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Developing Reading Skills: The Text
Developing Reading Skills: The Text
Generally speaking, we read for two main reasons: pleasure and the need for
information. We read because we want to get something from the text a message
facts, enjoyment, ideas, or feelings. For our pupils, reading in English is also a means of
improving language itself. Some of the language read will stick in their mind as part of the
process of language acquisition. Reading also provides models for writing, opportunities
to practise and develop the reading skill, and to gain cultural insights and understanding.
Reading is also essential in the teaching of literature.
In discussing reading, we will consider the text, ones reasons for reading, reading
styles, and what the reader brings to the process of reading.
The aim of this unit is to help you build awareness and understanding of current
theories of reading and an ability to translate these theories into practical applications for
the classroom.
By the end of the lecture, you will be able to:
The Text
There is a variety of text types. These can be grouped into categories, known as
genres, such as:
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Text Types
Although you should encourage your pupils to read and get familiar with as many
different types of texts as possible, not all of them can be used in any classroom. Your
decisions about what texts to use will depend on who your pupils are and what they need
reading for. A balance has to be struck between the types of reading texts and the pupils
capabilities and interests.
already familiar to the pupils, rewriting it in order to make its organisation more explicit, or
giving a simplified version of the contents.
The difficulty of a reading activity depends as much on the text itself as on the task
set for the pupils. That is why, your selection of the activity is as important as the selection
of the text.
The reading tasks must be realistic in terms of both language use and pupils
abilities. They should also be flexible and varied. Some may consist in questions of various
types. Other texts may lend themselves to non-linguistic activities (e.g. tracing a route on a
map, or matching drawings and paragraphs). Anyway, you should encourage your pupils
to use different reading strategies (e.g. Now skim this text quickly and get the main idea;
Youll have to study this text carefully to look for). However, it is also important to
remember that many texts are to be read for pleasure and that some activities might spoil
this pleasure.
Here is a short paragraph made up of well-formed, temporally
accurate and meaningful sentences. Do you think this text is
authentic? Why (not)?
I dont know what to do for my holiday. It will start at the
beginning of October. I saved enough money for a really nice trip.
Last year I went to the Black Sea coast. It will be too late to go to the
mountains. I worked hard all year. I really need a break.
Text Structure
A text is not a random collection of sentences. A text that communicates
successfully has unity: the sentences and paragraphs that make it up are related in a
meaningful way to each other. In order to comprehend the message of the text, the pupils
have to be aware of these relationships and of certain features of text structure.
Cohesion
Cohesion refers to the way a text holds together by particular linguistic means.
These include pro-forms (e.g. pronouns, a few verbs like have, will, do) connectors,
reference, substitution, ellipsis and vocabulary. It is essential for the pupils to understand
how a text is made up, the web of relationships that is built among the ideas. If the pupils
fail to understand this, they may also fail to understand the structure, the communicative
value of the text, and its function.
In the classroom, questions involving cohesion can serve as a comprehensionchecking device, for they enable you to see if the correct interpretation has been made.
Could you identify some of the cohesion markers in the
following extract from Bill Brysons A Walk in the Woods?
Consider this: Half of all the offices and malls standing in
America today have been built since 1980. Half of them. Eighty
percent of all the housing stock in the country dates from 1945. Of all
the motel rooms in America, 230,000 have been built in the last
fifeen years. Just up the road from Gatlinburg is the town of Pigeon
Forge, which twenty years ago was a sleepy hamlet nay, which
aspired to be a sleepy hamlet famous only as the hometown of
Dolly Parton. Then the estimable Ms. Parton built an amusement
park called Dollywood. Now Pigeon Forge has 200 outlet shops
stretched along three miles of highway. It is bigger and uglier than
Gatlinburg and has better parking, and so of course gets more
visitors.
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Connectors:
Reference:
Ellipsis:
Vocabulary:
Coherence
Coherence refers to the way in which sentences and groups of sentences in a text
make sense in relationship to each other. Sometimes the writer indicates the relationship
between sentences by the use of connectors, such as: but, moreover, and yet, in contrast,
etc. Some other times the pupils will have to infer the writers purpose and the relationship
between the sentences.
