TEACHING READING Better reading for learners Craig Thaine revisits some of the traditional views on improving reading skills. Feces cee methodology has aimed to encourage leamers to engage with authentic texts using their background knowledge and context awareness hem extract meaning from a tes. Even leamers at alow level of language competence were thought 0 be capable of negotiating authentic texts inthis way. As a result, the following three statements were often considered typical teacher beliefs learmers can read in their fist aanguage, they can learn to read in Engsh 2, Spend plenty of ime accessing and eveloping leamers' background knowledge on the topic of the tex before they read 3. Grade the task and not the text, However, all three claims are open to challenge. While students may be able toed in their frst language, they may not 2e avid readers. The culture of thei frst language may place greater emphasis on oracy as opposed to iteracy, Furthermore, learners whose firstlanguage has a different graphology system, for example Mandarin or Arabic, ‘may not find their first language much of ‘help when reading in English While activating background knowledge associated with the topic ofatext can help learners negotiate its content, it will be less useful when readers are trying to understand unknown lexis or decode more complex grammar structures. In addition, Grabe (2008) has determined that learners need to be able to 34 understand approximately 95% of a text while having some instructional suppor (for example, the pre teaching ‘of vocabulary) in order to have a satisfying reading experience. Its ‘worth considering that if learners understand 90% of a 500-word text, then there will be 50 words that they do nol know the meaning of. This could lead to learner frustration. in order for teachers to make reading lessons successful and motivating for students, they need to consider the texts lasks they create and \warn.modernenglishteacher.com the skills and strategies they develop with stuclenis. The ultimate aim in doing this is to encourage leamers to read as much as possible. Texts are a good source of language and, as such, @ useful too] in helping students become independent learners Texts In recent times, social media has sometimes been seen in a more negative light and has been subject to eritieal ‘evaluation. Mest of our leamers are social media usets, 80 this is potentially atopic that is of interest to dem, Below isan excerpt from an aticle that critically evaluates social media, This fragmentation created the conditions for the second strand of Facebook's culpability in the Angi American politcal disasters ofthe last year. The portmantea terms for these ‘developments are fake news’ and ‘post truth’ and they were made possible by the retreat rom a general agora of public debate inta separate ideological bunkers. Inthe open air, fake news can be debated aned exposed: on Facebook, ityou aren'ta member ofthe community being sensed the lies, you're quite lke ever to know that they ave in circulation 1's crucial to this that Facebook has "0 financial interest in telling the arth. No ‘company better exemplifies the internet: age dictum that ifthe product is ree, your are the product. from ‘You Are the Product by Jona Lanchester This isan interesting view of the social media phenomenon that articulates lolune 28m isue 1ee ‘what some may see as a controversial viewpoint It could be argued that the ‘content of the article has the potential {ora lively classroom discussion. While the ideas inthis excerpt (and the aticle asa whole) could be of interestto many learners, it's potentially problematic for students who are not at CEFR Cl or possibly C2 level. It includes some academic lexis (for example, ‘tagmentaion, culpability, portmanteau) as well as some complex grammar structures, including densely packed noun phrases (for example, the second stand of Facebook's culpa a the AnglosAmerican politcal disasters ofthe {ast yea, Finally, the core message of the afc is that Social media users have become nothing more than producls that are exploited by big business. Some students may not appreciate being told they are justa product, Thisaticte could perhaps be used bby some higher level classes, but its unlikely to be suitable fora B2 level group of learners. The greatest hurdle ‘would be the linguistic challenge of the text, which is likely to lead to leamer frustration, A teacher who has come across this text and found it interesting ‘may need to find an alternative In selecting texts for use with learners, the following points are worth bearing in mind. Find a text that you know will be of interest to your learners. It helps iit has some kind of hook’, a key point ‘of interest that will pull hem into reading the text. 3. Ensure that the level of challenge involved is manageable for learners bearing in mind Grabe’s suggestion that learners should be able to understand 95% of a text. % Consider leamers’ current and future needs, For example, if you know ‘most of your leamers will eventually ‘want to sit the IELTS examination, ‘you should look for texts that reflect the kind of topics leamers will meet ‘when eventually preparing for the examination, Volume 28m issuel 4. Look for some visual support for the text that wil stimulate interest and perhaps help students understand the content ‘The points made above suggest that text selection for low level learners needs 10 >be mote carefully managed. As Watkins (2017: 8) notes: “The likeltood is that learners at low levels of proficiency will be exposed to.ither specifically writen material, ‘or heavily adapted material because of the difficulty of finding authentic ‘material that is appropriate for their level. As leamers become more proficient, so teachers are more likely to find appropriate authentic texts for them to use” Tasks ‘The reading lessons found i many published materials