Material Development for Reading Skills

Presented by: Zahraa Khudhair

Professor :Gholam Reza Abbasian
Researches results show that reading is a slow and laborious
decoding process which causes poor comprehension and low
.self esteem
:Fluent Reader (Pang,2008)•
Vocabulary size of 10000to 100000-
Awareness of text type and discourse organization-
Prior knowledge in L1 skills-
Good at monitoring the comprehension process and making -
conscious use of strategies effectively
L2 fluent and less fluent reader
Objectives
Objectives
characteristics, focusing on 3
dimensions:. Pang (2008)

To engage cognitive skills, e.g. evaluating

language knowledge and To practice reading skills

processing ability )scanning, reading for main ideas(

cognitive ability As a ‘vehicle’ for introducing new

vocabulary items

metacognitive strategic competence To prompt another skill

)speaking, discussion(
Grabe (2009) identified four components of L2
:reading fluency
1) automaticity
2)accuracy
3) reading rate
4) prosodic structuring .
 Fluent reading should not only mean rapid
and automatic processing but also accurate
and appropriate assignment of meaning
performed at an optimal reading rate .
 .

1. The reading comprehension based approaches

2. The language based approaches
3. The skill/strategy based approaches
4. The schema based approaches
Rereading passages include vocabulary and comprehension test
• Wallace(2001) (Comprehension is in the form of presentation of text followed by post reading
questions on the text. ) E.g .. Headway series
Tests: true/false, gap filling, matching, question and answer
Williams and Moran (1989) identified three possible aims :
a. Check comprehension
b. Facilitate comprehension Widdowson1979) = Text has potential for meaning
c. Ensure that the learner reads the text which will vary from reader to reader depending upon
 Criticisms .a multitudes of factors
Urquhart(1987 )
1. If the learners fail to respond appropriately then it shows there is a problem .
It is impossible even for L1 proficient readers to agree
2 . Comprehension questions come after learners have read the text . completely on the meaning of a text due to
(Text has only one meaning one intended by the writer.) individuals’ experiences reader achieves
interpretation rather than comprehension
His findings accord with the finding of Mental
3. Reading comprehension Questions immediately follow a text to signal to Representational cognitive psychology and
neuroscience
the learner that they should be able to achieve accurate comprehension straight away.

4 . The real issue: when/why we might need to approximate our meaning closely to that intended by the writer.
automatic language processing Recent literature on reading: vital importance of nurturing learners’ ability to facilitate
.successful reading . •
Vocabulary + grammar exercises •
pre reading vocabulary activities
 reading sections start with vocabulary activities related to the texts
 short texts for mainly teaching grammar

1950s 60s
 The learner acquires the habit of using the language through learning the rules and lexis
= a fluent reader
 Reading being treated as a means of language practice through the use of simplified texts and graded readers
:Readability studies in 1960s
 word difficulty + sentence length= plausible indices for predicting text accessibility
1980s - present
 Simple English is written in short easy sentences with not too many long words

Criticisms
1. Understanding the linguistic meaning
of a text doesn’t equal understanding the
textual meaning.
2. Active role of reader important in
reading process (use of prior knowledge
and metacognitive strategies)
Many course books use the
Presentation, Practice, Production
Approach (PPP)
 to teaching grammar and
vocabulary
 to make use of reading texts for
language teaching
.)Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013(
 Supports
 Eye movement studies
 Negated the claim that skillful readers use contextual guidance to preselect
the meanings of the words.
( meaning is selected while the language is being processed.)
The learners need general language ability and automatic word recognition.
= Read fluently
 vocabulary knowledge is of primary importance in reading.
s
 Vocabulary studies indicate that fluent reading requires:
a)fast and automatic word identification;
b)extensive knowledge of the lexicon;
c)the ability to attribute the most appropriate meanings to lexical items in relation
to their context and co-text.
? why we learn to read in L1 may be attributed to obtaining nonlinguistic outcomes

getting information to suit our different purposes,

We read for gaining pleasure and stimuli
attaining social advancement, etc.
 L1 adults do not read a text so as to acquire extensive
knowledge of hyponyms or synonyms, to practice some
.
syntactical structure such as reduced relative clauses or to
analyze the discourse structure of a text.