Some texts achieve coherence through other means, too. In telling a story, for
example, or giving a report, the writer usually proceeds by telling what happened next. In
descriptive passages, coherence may be achieved by the writer describing different
aspects of the same object, person or scene.
The sentences below are both cohesive, but one has a problem
of coherence. Which is incoherent? How can you explain the
problem?
a. Yesterday I got up late and had to leave in a hurry.
b. Yesterday I got up late and it will have to fly away.
Sequences
The sequence of sentences and paragraphs indicates relationships between ideas
and information. For instance, They were watching television when we got home
suggests that we got home is more important than they were watching television. When
we got home they were watching television suggests that they were watching television
is more important.
Grammar
Grammar also has a text function. If someone says I was driving very fast. I had
overslept, you see, we probably understand that I had overslept is an explanation for I
was driving very fast. This is partly because of the sequence, partly because of you see,
but also because we expect the past perfect to be used to provide explanations.
Reading Styles
A crucial factor in reading is purpose. This determines the way we read. In real life
we may want to glance quickly through a sports article to see who won, or to go quickly
through a telephone directory to find someones telephone number. On the other hand, a
legal document requires much closer attention, perhaps several readings, because we
need to grasp the information in detail. We read different texts with different purposes and
at different speeds. In some cases we read silently while in others aloud.
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The only way to become a good reader is by reading. If the average educated
native speaker can recognise about 50,000 words of the mother tongue in print, this is not
an objective that the foreign English student can reach without a great deal of reading.
An extensive reading programme can be the most effective way of improving both
vocabulary and reading skills in general. The more reading your pupils will do, the more
skilful they become at reading.
Skimming involves reading for an overall understanding of the text. The reader is
quickly running ones eyes through a text to get its essence, its general idea or gist.
Reading a few sentences, recognising a few words and expressions, a few main point(s)
and the function(s) may be enough. However, skimming involves some interpretation. For
instance, a reader may skim the review of a book to see if the reviewer thinks it is good or
bad.
Practice in skimming will show your pupils how much they can find out simply by
looking at the prominent elements of a text, by catching a few words or by reading
fragments. To train your pupils in skimming, you can remove a few sentences from a text,
or even whole paragraphs making sure those parts contain only supporting details and
ask our pupils to supply the missing parts.
Scanning is quickly going through a text to find particular information. Readers
look quickly through the text to find words that answer their specific questions. For
example, we may scan the TV times in search of a certain film, to see on what channel it is
on and when it is scheduled.
Scanning is a visual skill more than an interpretive one. When you practice
scanning in the classroom, make sure that you give your pupils clear instructions as to
what they need to find out. For example, if you ask them to scan advertisements for ideas
on where to spend a holiday, they would need to find out about accommodation, prices,
meals, contact names and addresses, etc.
Pupils will need practice in both skimming and scanning, as it is usual to make use
of both when reading a text.
Each of the following descriptions refers to one kind of reading.
Write down the name of the kind of reading in the space provided:
a)
You read a poem and enjoy paying close attention to the
poets use of language. You do reading.
b)
You need bibliography for a research assignment and
you look quickly through the books and articles that you find in the
library to see whether they contain information you need. You do
reading.
c)
You are on holiday and you read an adventure story.
There is no pressure on you to finish the book quickly. You do
reading.
d)
While waiting for an appointment with your dentist, you
pick up a magazine and discover an article that interests you. You do
not have time to read the article in detail but you try to extract as
much information from it as you can. You do ... reading.
(after M. Parrott)
Intensive, extensive, scan and skim reading do not exclude one another. We often
skim through a text to see what it is about before deciding whether it is worth scanning for
specific information. In real life, our reading purposes constantly vary and we need various
approaches to cope with our needs. That is why your pupils need practice in different ways
of reading. Their choice of reading style will depend on the nature of the text and the
purpose they have in reading it.