provide useful and appropriate tasks that allow leamers to engage witha tex. Typically, they ‘ill require alearer to havea initial ssl understanding ofthe text followed by another task that requires a more detailed understanding. This can vary ‘depending on the nature ofthe text tse orexample,it would not be natural to get leamersto gist read a bus timetable) teachers wish to find texts and create tasks for use with their leamers, then thought needs to be given to the nature ofthe tasks. Figure | shows an excerpt from some published material aimed at B2 level learners. This is acc ne yt bc En pnt oe on a a gt ta i bt a ‘areal tt an tan rh ata ee ‘Sot oy ag ete amet wh anaconda en a a ae eeereeien pte emer en i | SSmiewaaacary eter” | | re. eect ft nth a sro ne Pomp ih ae ep ec ict arson crea mireatiene mates waiarencnl wots, | followed by comprehension questions that aim to encourage students to read the text in detail, Task 1. When ad Tom anive? 2. What did Flavia cook? 3. How much did Tor ea? 4. What dic he cook for his frst lesson? 5. What had he done wrong? 6. What's lesson number one? The questions above are ether too easy orthey are whats considered table. ‘This means that a leamer could fine the answer othe question by liting a word or phrase fom the text without necessarily understanding what that piece of language means. Amore suitable detailed reading task for B2 level students is given in Figure 2. ‘This asks leamers to infer the thoughts of the protagonists in the blog, Which requires understanding of the information of the text aa deeper level (please note the task refers to information in the complete text and not just the excerpt in Figure 1). Ensuring that comprehension tasks do not include litable' questions isa key point to remember when ereating tasks that aim to check students understanding ofa text while helping them to develop efficient reading skills ‘The following points also need to be taken into consideration, ‘ope nde paurmes sy sup tars Senna Se ae yas foam Carage Englsh Empower B2 Racing Pus Unk 3, Coreg Unhersty Pres (2018) Caring Englanemcowar £2 © Cambie Unerty ess PHOTOCOPABLE. Reprinted wth prmission Figure 1 wwmamodernenglishteacher.com 35 | TEACHING READING ES(MM TEACHING READING 1. The task should provide a suitable level of challenge. This means teachers need to think carefully aout the depth of comprehension that is required in order for eames tobe able to complete the task. This, intum, means teachers should think carefully about which reading sub still the task will practise (gist, sean, tailed, inferring meaning) 2. Itpossible it helps ifthe task relates to the nature of the text type. For example, reading tasks for blog posts might require learners to understand the opinion or point of view of the writer, Detalled reading tasks may include an activity that helps clevelop leamers’ awareness cf the function ofthe text, For ‘example, getting learners to look for ‘examples of descriptive language in ‘an online travel diary. 3. Mis often useful to include reading tasks that involve learners’ personalised responses > information ina text. This can «asily lead to a speaking activity ‘where students compare their reactions in pairs. ‘Watkins (2017; 36) suggests a generic reading task ofthis nature that could be used with a wide variety of tex. Leamers read an annotate the text as they read using the following symbols. b What do you think the people in the text think of Tom? Read ¥—-=Tagree with this. X — =Ldisagree with this 2 =I don't understand fully . need/want more explanation, <> =Compare this to ! isis surprising/shocking Jol =Thisis funny Skills and strategies There is often discussion on the difference between reading skills and reading strategies. So, Is scanning for specific information a skill while inferring the writer's opinion more ofa strategy? In effect, tisimpossible to categorise different reading behaviours inthis ‘way because the two examples in the question can be described as both skills and strategies. It is more useful to think ‘ofa strategy as something that involves ‘conscious effort in other words, we are usually aware that we are behaving in a particular way as we read because we need to, Conversely, a skills reading Dehaviour that is automatic, so itis not something we consciousty do when we are reading. Anderson (2009, cited in Grabe, 2008: 221) notes that ‘a skill a strategy that has become automatic .. the goal of strategy instruction is to move readers from conscious control of reading Strategies to unconscious use of reading skills’, This involves providing the blog again and decide who is thinking what (Emilio, Flavio, | Roberto ar Cesare). 1. He's typically English ~ always following the rules and instructions, closely. uses what he can. how to eat! _ 2. 1 wonder how he’s getting on in Rome. 3.1 suppose he can’t buy a lot of Italian products in England ~ he 4. I don't know if he'll be able to cook well, but he certainly knows 3. We feel very proud of our student. 5. He always looks so worried, but he works hard. 7. wonder when he'll invite my family and me to dinner, | canbe netsh émeower 82 Reading Pus Unt 3, Canbrge Urivrsy Pest (2028) | came tan enone 82 © Carnie Users Press PHOTOCCPABLE Figue 2 6 a it worn modemenglishteacher.com learners with practice of different reading strategies as well as developing their awareness of when and how they ‘can deploy these strategies to help them, particularly when they find a text ora part ofa text challenging tis possible to divide reading strategies Into two clearly delineated groups. Some focus on helping leamers understand information in a text while others focus ‘on helping leamers understand specific linguistic features of a text. Here are some typical examples: Strategies to understand information 1. Predicting content and reading to ‘confirm, 2 Reading to determine the main idea of atext Reading to infer