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    The Reading & The Bilingual Method

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    chinmay

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    The reading method She reapinc AIST OD) developed entirely for pragmatic reasons, Michael West, who taught in India, argued that for Indians the ability to tread fluently in English was more important than speaking in English. To this end, he developed the reading method. After studying the American high school scene, Coleman (1929) decided that the only practical way 0 teach a language was to concentrate on reading skills. It is interesting to note here, that whereas West’s ideas continue to find a place in our language policies (English as a library language), they were thrown out quite early in America, before the World War. The criticism of the reading method below sums up the reaction in America. Other Methods: Short Notes p84 Ie is very doubtful whether stents of short courses in high schools were vial with ease and direct comprehension at the end of the course, As soon as they encountered ungraded material they were forced back into deciphering with the aid of a dictionary: and valuable training in the reading skill was wasted. Asa justification for shor language nurses, the reading aim was thus spurious... The reading method forthe ‘mos part proshiced students who were unable to comprehend and speak the language beyond! the very simples of exchanges ever able to read ungraded m: ‘The Indian reaction, in West's centenary year was, however, For FLT in India today, however, Wests work appears to have thee lewons which se would like to draw in thee bie statements, First, cha good ELT must rik lowing thcory to be judged in ordinary classrooms. Secondly that currculurn feneval is a problem in education as a whole and not just language education land iccherefore has to be based on neutral studies ofthe educational system inall its esentals, And lastly, thatthe four areas Wes singled our for deep study and analysis, namely, Indian mukilingualism, reading and is teaching, vocabulary seudies and word teaching, and materials design and development ought ro be focused as much today as they were by him in his days in this centenary year cof Wests birh there is once again the need to address the priorities in English Language Teaching. Tickoo 1988 “The objective of the reading method was to make learners fluent y “readers. Comprehension, and not reproduction, was the aim. Syllabus and methodology In a reading method class, the first few weeks were spent in oral work y 40 that a strong bond between sound and print could be created 0 facilitate “inner speech’. Then the reading text was introduced. Oral work of some sort continued, for the teacher or learners would often read aloud from texts in the clas. Texts ‘The reading texts were graded in terms of vocabulary, “The texts were divided into two kinds, aa nth Lange Tewhing:Apronces, Maho, Techniques Intensive reading texts The ets were ght and practised ough at ch ane see ning rom the context, anaphora, et, and grammatical pig ei fr in discuss. Comprehension was checked mainly through qusign Here speed and overall comprehension was the alm. Lesrnen x these texts at their own pace.? As in che direct method, tandaton not encouraged, The leaner was encouraged to infer the meaning frat contextual clues. Features of the reading method “The development of the reading method introduced some new features into the English language teaching field. + the notion of vocabulary grading, which is even today the basis of graded readers produced by publishing companies + the creation in a systematic way of grading readers * the concept of extensive or ‘rapid’ reading in a foreign language + the idea that techniques to teach one skill of language (reading) could be developed comprehensively; and also that such courses could be ‘aught Application Task Find four passages of 150 words each to teach intensive reading. Soy how youwill grade them. Prepare questions to tes the leamer's comprehension of these passages. or Find four passages (folktales, anecdotes, descriptions, etc.) of 250 words each for extensive reading. Grade the possages. Prepare questions to test the learner's understanding of the gist of the passages. 2 Based on che principles he advocated, Michael West produced a series of book he [New Method Reader, for ws in the clasroom. Other Methods: Short Notes 88 lingual method The mite SUAL METHOD proposed by ep ¥y C. J. Dodson tried to incorporate different aspects of the ditect method and the grammar-wamlation Dodson (1967) believed thar ESE 0 some emergent countries, where a malor wr language sheng taught as 2 second language to young children By the dies eked ii ‘ype of teaching were successfal : a within few So, in the bilingual method, the use of the mother tongue is allowed (but it is strictly controlled an a d limited to concept translation), Syllabus and methodology ‘The bilingual method is built around situations. All language skills are considered equally important and no skill is ‘postponed’ to a later time Fluency in language skills is achieved in each situation, Mastering of skills s not scen as long-term, painful process. The focus is, in the extly stages, on oral or conversational proficiency, and this isto be achieved in each situation, whatever its range. ‘The steps of the methodology are as follows: 1, Imitation of basic FL sentences (basic situation) 2, Interpretation of basic sentences in FL (basic situation): This step comes after the learners have become fluent in pronouncing the basic sentences in the foreign language. The teacher gives an oral mother tongue (MT) stimulus for evoking the foreign language (FL) response of the learner. 3. Substitution and extension of FL sentences (extended situation): The learner is able to speak independently about limited situations without an oral or printed stimulus. Noe: Ate bilingual fs decibed as «person who can jump fom one langage another easly and talk fluently about any situation in either the mother tongue othe ‘arget language with equal ease. se 4 English Language Teaching: Approaches, Methods, Techies eaking of sentences (basic and extended 4, Independent speaking of ide a “The learner begins to speak related sentences without a spoken stimulus either in the MT or FI 5, Reverse interpretation (optional; basic and extended situation): Here the teacher gives a FL stimulus and che learner responds in the Mt. Interpretation of questions (if not undertaken in steps 1 andi or 3) This is basicaly the question-answer stage and learners are taught question forms separately s0 that the question patterns ar Consolidated before they respond to questions in the FL. 7, FL questions and answers (basic and extended situations) $ Nonmal FL conversation (basi, extended and original situations): This isthe final step where the learners converse independently inthe FL. 6 “The steps involved in the bilingual proces are illustrated a follows STEP 1 STEP? STEP 3 ES S(MT)-(O-RED S =stimulus; ¢= intermediary: R » response In step 1, the mother-tongue stimulus causes the concept. In step 2, the concept becomes divorced from the original stimulus which is then ‘whilst the concepe in turn becomes the new stimulus forthe foreign language ‘esponse. In other words there is no link between the MT and the FL athe time the response is made... ‘ibid ‘The aim of the bilingual method is co: help the learner to speak fluently and accurately in the target language + help the learner to write fluently and accurately in the target language + prepare the learner in such a manner that s/he can achieve (rue bilingualism. Other Methods: Shon Notes

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