It is important to give your pupils practice in different reading styles. This is
achieved not by telling them to skim, scan or read intensively but by setting tasks that
encourage these styles. It is the task which provides the pupils with a purpose and enables
them to practice and develop a style. Classroom activities should ensure practice in all
reading styles so that your pupils do not use the same strategy for all texts.
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to obtain information for some purpose or because we are curious about some
topic
to obtain instructions on how to perform some task for our work or daily life
to keep in touch with our friends by correspondence
to know where and when something will take place or what is available
to know what is happening or has happened (as reported in newspapers,
magazines, reports)
for enjoyment or excitement.
Before you continue reading, try to answer these questions:
Do any of the reasons above match your classroom reading
aims?
Do your pupils need to do all these things in English?
In some reading classes, the only function the pupils can see seems to be English
has to be learnt or reading techniques have to be learnt. In such cases, the pupils
motivation is low. If your pupils see no other purpose in reading other than that you make
them do it, then reading lessons will be unsuccessful.
Some classes can focus primarily on the development of reading skills, while
others can include reading skills as part of integrative practice. Classroom reading
activities are suggested by:
The needs, interests and abilities of the pupils. You will need to emphasise
the kind of activities your pupils will encounter in English. You must ask your pupils and
yourselves what kinds of texts they read in Romanian and if the strategies and skills that
they already possess in Romanian can be transferred to English reading tasks.
The aims of the particular lesson. The reading activities should be
harmonised with the aims and the other work that is practised during the lesson.
The purpose for reading a certain text. Class activities should help your
pupils to become active decision makers and risk takers. They should become
independent readers who set their own goals and strategies for reading.
The specific characteristics of the reading text. You often have to
determine what kind of reading the text invites and develop activities and contexts that
parallel the most realistic and appropriate approaches to a given text.
Individual pupil needs. Individual pupils may require explicit instruction in
different aspects of reading: skimming, scanning, understanding organisational clues,
accessing prior knowledge, making hypotheses, etc.
Before reading on, make a list of the reading objectives you
have set for your pupils so far. Then compare them with the
objectives discussed below and think which of these you could use in
the future.
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First you must decide what your pupils need to get out of their reading, select
motivating texts and set clear tasks. Some times the pupils have no particular interest in
reading a text because the text is not motivating. Moreover, if the task is not very clear, it
may distract the pupils attention from the text or spoil their enjoyment.
Your purpose in teaching reading is to train your pupils to read fluently, without
help, and for their own enjoyment. Your role is to facilitate this process by selecting texts
suited to your pupils goals and interests and practising appropriate techniques. Your aims
for the reading classes should include the promotion of the sub-skills of:
1.reading texts with comprehension
2.using various reading styles
3.learning (both content and language) through reading
4.reading critically
Your aims will vary with the pupils age, interests, skills and knowledge, and the
time allotted to reading in your syllabus.
Your pupils should be able to identify the purpose and the function of a text, its
main topic and the way the topic is developed through different paragraphs. In spite of the
language problems that may arise from time to time, they should also be able to interpret
individual sentences, using techniques for dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary. Remember,
however, that not all texts need to be read for full comprehension.
Your pupils should be able to skim, scan, and read intensively and extensively,
according to their purpose. In order to develop flexible individual reading styles, you
should provide practice in a variety of text types. Many recent textbooks offer such a
variety of text types and further variety can be provided by using supplementary materials.
A common reason for reading in the classroom is to learn English. A reading text is
often used as a vehicle for presenting and practising grammatical structures and lexical
items. This is perfectly acceptable as long as both you and the pupils are aware that it is
not a reading lesson. Texts for this type of activity tend to be selected because they
provide lots of examples of a particular structure. The problem is that texts are often
artificially created round a structure, resulting in unnatural language.
While reading, your pupils will meet a great deal of new language and new
content. The pupils should be able to pick out the relevant information, evaluate arguments
and evidence, and distinguish between main points and details.
Lessons should address specifically the problems your pupils have. The following
could reasonably be lesson aims for reading lessons:
to increase pupils awareness of how a clear purpose can make reading more
effective
to present strategies for dealing with individual unfamiliar words
to increase pupils awareness of different reading styles
to provide practice in intensive reading or in scan reading
to present various aspects of British culture enabling them to make useful
predictions.