the writer's point of ‘Strategies to understand language 4. Guessing the meaning of unknown words. (vocabulary) 5. Reading in detail to unpack ‘complex noun phases. (grammer) 6. Predicting the genre features of text and reading to confirm, Giscourse) Cleary, itis important to focus on both kinds of strategies with leamers. However, itis worth looking critically at published materials and determining whether they focus more on developing strategies to understand information atthe expense of thase that focus on understanding language. Language strategies may become more important athigher level where learers have to ‘engage with more complex texts, Below is an example of how one sentence from the John Lanchester anticle excerpt above ean be ‘unpacked in terms of grammar ‘The portmanteau terns for these (mentioned before) developments (noun phrase) are (verb) “Yake news’ and (noun phrase + co- ordinating conjunction) mYouimne 28ost rut’, (noun phrase) and (clause co-ordinating conjunction) they (erms’) were made possible by (passive) (by something + noun phrase to follow) the retreat rom (prepositional post ‘modification) a genetal agora of (prepositional post ‘modification) public debate into (prepositional post modification) separate ideological bunkers, Leamers could be given a task where they break down elements in the sentence ina grid ‘This could then be followed by analysis questions: 1. Whatare the fist three noun phrases inthesentence? 2. What isthe final noun phrase in the sentence? How many prepositions does it contain? 3. Dowe know who made thenew terms possible? 4. What are ‘these developments? 3. Who or what are they"? Finally, the teacher would highlight the value ofthis kind of analysis forstretches of language in a text that learmers find difficult to understand. AS indicated above, the Lanchester text Is probably nly useful for very high level groups. A similar approach to this kind of analysis is likely to be a litle less complex, However, this shows how developing bottomup, languagefocused reading strategies can perhaps help learners extract meaning from more densely Volume 28m issuet writen text. This approach could be particularly useful for students studying English for Academic Purposes, Extensive reading Grabe (2008) has noted that leaming to read longer texts with ease and fluency 's the best way of improving a leamer's reading skills. He also notes that learners need to know about 10,000 words in ‘order to understand an academic text ‘with reasonable comfor. Fluent reading (of longer texts is also an efficient way of extending a leamer's vocabulary sore, ‘Many teachers actively encourage their Jeamers to read outside the classroom, This s known as ‘extensive reading or ‘wide reading. Often students aro encouraged to use the Intemet asa source oftexts. Thishas the benefit of allowing learners to follow their interests and read about topics that are important to them. lr entertaining for them, However, this comes withthe caveat ofthe level of challenge associated wit some authentic, online text, Some leamers are likely to sive up on extensive reading because they are not able to fin a tex that is bath interesting and manageable, Graded readers often have a useful role to play in encouraging extensive reading because the lexical load of the text as already been checked by the writer Students in a class can either all read the same book or each Individual student ‘can choose their own book. Its helpful ‘fteachers ensure that they create a link between outof-elass reading and classroom activities. This can be done in the following way. Reading is set regularly as homework. 18 Homework is followed up on ~ speaking activities (students retell the story), vocabulary activities (students explain new words to each other), writing activities (students write summaries or reviews). 1 Occasional silent reading in class. = Teacher roads aloud and students follow OR students listen and then reread out of cass. ‘Broadly speaking. the teacher aims to create a culture of reading that worw.modernen glishteacher.com a eee) TEACHING READING £53 ‘encourages students to read as much as possible in their own time, In summary, better reading for leamers involves providing them with motivating and engaging texis together with useful tasks that allow them to understand the text and develop reading strategies, While itis beneficial to focus on both information-focused and language- focused reading strategies, t might sometimes be necessary to emphasise languagefocused strategies alittle ‘more. Without doubt, the best way fora student ta become a better reader is by reading more. Teachers need to make sure they provide thei learners with plenty of reading oppostunities both Inside and outside the classroom, References Anderson N (2008) ACTIVE Reading’The research base fr a pedagogical approach In the reading classroom. fn ZH Han &N Anderson (Eas) Second Language Reading esearch and Insnucton Ann Atbor Ml University of Michigan Press, [Cted in Grab, 2009) Cambridge University Press (2018) hp ‘wormcambridge orgus/eambridgeenglish/ catalog/adul-courses/cambridge-engish- empouerresources (accessed 27 September 2018), Gabe W (2008) Reuting na Second ‘Language: Moving fom Thecry ro Practice ‘New ork: Cambridge University Press. Lanchester 2017) You Are the Product Lnaion Review of Backs 39 (18) 2-10, Watkins P2017) Teaching and Developing Reading Skls Cambridge: Combridge Universiy Press Graig Thaine has worked in ELT for 35. years as 2 teacher/teacher trainer and Is current Director of Teacher Training ‘2t Languages Intemational, Ackland. Hes 2 Combndge Eralish Teaching [Awards assessor for both the CELTA ‘and Delta schemes, Craig is author of @ ‘number of Cambridge University Press| ‘publications including Teecher Training Essentais (CUP 2010), Cambridge ‘Academic English Intermediate (2012) and Gambneige Enatisn Empower (2025). 37