Language Macroskills

Reading

Refers to the ability to understand written text. It is advisable to develop this skill at
early age of schooling. When students comprehend or understand written text, and
combine their understanding with prior knowledge, they are able to perform the
following three reading-comprehension skills.

The reading skill has three elements, those are:

• Perception: when the reading identifies the written symbols and decodes
them.
• Comprehension: when the reader understands the written symbols and their
meanings and structures.
• Reaction: when the reader decides and evaluates the content of the text

Reasons to develop this ability:

Reading is a useful part for language acquisition, the more they read, the easier it
gets for them to understand a new language for them

Reading has a positive impact on the vocabulary of the students

Reading helps the students to improve their spelling and writing

Types of reading:

• Intensive: is the kind of reading that is only limited to short texts and carried
out with the aim of understand the whole content of reading.
• Extensive: extensive reading is to read widely and in large quantities, with the
main aim to enjoy reading activities.
• Silent: it is the one in which the process of understanding and decoding is
carried out internally, without vocalizing or emitting any sound.
• Aloud: it’s the one where you say what you read out loud.
We would like students to read authentic texts: texts which are not written especially
for language learners, but which are intended for any competent user of the
language. A balance must be struck between real English on the one hand and the
students’ capabilities and interests on the other.

How well the students can deal with reading material will depend on whether the
texts are designed for intensive or extensive reading. This is why lower-level
students are encouraged to use simplified or graded readers for extensive reading.

Reading principles:

1. Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible.

2. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.
3. Encourage students to respond to the content of a text, not just concentrate
on its construction.
4. Prediction is a major factor in reading.
5. Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts.
6. Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.

Reading difficulties as bilinguals:

• Unknown words
• Different parameters in each language
• Ambiguities
• Inappropriate type and structure of text
• Grammatical tenses
• Phonemic issues

Tips to improve this ability:

• Read, but don't forget to listen.

• Accompany your reading with a notebook.
• After reading, summarize.
• Use online resources.