The areas of language knowledge which have an effect on pupils ability to read
effectively are usually addressed in separate lessons. The following could well be such
lesson aims:
to introduce and provide practice in collocations (e.g. nice and easy, out and
about, peace and quiet).
to provide practice in mixed conditionals focusing attention on the meaning of
each clause.
to present contrast conjunctions (e.g. though, however, although)
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to present a way of dealing with unfamiliar words by breaking them down into
parts
to provide practice in recognising foregrounded information by looking at clause
orders in sentences
If you prefer you can state your aims in a more learner-centred way:
to help the pupils increase their understanding of how they can make correct
inferences using background knowledge
to help pupils use their extensive background knowledge to make correct
inferences, etc.
to enable them to consolidate their understanding of the function of
conjunctions (e.g. however, although, though) and of their place in the
sentence.
Recognition
Knowledge of the language
Knowledge of formal text structure
Content and background knowledge
Cognitive processing
Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring
The lower sub-skills involve rapid, precise and unconscious processing, such as
allowing readers to recognise words and grammatical forms rapidly and automatically. The
higher skills enable them to comprehend, synthesise, interpret, and evaluate the text.
Recognition sub-skills
These consist of the abilities of recognising the sounds and the script of a
language, deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar words, understanding information
both explicitly stated and implicit.
Your pupils must be able to recognise the English script, the combinations of
letters in the spelling of words, and able to recognise words. They should not waste time
working out each word or group of words, even if they may not know all of the words in the
text they are reading.
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Knowledge of the language
This means understanding conceptual meaning, the relations within the sentence,
the communicative function of sentences, the relations between the parts of a text, and
cohesion devices.
Your pupils will need strategies for dealing with unknown words. Reaching for the
dictionary is not always a good idea. Explain to your pupils they will meet three kinds of
unknown words: key words, words which can be ignored and words that can be guessed.
The words that are not significant for a general understanding of the text can be
ignored. Key words, however, need to be understood; you either pre-teach them, or
recommend the use of a dictionary. In the third category there are words whose meanings
can be inferred from the context, and your pupils should be given practice in doing this.
They can be convinced of the value of guessing from context if you provide simple texts in
which nonsense words are used. Consider the following sentences:
a.
b.
c.
When their car broke down, the whole family had to strack home a
distance of two hundred metres in the rain.
After their walk the children were so zlopped that they needed a hot bath
and then they went straight to plenk.
The following gart they woke up feeling all right.
Can you guess what English words the above nonsensical
words replaced?
It is quite easy to guess the meanings of the nonsense words in these sentences,
and for general understanding it does not really matter whether gart is morning or day.
Discovering the meaning of unfamiliar items making use of contextual clues (syntactic,
logical and cultural) is called inferring. When you use a new text, you do not always need
to explain the difficult words and structures beforehand. You can encourage your pupils to
guess the meaning of unknown items, based on word-formation or context. Efficient
readers generally read in groups of words, without looking at everything in a given piece of
writing, and going for the overall meaning of a text.
Knowledge of text structure
This involves knowledge of how a text is organised, of the rhetorical structures and
conventions, of specific logical patterns.
Your pupils must know the language of the text they are reading: the content
words and what they mean, though perhaps not all of them. Also, they must know the
syntax and the effect of structural words, of word form, and of word order. A competent
reader of English is aware that a sentence like She shouldnt have been there at that
time cannot stand alone and must refer to a situation already mentioned in an earlier part
of the text. The identity of she must already be known and the place and time signalled by
there and at that time must have been specified already. Exercises in which pupils are
asked to search for and underline or circle cohesive pairs in a text are recommended.
It is also important to train your pupils to look first at the basic sentence pattern
(subject + verb) and then at the other elements and their contribution to sentence
meaning. To practise this, you can ask them to divide passages into sense groups and
analyse the important elements.
