Teaching Reading

Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the
literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally
been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture.

This approach assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary,
grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. In this approach, lower level learners
read only sentences and paragraphs generated by textbook writers and instructors. The reading of
authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students
who have developed the language skills needed to read them.

The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different

understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be
used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday
materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become
appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is
developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language
teaching at every level.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify
existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also
read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for
reading guide the reader's selection of texts.

The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A
person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to
comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the
name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the
words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea
and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to
know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are
presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.

Reading research shows that good readers

 Read extensively
 Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
 Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
 Are motivated
 Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
 Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Reading as a Process
Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in
comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning.
The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

 Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system;
knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences
 Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of
the text to one another
 Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual
structure and content
 Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies for descriptions, as well as
knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge, skills, and
strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus
much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills
and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to
accomplish the reading purpose.

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading

Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the
grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the
case of reading, this means producing students who can use reading strategies to maximize
their comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate
less than word-by-word comprehension.

Focus: The Reading Process

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of reading rather than on its product.

 They develop students' awareness of the reading process and reading strategies by asking
students to think and talk about how they read in their native language.
 They allow students to practice the full repertoire of reading strategies by using authentic
reading tasks. They encourage students to read to learn (and have an authentic purpose
for reading) by giving students some choice of reading material.
 When working with reading tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will
work best for the reading purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why
students should use the strategies.
  They have students practice reading strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of
class in their reading assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what
they're doing while they complete reading assignments.
 They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and self-report their use of
strategies. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class reading
assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
 They encourage the development of reading skills and the use of reading strategies by
using the target language to convey instructions and course-related information in written
form: office hours, homework assignments, test content.
 They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They
explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of reading task
or with another skill.

By raising students' awareness of reading as a skill that requires active engagement, and by
explicitly teaching reading strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and
the   confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom.
In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the
new language.

Integrating Reading Strategies

Instruction in reading strategies is not an add-on, but rather an integral part of the use of reading
activities in the language classroom. Instructors can help their students become effective readers
by teaching them how to use strategies before, during, and after reading.

Before reading: Plan for the reading task

 Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for

 Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
 Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or
from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

During and after reading: Monitor comprehension

 Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses

 Decide what is and is not important to understand
 Reread to check comprehension
 Ask for help

After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

 Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

 Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks
 Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
 Modify strategies if necessary
Using Authentic Materials and Approaches

For students to develop communicative competence in reading, classroom and homework

reading activities must resemble (or be) real-life reading tasks that involve meaningful
communication. They must therefore be authentic in three ways.

1. The reading material must be authentic: It must be the kind of material that students will
need and want to be able to read when traveling, studying abroad, or using the language in other
contexts outside the classroom.

When selecting texts for student assignments, remember that the difficulty of a reading text is
less a function of the language, and more a function of the conceptual difficulty and the task(s)
that students are expected to complete. Simplifying a text by changing the language often
removes natural redundancy and makes the organization somewhat difficult for students to
predict. This actually makes a text more difficult to read than if the original were used.

Rather than simplifying a text by changing its language, make it more approachable by eliciting
students' existing knowledge in pre-reading discussion, reviewing new vocabulary before
reading, and asking students to perform tasks that are within their competence, such as skimming
to get the main idea or scanning for specific information, before they begin intensive reading.

2. The reading purpose must be authentic: Students must be reading for reasons that make
sense and have relevance to them. "Because the teacher assigned it" is not an authentic reason for
reading a text.

To identify relevant reading purposes, ask students how they plan to use the language they are
learning and what topics they are interested in reading and learning about. Give them
opportunities to choose their reading assignments, and encourage them to use the library, the
Internet, and foreign language newsstands and bookstores to find other things they would like to
read.

3. The reading approach must be authentic: Students should read the text in a way that
matches the reading purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally read. This means that
reading aloud will take place only in situations where it would take place outside the classroom,
such as reading for pleasure. The majority of students' reading should be done silently.

Reading Aloud in the Classroom

Students do not learn to read by reading aloud. A person who reads aloud and comprehends
the meaning of the text is coordinating word recognition with comprehension and speaking and
pronunciation ability in highly complex ways.

