A Reading Class for L2 students

FAZZIO, Cecilia Elisabete Aguirre de1

During class time “learning can no longer be treated as a process which depends on
language centrally, or even dominantly” 2 as Kress explains in his theory about reading
cognition. The sense of space, feeling, taste through reading can be reached as long as you
can understand the purpose of adjectives and adverbs in the discursive text.

Learning only grammar and vocabulary for syntax purpose is not the most effective way
for reaching high reading skills. As Kress says, “Our data reveals conclusively that
meaning is made in all modes separately, and at the same time, that meaning is an effect
of all the modes acting jointly.”, which means that no reading or writing can be taught in
separate modules. They must be altogether as one object arrangement for literacy:
“language is widely taken to be the dominant mode of communication in learning and
teaching” 3

Through speaking and listening exercises, my students get to know better how English
communication is constructed due to its syntax and semantic constructions, “In our
approach it becomes clear that language, whether as speech or as writing, is only ever a
partial means for carrying meaning.” 4

Not only we practice speaking through role-plays, but we also start our reading classes
through a mind-map, where everybody can and should say something about the topic
suggested. It can be any kind of word, as long as it is part of the pupil’s life. Bachelard
complements my thought “is a privileged entity for a phenomenological study of the
intimate values of inside space, provided, of course, that we take it in both its unity and its
complexity, and endeavor to integrate all the special values in one fundamental value.” 5
This value is the students’ written production. When they finally get their moments from
social life, which they are interested in the social world as social action, 6 we have an
effective reading and writing class.

1
Graduada em Letras português/inglês pela UNICID/SP com ênfase em Literatura Inglesa pela UCAM/RJ,
especialização em Psicopedagogia e Metodologia do Ensino da Língua Portuguesa e estrangeira pela
UNINTER/PR, aluna especial no Programa de Mestrado em Teoria Literária e Literatura Comparada pela
USP/SP. E-mail: ceciliafazzio@gmail.com
2
KRESS, Gunther, Carey Jewitt, Jon Ogborn, and Charalampos Tsatsarelis. Multimodal Teaching and
Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. London: Continuum, 2001, pp. 1, 10-11, 42, 142, 178.
3
Ibid, 2001.
4
Ibid, 2001.
5
BACHELARD, Gaston. 1994. The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. xxxvi, 3ff.
6
SCOLLON, Ron. 2001. Mediated Discourse: The Nexus of Practice. London: Routledge. pp.1-3.