Another important ability is that of recognising and interpreting discourse markers,
such as then, next, after this, which show the sequence in which events occur. Other
markers, such as for example, all in all, as already noted, indicate that the writer is
exemplifying, summing up or referring to a point made previously. However and moreover,
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signal that the writer is making an adjustment to a previous statement or adding further
evidence. You need to teach your pupils to recognise the various devices used to link
sentences and ideas. You may offer them exercises in recognising the function of
connectors, finding equivalents, completing texts with the missing link-words, transforming
disconnected sentences into text by joining sentences and adding connectors.
Understanding the meaning of individual sentences is important, but insufficient.
Your pupils should be able to recognise the purpose of the text as a whole, to see how it is
organised, and to understand the relationship between sentences. They should be able to
follow the writer and see how the sentences and the paragraphs are related to each other,
and make sense of the text.
Content and background knowledge
This involves prior knowledge of content, background or culture. All readers bring
their knowledge of the world to a text: life experience, familiarity with a particular topic and
with different text types, but also knowledge of a particular culture or way of life.
Whether knowledge of the world will help your pupils to understand the text will
depend on the nature of the text and their knowledge. The cultural background of your
pupils, if different from that of the writer, may cause additional difficulties in understanding
a text. If you want your pupils to be able to read a text effectively, you have to provide such
knowledge or enable them to access it in some way before the reading. However, you do
not need to prepare your pupils for everything that they will encounter in the text. Very
often reading also means learning.
Look at this short newspaper note from The Observer, 25
March, 2001.
Blair rejects Marbles plea
Tony Blair yesterday rejected long-standing demands by
Greece for the return of the sculptures removed from the Parthenon
200 years ago. In an interview with the Athens daily To Vima he said
the Elgin Marbles belong to the British Museum which does not
intend to return any part of the collection to its country of origin.
Greece had hoped to have the pieces returned by 2004, when it will
host the Olympics.
What kind of knowledge is necessary to understand this?
You also need to encourage higher level interpretation sub-skills, as reading
involves the formulation of constant guesses or predictions that are either rejected or
confirmed later. The reading activities should cultivate the pupils ability to recognise the
purpose of the text as a whole, text organisation, and to think ahead, hypothesise and
predict text development.
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12
1.
4.
2.
5.
3.
6.
present typical text patterns (e.g. a typical essay paragraph pattern is Topic Restriction Illustration; a typical advertisement pattern is Problem Solution
Evaluation)
while pupils read topic sentence or introduction, help them to predict what
might come next
ask pupils to use white correction fluid to cancel unfamiliar words - this may
help them to work out the approximate meaning from context.
teach suffixes and prefixes and ask your pupils to work out the meanings of
unfamiliar words with such suffixes and prefixes
help your pupils recognise words families by getting them to complete word
grids:
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noun
description
adjective
descriptive
suggestive
verb
describe
persuade
present grammatical reference words and show how they refer backwards
and forwards to other words and phrases in the text (e.g. personal pronouns,
demonstratives)
do the same with typical lexical reference words. for example, you can put a
circle around a lexical reference word and show, with an arrow, what it refers to
ask your pupils to put together a text whose paragraphs have been
scrambled, discussing why they have made their decisions.
You should engage your pupils in activities that combine top-down and bottom-up
strategies in reading. In practice this means discussing the topic of a text before asking
your pupils to read it, arousing expectations, and eliciting connections between references
in the text and situations known to the pupils.
Fluency in reading requires skill in both top-down and bottom-up processing.
Fluent readers employ lower and higher level reading subskills simultaneously. They
possess a large receptive vocabulary and knowledge of syntactic and rhetorical structure.
They interact with the text to create meaning. They approach it with prior knowledge (of
what the text is, of what they expect it to mean, of how it is to be read) and cognitive skills,
combined in developing predictions about its content and development. While reading,
fluent readers may re-read fragments of the text rapidly to confirm or reject these
predictions. If the predictions are confirmed, they continue reading with an increasing store
of information on the topic. If the predictions are not confirmed, the readers return and reread more carefully.