 In L2, however, reading is often taught as a means of

learning language
Tomlinson(2000 ) recommends :
delaying reading at the initial stage of language learning because the learners do not yet
have enough language to read experientially.
When formal reading instruction begins at school, L1 children have more or less established: .
 Flexible and extensive aural/oral vocabularies
 Intuitive knowledge of English syntax

 Preschoolers may have had opportunities for relaxed, proto reading experiences, such
as listening to bedtime stories in which most of the vocabulary in the text is likely to be
known .
 In L2 reading, instruction begins simultaneously with L2 language learning .
 The importance of automatic accessing of vocabulary has led many course books to
present pre reading vocabulary exercises:
 Explicit pre teaching of vocabulary can help learners acquire or recall language
knowledge;
 Doing vocabulary work before reading can help learners to comprehend the text better.
 For L1 readers, syntax only becomes a problem when it interacts with other factors’.
Such a s , to vocabulary overload or lack of background knowledge.
 Skill learning Vs. Knowledge learning

Skill learning : learner acquire the sensor, motor, and cognitive abilities .
necessary for using a language in an accurate, fluent and appropriate
manner.
Knowledge learning: learn words in TL consciously and verbally
Skill : acquired ability which has been automatized and operates largely
subconsciously.
Strategy : conscious procedure carried out in order to solve a problem.
Teaching skills/strategies:
Explicit teaching of a specific skill/strategy, then some practice follows
 Successful reader:
A. Who is aware of the kinds of texts and kinds of suitable strategies
B. Who is able to monitor and control his own strategy use according to a particular purpose
of reading
 Reading is a complex operation which involves many potential strategies. Each strategy has
.sub skills and sub strategies. E.g
:Strategies for vocabulary
Identifying part of speech, analyzing morphological components, make use of any related phrases or
.…relative clauses in the context
:Strategies for grammar
.…Discourse, related strategies, strategies solving ambiguity by inferring

The efficacy of skills/strategy approach depends on that the conscious training will ventually
.transfer to become a subconscious skill
 strategy’ emerged in the materials = mid 1980s .
 Readers are considered to be active agents who direct their own cognitive resources in reading.
Readers’ cognitive resources: knowledge of the reading process; use of a variety of reading
strategies e.g. scanning for specific information

:What the Skill/Strategy Based Reading Approaches share in common are

 In order to read effectively, readers need a range of skills and strategies
 Different readers may have different reading problems
 The guided practice will help learners learn necessary skills and strategies
 A theory about knowledge in the mind
 It hypothesizes how knowledge is organized in the mind and how it is used in processing new
information
 Comprehension happens when a new experience is understood in comparison with a
stereotypical version of a similar experience held in memory.

 The reading process can not be explained without acknowledging the vital
importance of knowledge systems in readers’ mind.

 Pre-reading Activities: 
Asking learners to discuss, in pairs or in groups, the personal experience related to
the theme or the topic of the lesson
Asking learners to consider statements, text titles, illustrations,…
Activation content information: Recalling information
Comprehension , according to schematists , happens when a new experience is understood in
.comparison with a stereotypical version of a similar experience held in memory

Some materials tried to provide learners with a series of texts designed to achieve a critical mass ( i.e.
sufficient background knowledge about a certain theme to enable readers to achieve successful
comprehension )

 Problems
1. Authentic texts are too complex to allow readers easily
select and apply appropriate schemata.

2. A schema is a pre packaged system of stereotypical knowledge

and such a fixed structure may not meet the demands imposed
by the ever- changing context we find in authentic texts.

