Reading lesson( task 3) Trainee: Ulugbek Dedamirzayev

14.07.2013 Summer CELTA full time IH Dubai

Genre: article from www.7days.ae/ January 24, 2012
Level: Intermediate
Age: adults
Learners: ESL and EFL learners of both General English and
ESP
Lesson aim: Help learners develop their receptive sub-skills such
as reading for gist and reading for specific information.

I have decided on this article as it meets the needs of both monolingual (EFL)and
multilingual (ESL) classrooms with an intermediate command of English. Both EFL and
ESL students whose aim is to upgrade either their General English or ESP will benefit
from this lesson as it is intended to enable students to develop their sub-skills rather
than testing their knowledge. Most EFL and ESL learners come with poor reading skills.
It stems from their past educational background. In order to communicate effectively
and develop their reading skills, such learners should develop their receptive sub-skills.
Moreover, even such international testing systems as IELTS require students to develop
their test taking skills such as skimming and scanning.

As far as authenticity is concerned, this article enables learners to practice dealing with
language where no allowances are made for the origin of learners. Although they are
not aware of quite a number of words, they are still able to elicit the general meaning of
the text. This is what learners come into contact with (or will encounter) in real life.
(Adapted from Jeremy Harmer/page 273/ authenticity)

The lead in precedes both the text and the pre-teach vocabulary. I designed it in a form
of a group activity to make the lesson more student-centered starting from the initial
stage. (Let’s see which group can guess the country that uses more water than any
other country and why. You have 1 minute to discuss and 1 minute to present your
answer.) In addition to generating interest in the topic, this activity also aims to enable
them to activate their schema. As the learners are intermediate-level adults with
previous academic and life experience, they are most likely to possess pre-existing
knowledge. My role is to provoke students to get in touch with that knowledge.
Regarding pre-teaching vocabulary in the pre-reading stage, I tried to give the learners
only necessary words that could dishearten them. Excessive vocabulary would prevent
them from becoming able to get past words they do not understand and practice their
general comprehension skills.
Furthermore, the text subjects students to appropriate challenge as it is neither too
straightforward nor too daunting for their level. At this point it is the teacher’s
responsibility to make the task difficult, but achievable. Another essential aspect of
receptive skills lesson is getting the level right, which depends on the right match
between text and task. Hence, where the text is difficult or half a level above learners’
level as in this case, it will still serve the purpose if the task is appropriate. For instance,
the task is considered to be suitable when it asks learners-at first- to try to get the gist of
the reading passage as in this reading lesson. (Adapted from Jeremy Harmer’s The
Practice of English language Teaching, fourth edition, page 275/Appropriate challenge.)

Generally, the True and False questions in the while reading stage may, in theory, be
used to evaluate student’s performance by appearing to demand a right answer and it is
the case when they are applied under test conditions where their aim is to identify
students strength and weaknesses. Moreover, according to Jeremy Harmer (The
Practice of English language Teaching, fourth edition, page 274/Testing and teaching),
such comprehension items can also be an integral part of a teacher’s receptive skills
armoury provided the questions are discussed in pairs to agree on whether the
statements are true or false. Therefore, the True and False questions instruction of this
lesson requires that students work in pairs rather than on their own. Unlike the test-like
conditions that challenge students to give the right answer, paired work will give each
learner the chance to understand something by discussing and comparing different
answers.

The follow-up controlled writing activity will enable the learners to focus on the
functional language in the text. Each student is required to work in pairs and then
with the rest of the group. The functional language is drilled by the teacher. The
learners’ interaction and use of the useful language chunks will be carefully
monitored to make sure that students use the useful language and reinforce their
knowledge acquired from the text.

Reference: terminology is extracted from Jeremy Harmer’s The Practice of The English
Language Teacher, fourth edition.