- •Course: Teaching Reading and Writing Midterm Preparation Materials
- •In a well-balanced language course, equal time is given to each of the four strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development.
- •1. Look at the title and headings.
- •2. Read the first and last paragraphs.
- •3. Read the article/chapter.
- •In skimming the reader goes through a text quickly, not noting every word but trying to get the main idea of what the text is about. This is sometimes called getting the gist of the text.
1. Look at the title and headings.
2. Read the first and last paragraphs.
3. Read the article/chapter.
Pre-reading activities can give students necessary background knowledge and vocabulary before reading, motivate them by allowing them to connect text to their own lives and help them prioritize which aspects of the reading are main ideas and which are minor details. If you use pre-reading activities in your classroom, you can improve student comprehension and interest.
What is the difference between intensive and extensive reading? What are their goals?
Intensive study of reading texts can be a means of increasing learners’ knowledge of language features and their control of reading strategies. Goals:
Focus on items that occur with high frequency in the language as a whole (see Table 3.1 for examples). Such items will occur often in many different texts.
Focus on strategies that can be used with most texts (see Table 3.1 for examples).
Quickly deal with or ignore infrequent items.
Make sure that the same items and strategies get attention in several different texts.
During extensive reading learners should be interested in what they are reading and should be reading with their attention on the meaning of the text rather than on learning the language features of the text.
What are the features of a good intensive reading exercise?
1. A good reading exercise directs the learners’ attention to features of the text that can be found in almost any text. We want them to learn things that apply to all texts. We want them to gain knowledge of the language and ways of dealing with the language rather than an understanding of a particular message.
2. A good reading exercise directs the learners’ attention to the reading text. That is, the learners need to read the text or at least part of it in order to do the exercise.
3) A good reading exercise provides the teacher and the learners with useful information about the learners’ performance on the exercise.
If the learners were not successful on some parts of the exercise, then they should be aware of what they have to learn in order to do the exercise successfully with another text. Also, the teacher can get guidance
from the learners’ performance to improve teaching. Good exercises provide useful feedback for the teacher and the learners.
4) A good reading exercise is easy to make. Teachers have to choose texts suited to the particular needs of their learners, and if these texts do not have satisfactory exercises, the teachers must make their own. Often teachers may want the learners to work with a textbook that is used in another discipline they are studying, and so they will have to make their own exercises. This should require a minimum of skill
and time. If the preparation of language teaching materials becomes the job only of experts, then language teachers will have lost the flexibility needed for successful teaching.
How can we motivate our learners to read more?
Additional activities to motivate reading may take a bit more time.
There may be a slip of paper in the back of each book for learners to record their opinion of the book
Oral book reports involve a learner presenting a commentary on a book to the class or a reading group. The idea behind such reports is not to give away the story of the book but to encourage others to read it.
Discussion groups can bring learners together who have already all read the same book. Such a group should consist of four or five learners
After the extensive reading programme has been running for some time, learners can vote on what they thought were the best books they read. Labels can be stuck on the front of the winning books to indicate that they are well worth reading.
As well as books getting awards, learners can get awards for the quantity of reading that they do. After reading five books an award can be given, and after ten a further award, and so on.
Displays (exhibitions) can be arranged to show the different types of stories, the range of levels, new books, and books that have won awards or have been highly recommended.
List and describe the word recognition strategies.?
Context clues.
• PSR/morphemic analysis. Figuring out what the word is by looking at the prefix, suffix, or root word.
• Word analysis/word families. Figuring out what the word is by looking at word families or parts of the
word you recognize.
• Ask a friend. Turn to a friend and say, “What’s this word?”
• Skip the word. If you are still creating meaning, why stop the process to figure out a word?
• Phonics. Using minimal letter cues in combination with context clues to figure out what the word is.
How much time should learners spend on reading?
15-30 min per day in primary grades 30-60 min in Intermediate grades 40-90 min in middle school and high school
What are the benefits of graded readers? What are the sight words?
Graded word lists are lists of words used to indicate the approximate grade level at which a student is reading. Common types of word lists are Dolch word lists and Fry word lists.
Graded readers are reading selections (books or short stories) for which the average reading grade level has been established.
Benefit:can beused to provide you with a rough idea of where to begin. They can also be used to give you a very general sense of students’ progress;
Do nothing to the words that students recognize immediately. These are sight words or words they recognize without having to use letter cues or needing to sound them out. Students receive one point for these words.
What technique should teachers use to identify students’ graded readers level?
Select a section that contains about fifty to one hundred words (fewer for younger children, more for older children).
Have the student read orally (this is an individual assessment).
Note the words incorrectly identified by the student.
Determine reading level for that selection by calculating the percentage of words read correctly (divide the words read correctly by the total number of words):
Words correct divided by total words = reading level
Independent reading level = 98 to 100 percent accuracy
Instructional level = 90 to 97 percent accuracy
Frustration level = 89 percent or lower
How many books at a level should learners read to go to the next level?=5 books
How many readers should EFL learners read per year? Why?
raded readers a year, or one and a half substantial first year university textbooks, or six unsimplified novels.
Learners should read at least 15–20 and preferably 30 readers in a year. This number of graded readers provides plenty of repetition for the vocabulary and provides the opportunity to meet most of the vocabulary several times.
How many books should an EFL learner read?
Learners should read at least one graded reader every week, no matter what level they are reading at. This rate of reading allows unknown vocabulary to be repeated before the immediately previous occurrence is forgotten
How can the teacher learn that his/her students do a lot of extensive reading?
Most extensive reading programmes do not require learners to do elaborate comprehension tests or exercises on the books they read. Generally, learners are simply required to fill out a short record form indicating the name of the book they have just read, its level, the date, how long it took to read, and a brief comment on the quality of the book (Was it a good story? Would you recommend it to others?).
What is a good silent reading speed? How many words per minute? A good careful silent reading speed is around 250 words per minute.
What is a good spoken reading speed? How many words per minute?
Good spoken reading speeds range from 100 to 200 words per minute.
What is the difference between skimming and scanning? At least how many words do learners read when they do skimming or scanning?
Students need to be able to scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for. This skill means that they do not have to read every word and line;
Students need to be able to skim a text - as if they were casting their eyes over its surface - to get a general idea of what it is about.