UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE TAMAULIPAS

UNIDAD ACADÉMICA MULTIDISCIPLINARIA DE CIENCIAS,

EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES

B.A. IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Summary: Developing and Practicing

Reading and Writing skills

Instructor: Natzyelly Gonzalez

Student: Jessica Morones.

September, 2010
 Developing and Practicing Reading and
Writing skills

Overview of reading and writing in language learning

Among the most important variables that play a role in reading and writing
achievement are: Authentic audience, knowing a first language, and schema.
Goals for reading and writing include speed, accuracy, and comprehension and,
and skills include summarizing, understanding the main point , identifying how a
reading or writing is organized, evaluation how a writer supports his or her
arguments, using strategies to understand unknown vocabulary, generalizing,
using sight words, predicting, and drawing conclusions. Most important for
skills developing is noticing (Schmidt, 2001), or focusing attention on the
differences between one’s own language and the target language. Language
programs vary in how they treat language skills, but many programs around the
world have a strong skill base. Learners in this and other programs often find
grammar and other discrete skill learning an authentic part of language learning.

Skill tools take many forms and support many activities. Newer software
programs offer media-rich examples and integrate effective scaffolding to help
students understand and retain skills. Additionally, the vast number of Internet
resources is also a major advantage for skills teaching: Web sites and software
can provide a variety of easily accessible text types and articles written in
numerous genres at a wide range of readability levels.

Supporting Reading and Writing

These two instructional techniques support not only reading and writing, but
also language learning in general:
1. Provide opportunities for individualized learning to benefit
students at all levels.

According to some researchers, encouraging students to work at their own level

presents effective challenge and thereby supports the development of skills.
Individualized learning does not mean that students should always work alone.
The needs of individual students can be provided in many ways while they work
with groups or the whole class.

2. Let students, not the tools or texts, determine authenticity.

In recent years the second language literature had advocated using authentic
materials for teaching, while typically means using materials made for a native
speaking audience. The idea of using such texts is to motivate students to study
and explore them in real language. In order to understand this point, teachers
should know what is authentic for their students. For example, if students do not
think that the local newspaper is useful to their lives or their learning, the fact
that was written for native speakers does not male it authentic for those
students.

Tips for Designing Opportunities for Skill Development

1. Students must be taught learning strategies such as disserting patterns,

using context clues, word analysis, guessing, and deducing, which are
effective at helping learners reach reading and writing goals.

2. Students should be exposed to extensive reading and writing. In addition,

they can improve their skills through contextualized practice. The Internet
can help with this task, by exposing learners to other learners at their levels
with whom they can exchange massages.
 Evaluating Web Sites and Software for Reading and
Writing

After identifying sites and programs that might help them meet their
instructional goals, teachers can follow several steps:

1. The teacher needs to make sure that the site is published by an

association or organization that is trustworthy.
2. Many teaching organizations and schools have Web sites with great
suggestions, materials and links.
3. If students will go to the site, make sure that the language level is
appropriate or that they will have help if needed.
4. After choosing likely sites or programs, teachers should evaluate the
Web sites as closely as time and effort allow. There are some checklists
and guidelines for evaluating these resources, based on cost, structure,
technical features or other characteristics.

Important factors to evaluate

1. Goals: What can the software or Web site do? How does it meet
pedagogical goals?
2. Presentation: How does the software do it? Are there exercises,
quizzes, multimedia presentations? Is it appropriate for the student
and goals?
3. Appropriateness: How will students be able to use the software to
meet goals? Can students understand it? Is the level appropriate?
4. Outcomes: What do students produce with only the software or Web
site?
5. Evaluation: What kind of appropriate feedback and evaluation does
the software or site offer?
6. Notes: Add notes about what else is important to know about the
technology. Then balance the results to decide if the software or Web
site is useful.
 My personal Opinion about this Topic

This topic called my attention because reading and writing are receptive and
productive skills essential in the language learning process. Additionally, I
strongly consider that we as teachers need to be very selective with the material
we want our students to use in order to develop these skills. This chapter
presents excellent tools which allow teachers to evaluate different programs
and web pages to know which they can present their students. In is important
that teachers take into consideration the validity of the software they will use
because authenticity is really important at this point.