3. Schema theories do not explain well how the mind creates,

destroys, and reorganizes schemata or how schemata is retrieved
from the memory during comprehension
 Principles
1) Engaging affect should be the prime concern of reading materials.
2) Listening to a text before reading it helps decrease linguistic demands and encourages
learners to focus on meaning.
3) Reading comprehension means creating multidimensional mental representation in the
readers’ mind.
4) Materials should help learners experience the text first before they draw their attention
to its language
Principle 1 Engaging affect should be the prime concern of reading materials

 Good texts work on learners’ affect , which is vital for deep processing and creates reasons and
motivation to read on. Affect is occasionally mentioned in the literature as a peripheral factor, but
the engagement of affect (e.g. interest, attitude, emotions ) should be given prime importance in
reading materials production

Neuroscience (i.e. the study of the central nervous systems the study of the brain)
provides evidence that emotion casts a powerful influence on cognition, learning and
memory.
 Emotionally charged memory makes an instant and strong impression and it stays in our memory
for a long time. In reading, the same proficient L1 reader may process the same text differently
on separate occasions depending on his/her emotional state and the interest and significance
he/she gives to the text at the time.
Principle 2 Listening to a text before reading it helps decrease linguistic demands and
encourages learners to focus on meaning
 Tallal(2003): ‘. . . the brain is programmed to process the sensory world, turn that into
phonological representations and turn those into syllables, words, phrases, and ultimately allow us
.’to develop a written code which is the orthography or letters that go with those sounds

: A major difficulty for L2 learners beginning to read

a) to decode visual stimuli
b) chunk syntactic and semantic units
c) extract meaning from the text
.d) integrate it with their relevant memories to create the overall meaning of the text
:A teacher can make it accessible to the learners by

 Taking away the cognitive load of processing scripts and sounds at the same time
 Chunking a text into meaningful and manageable lengths to help the learners gradually
interpret the meaning
 Adding prosodic features such as prominence that mark situationally informative pragmatic
meaning
 Achieving impact through reading a text with suitable affect (e.g. humor, anger)
Principle 3 Reading comprehension means creating multidimensional Mental Representation in the
reader’ s mind

Mental representation’  a series of snapshots or movie like dynamic images with

possibly sounds and smells as well and What have created in the readers. Each reader’s
representation is dynamic and unique, depending on the individual’s mental state, mood,
experience, etc
Meaning construction in a reader’s/listener’s mind is achieved in a multidimensional
way, deriving from the integrated neural interactions of the various parts of the brain
(i.e. the sensory, motor, cognitive and emotional systems)
Principle 4 Materials should help learners experience the text first before they
draw their attention to its language

 Reading materials offer activities that help the learners focus on the content of the text and
.achieve personal experience of it through multidimensional representation
:By experiencing the text, learners are able to
 activate the sensory, motor, emotional, cognitive areas of their brain
 self project and self invest in the activities which lead to deeper processing and to fuller
engagement
 have time to make errors and adjustments in connecting verbal codes with non verbal mental
representations
 have time to talk to themselves in their L1
 have time to develop inner speech in the L2 before publicly speaking out or writing
:Nunan(1999)Considers five essential steps involved in designing reading courses

Decide the overall purpose of the reading course within a wider pedagogical framework )1

.Identify the types of texts and tasks that the course requires )2

items /lexis/discourse/specific 3) Identify the linguistic elements to be covered (grammatical

purpose etc.

Integrate texts and tasks into class based work units )4

Link reading to other language skills )5

 Conclusion
 The development of materials that promote out of class academic language and learning
opportunities is likely to increase, given trends in higher education worldwide of
a) Massification (making in class tasks less feasible)
b) Online learning (necessitating independent tasks)
c) Increasing numbers of EAL learners (making EAP central to pedagogical practice across
.the disciplines)

 .Students will experience an increased responsibility for self directed learning,

but at the same time universities will be expected to scaffold such learning
. behaviors