter, and explain why: Students will be able to compose
useful pre-reading questions as a result of scanning; Teacher will demonstrate prediction
strategies; Students will learn about scanning; Students will be able to write a short
paraphrase of the author’s main arguments; Students will understand expository text
structure; Students will use a monolingual dictionary to verify guesses about unfamiliar
words.

5. List the ways in which a course description and outline can assist in planning instruction and
providing students with varied opportunities for L2 reading practice. Consider how a
syllabus can enhance student learning.

6. What are the chief components of an L2 literacy lesson? What cognitive, metacognitive, and
affective functions do they serve?

7. Taking into account criteria for selecting and presenting authentic texts introduced in Chapter
3 and our discussion of textbook adoption in this chapter, explain your position
concerning the relative benefits of basing a course on a textbook or a selection of other
materials.