Students whose language skills are limited are not able to process at this level, and end up
having to drop one or more of the elements. Usually the dropped element is comprehension, and
reading aloud becomes word calling: simply pronouncing a series of words without regard for
the meaning they carry individually and together. Word calling is not productive for the student
who is doing it, and it is boring for other students to listen to.

 There are two ways to use reading aloud productively in the language classroom.
Read aloud to your students as they follow along silently. You have the ability to use
inflection and tone to help them hear what the text is saying. Following along as you read
will help students move from word-by-word reading to reading in phrases and thought
units, as they do in their first language.
 Use the "read and look up" technique. With this technique, a student reads a phrase or
sentence silently as many times as necessary, then looks up (away from the text) and tells
you what the phrase or sentence says. This encourages students to read for ideas, rather
than for word recognition

Developing Reading Activities

Developing reading activities involves more than identifying a text that is "at the right level,"
writing a set of comprehension questions for students to answer after reading, handing out the
assignment and sending students away to do it. A fully-developed reading activity supports
students as readers through pre reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities.

As you design reading tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in a text is
an unrealistic expectation even for native speakers. Reading activities that are meant to increase
communicative competence should be success oriented and build up students' confidence in their
reading ability.

Construct the reading activity around a purpose that has significance for the students

Make sure students understand what the purpose for reading is: to get the main idea, obtain
specific information, understand most or the entire message, enjoy a story, or decide whether or
not to read more. Recognizing the purpose for reading will help students’ select appropriate
reading strategies.

Define the activity's instructional goal and the appropriate type of response

In addition to the main purpose for reading, an activity can also have one or more instructional
purposes, such as practicing or reviewing specific grammatical constructions, introducing new
vocabulary, or familiarizing students with the typical structure of a certain type of text.

Check the level of difficulty of the text

The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a reading text for a
particular purpose and a particular group of students.

 How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform
to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological
 order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an
obvious organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.
 How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of
background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension
difficulties.
 Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find
short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit
from the natural redundancy of authentic language.
 Does the text offer visual support to aid in reading comprehension? Visual aids such as
photographs, maps, and diagrams help students preview the content of the text, guess the
meanings of unknown words, and check comprehension while reading.

Remember that the level of difficulty of a text is not the same as the level of difficulty of a
reading task. Students who lack the vocabulary to identify all of the items on a menu can still
determine whether the restaurant serves steak and whether they can afford to order one.

Use pre-reading activities to prepare students for reading

The activities you use during pre-reading may serve as preparation in several ways. During pre-
reading you may:

 Assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text
 Give students the background knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text, or
activate the existing knowledge that the students possess
 Clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
 Make students aware of the type of text they will be reading and the purpose(s) for
reading

Make it more approachable by eliciting students' existing knowledge in pre-reading

discussion, reviewing new vocabulary before reading, and asking students to perform tasks
that are within their competence, such as skimming to get the main idea or scanning for
specific information, before they begin reading.

Sample pre-reading activities:

 Using the title, subtitles, and divisions within the text to predict content and organization
or sequence of information
 Looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs and their captions
 Talking about the author's background, writing style, and usual topics
 Skimming to find the theme or main idea and eliciting related prior knowledge
 Reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
 Reading over the comprehension questions to focus attention on finding that information
while reading
 Constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how
they are related)
  Doing guided practice with guessing meaning from context or checking comprehension
while reading

Pre-reading activities are most important at lower levels of language proficiency and at earlier
stages of reading instruction. As students become more proficient at using reading strategies, you
will be able to reduce the amount of guided pre-reading and allow students to do these activities
themselves.

While-reading activities to the purpose for reading

In while-reading activities, students check their comprehension as they read. The purpose for
reading determines the appropriate type and level of comprehension.

 When reading for specific information, students need to ask themselves, have I obtained
the information I was looking for?
 When reading for pleasure, students need to ask themselves, Do I understand the story
line/sequence of ideas well enough to enjoy reading this?
 When reading for thorough understanding (intensive reading), students need to ask
themselves, Do I understand each main idea and how the author supports it? Does what
I'm reading agree with my predictions, and, if not, how does it differ? To check
comprehension in this situation, students may

.Stop at the end of each section to review and check their predictions, restate the main idea and
summarize the section

.Use the comprehension questions as guides to the text, stopping to answer them as they read