Reader Response
To make your pupils active in the reading process, you will have to ask for a
response from them. Their response can be either linguistic or non-linguistic
Linguistic responses
Linguistic responses can come in the form of answers to comprehension
questions. These can take a variety of forms: yes/no, true or false, multiple choice, grids or
charts to be completed, and open-ended questions. Answering comprehension questions
orally round the class is a very common technique used for developing reading
comprehension. A variety of different question forms will enable your pupils to use their
different skills in appropriate ways.
An alternative way of using questions is to ask the pupils to think up and ask the
questions themselves. Their questions will show their current understanding of the text,
their current perception of what is difficult and important in it. This understanding will
change and develop as they continue reading.
Asking questions may be not always a very successful activity for large classes.
As (usually) only one pupil answers a question, the rest of the class does not need to pay
attention. Thus, it may be difficult for you to see whether your pupils have really
understood a text. To maximise the pupils participation, you can devide the class into
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groups and give each group a different fragment to read. In their groups the pupils discuss
their interpretations and then compose the questions they want another group to answer.
The questions do not need to have only one answer. When they have completed their
discussion and agreed on the questions, the pupils pass the fragment and their questions
to another group to answer. Thus they try out possible solutions to the problems they
identify in the text. They can call you in when they need you. Such an activity requires
repeated readings of the text and stresses the process of understanding. Also, listening,
speaking, and writing are naturally integrated in such class interaction.
Non-linguistic responses
Many activities that do not involve verbal responses can also prove your pupils
understanding of the text:
comparing text and image by matching passages of the text and diagrams;
rendering the information into the form of a diagram;
performing an action, finding a solution, making a decision using the
information from the text.
What other things can your pupils do with the information from a
text to prove their understanding of it?
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English and Romanian mislead your pupils, particularly beginners. Your pupils incomplete
knowledge of the language may cause serious difficulty with some texts. In fact, a
fundamental difference between the native readers and the foreign readers is that the
former use the language to help them read, whereas the latter use reading to learn the
language.
What are, in your opinion, the advantages of your pupils over
the native readers of English as far as learning reading is
concerned?
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Exploring the relationship of ideas in a text can be carried out at almost any
proficiency level. Beginners can develop semantic maps that are entirely schematic,
containing basic words or no writing, with pictures. Here is an example of such a semantic
map, drawn around the concept of house:
paper
work
grass
desk
tree
play
garden
vegetable
eat
flower
chair
table
bed
HOUSE
kitchen
wall
room
roof
door
bedroom
chimney
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bathroom
sitting-room
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Tasks addressed to more advanced pupils are more sophisticated. They are
usually based on complex thinking and engage the pupils with the language in different
ways. Both texts and tasks approximate more closely to the kind of texts and tasks that the
pupils tackle in Romanian. The tasks involve longer, multi-stage, integrative activities,
entailing extended speaking, listening and writing. Some pieces of writing demand a
personal response such as interpretation, application to other contexts, criticism or
evaluation.
In which of the three phases, pre-reading, while-reading or
post-reading, would you use the following activities:
1. Do-it-yourself questions: the pupils compose and answer
their own questions.
10. Gapped text: towards the end of the text, 4-5 gaps are left
that can only be filled in if the text has been understood.
(after Penny Ur, 1996, A Course in Language Teaching, Practice and Theory, CUP)
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Summary
As a foreign language skill, reading is very important; in fact, one may argue that it
is the most important, especially for those pupils who may never actually have to speak
English. However, in the regular classroom reading should not be separated from the other
skills, since in real life there are few cases when reading is not linked to these.
The unit offers a classification of reading texts and refers to the importance of
some text characteristics for efficient reading. A number of reading styles are described,
while the idea that the purpose of reading determines the reading style chosen is
underlined. Formulations of aims for reading activities and types of reading activities that
cultivate various reading sub-skills are also suggested.
Key Concepts
text authenticity
cohesion
coherence
intensive reading
extensive reading
skim reading
scan reading
top-down processes
bottom-up processes
reader response
Further Reading
1. Grellet, Franoise, 1981, Developing Reading Skills, CUP
2. Nuttall, Christine, 1982, Teaching Reading Skills in Foreign Language,
Heinemann
3. Silberstein, Sandra, 1993, Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading,
OUP
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