by Vasso Barbati
Reading is considered a very important skill. McDonough and Shaw (1993:101) point out that “in some instances around the world we may argue that reading is the most important foreign language skill” as learners may never have the opportunity to practise speaking, listening or writing. However, it is taken for granted and some readers – and even teachers – regard it mainly as a decoding process which involves simply putting meaning on the marks of the page. In order to make students effective readers, teachers should employ a number of criteria which have to do with the selection of the appropriate texts and tasks.
The selection of texts
As regards the selection of the texts these criteria are:
(a) the issue of authenticity
Students need to be acquainted with a variety of texts. Urquhart and Weir (1998) stress the existing consensus that authenticity should be one of their essential features. The term authentic is used to refer to “a text not specially produced for language learners” (Williams and Moran, 1989: 219). Authentic texts are considered a very important language source because they represent real language. Grellet (1981) claims that exposure to them contributes to better understanding of texts in everyday life as they represent real world and are more interesting and motivating especially if their topic is within the learners’ preferences.
However, this notion of “authenticity in nature” has been challenged by certain researchers. Instead, they see “authenticity of purpose” as lying in the interaction between text and reader and not in the text itself (Wallace, 1992; Williams and Moran, 1989). Authentic texts are difficult to use at low levels due to the lexical and grammatical restrictions imposed by the students’ language level. On the contrary, at intermediate and advanced levels more and more coursebooks include them treating in that way learners as real audience (Beaumont, 1996: 28).
(b) topic familiarity
Special attention should be paid to the relationship between the content of the text and the learners’ background knowledge, Urquhart and Weir (1998: 143) say that “when the content is adequately familiar, then it can be mapped into the students’ existing schemata making them capable of deploying the appropriate skills and strategies to understand it.” Having this in mind, textbook writers and teachers should seriously consider what students bring to the classroom and always try to associate this knowledge with the appropriate texts. When background knowledge is activated, the distance between the learners and the text is reduced and comprehension becomes easier as learners know what to expect while they read.
(c) purpose
Beard (1990) mentions that purpose in reading can be divided into three categories:
- recreational, which relates to leisure reading
- functional, which has to do with everyday reading and
- occupational, which focuses on one’s work.
Teachers can motivate students and give them a purpose for reading if they provide them with an interesting text. As Williams (1986: 42) points out in his “Top Ten” principles for teaching reading, “in the absence of interesting texts very little is possible.” Teachers should not be indifferent to their students’ interests if they want to draw their attention and succeed in their goal that is making them effective readers.
The selection of tasks
Apart from choosing the appropriate texts, the tasks are of great importance too if the aims and objectives of the lesson are to be accomplished. They will be examined in terms of the following categories:
(a) purpose
It has already been stated that motivation arises from interesting texts. However, it should not be overlooked that it arises from the tasks too. An interesting text can very easily become boring if students are assigned tasks without a specific purpose in mind. Teachers should create tasks that are authentic-based and represent real life. As in everyday life people know why they read something before they actually read it, the same should occur in classroom. According to Greenwood (1981: 84) the golden rule of any reading activity is “that learners should know the purpose for their reading before they read.”
Readers employ four different approaches when reading a text:
- skimming (to get the main idea)
- scanning (to find specific information)
- intensive reading (slow and careful reading) and
- extensive reading (for recreational or educational purposes)
Extensive reading cannot be applied in a classroom since it involves reading lengthy texts (Greenwood, 1981; Williams and Moran, 1989; McDonough and Shaw, 1993). Teachers should not simply ask learners to read whole texts and then answer comprehension questions because this is not considered reading. Effective readers are those who can employ different approaches when coping with a text so as to “select specific information at the expense of other” (McDonough and Shaw, 1993: 114) and that is what teachers should teach their students to do.
(b) skills and strategies
Williams and Moran (1989: 223) define skill as “an acquired ability which has been automatised and operates largely subconsciously” and strategy as “a conscious procedure carried out in order to solve a problem.” The terms are also used interchangeably and are considered synonymous.
According to Davies (1984) students should learn to develop the following four skills:
- identifying word meaning
- drawing references
- identifying writer’s technique and recognising the mood of the passage and
- finding answers to questions.
They should also learn to anticipate content, make predictions, identify the main idea of a text and generally process information successfully. The selection of tasks that allow the performance of appropriate skills and strategies is therefore, very crucial.
Conclusion
The teacher’s role is to assist learners to adopt a more positive attitude towards reading and develop good lifelong habits concerning this skill. The existence of the previously mentioned criteria when selecting reading texts and tasks helps learners gain confidence and satisfaction from reading and eventually become effective and autonomous readers.
References
Beard, R. (1990) Developing Reading 3-13 (2nd edition). London: Hodder and Stoughton
Beaumont, M. (1996) “The Teaching of Reading Skills in a Second Foreign Language Distance Programme, Manchester University of Manchester interferences in ESL reading” in Carrell, P.; Devine, J. and Eskey, D. (eds) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading. New York: Cambridge University Press, 102-103
Davies, A. (1984) “Simple, simplified and simplification: What is authentic?” in Alderson, J. C. and Urquhart, A. H. (eds) Reading in a Foreign Language. London: Longman, 181-195
Greenwood, J. (1981) “Comprehension and reading” in Abbot and Wingart (eds) The teaching of English as an International Language. London: Collins, 81-111
Grellet, F. (1981) Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C, (1993) Materials and Methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell
Urquhart, S. and Weir, C.J. (1998) Reading in a Second Language: Process, Product and Practice. New York: Addison Wesley Longman
Wallace, C. (1992) Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, E. and Moran, C. (1989) “Reading in a foreign language at intermediate and advanced levels with particular references to English in Language Teaching” in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 217-227
Williams, R. (1986) “Top Ten Principles for Teaching Reading” in ELTJ 40/2, 42-45
This article first appeared in the printed version of the ELT News.
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