reading skills

Developing Reading Skills : Developing Reading Skills

Language skills : Language skills The four skills can be divided into receptive and productive skills as follows:

Developing Receptive Skills : Developing Receptive Skills The receptive skills (reading and listening) are certainly not passive skills, as often they require much effort. There is a good deal of overlap in the methodology used in developing the two receptive skills.

Developing Receptive Skills : Developing Receptive Skills Reading and listening texts need to be challenging for learners. Learners do not need to understand every word (they are unlikely to do this in real life situations).

Reading in ‘real life’ : Reading in ‘real life’ Put the nine examples into three groups of three, according to the way in which the texts are likely to be read (quickly, slowly, taking care with each word and phrase, type of information looked for and so on).

Reading in ‘real life’ : Reading in ‘real life’ Tracy is looking for a number in a telephone directory. Rachel is reading the instructions on how to complete her tax return. Paul is writing his university dissertation and is looking for a quote he needs -- he knows it's somewhere in Chapter 7! Josh is glancing at an old letter from his insurance company to see if he can throw it away. Nicole is reading the directions of how to get to her holiday destination. Maria is flicking through a magazine while she waits for the dentist. Steven is looking through the classified advertisements because he wants to buy a second-hand car for under £1500. Belinda is reading a detective story, which she's enjoying, although it has a complicated plot. Richard is in a bookshop and also in a hurry. He's looking at the back of a couple of paperbacks to see which one would make the best present for his girlfriend.

Different kinds of reading : Different kinds of reading When you are trying to get a general impression of the text as fast as you can -- refer to it as skim reading or gist reading. Scan reading involves looking for a particular word or piece of information (often done very quickly). Intensive reading: When you concentrate more or less on every word because you need a detailed understanding of the text.

To sum it up : To sum it up Learners need to develop flexible reading skills -- in other words, they need to be able to read quickly, understand the gist of a text, or to find some very specific information, and they also need to be able to read for a more detailed understanding.

Reading in the classroom : Reading in the classroom Imagine that Belinda is a teacher of an Elementary class. She wants to develop reading skills and decides to give her learners an extract from her detective story to read. She doesn't write any questions but thinks the student will enjoy it anyway. Do you think this is likely to be a successful lesson? Why/why not?

Reading in the classroom : Reading in the classroom Steven decides to use his classified advertisements in a lesson. He gives the learners a list of people who all want to buy specified things. The students must try to find what they need in the classified ads Steven has provided. Steven's friend, Alice, asks to borrow the ads for her lesson. However, before giving out the ads she asks students what sort of things may be advertised there. She then asks them if they have ever bought or sold anything in this way. She allows students to chat about this for a few minutes before completing the same task as Steven used. Whose lesson is likely to be better and why?

Reading in the classroom : Reading in the classroom Robin and Nicole use the same reading activity with their classes. The learners read a text and answer some multiple choice questions. At the end of the activity Robin nominates a learner and asks for the answer ­-- 'Maria, what is the answer for number 1?’, and so on. Nicole does the same thing, but before doing this asks the learners to compare answers in pairs or small groups for a few moments. What are the advantages of Nicole's strategy?

To sum it up : To sum it up Students need a reason to read and this can often be achieved in the classroom by setting a meaningful task.

Stages of a reading or listening lesson : Stages of a reading or listening lesson build interest pre-teach vocabulary (if necessary) set a gist or scanning task learners read (or listen) learners compare answers learners check answers with the teacher set an intensive reading (or listening) task learners read (or listen) learners compare answers learners check answers with the teacher set an extension activity

Summary : Summary Build interest in a topic before starting the reading. Set a task before asking the learners to read. Questions help to focus learners on the important parts of the texts. Consider the advantages of using authentic texts, at least some of the time. Consider whether it is necessary to pre-teach any vocabulary. Ensure the learners read the text more than once by setting different tasks. Generally concentrate on developing silent reading skills rather than reading aloud.