Teaching Reading

9 Principles & Implications

# 1: Keeping Ss interested
“In the absence of interesting texts, very little is possible”
(Ray William, 1986:42)

What should be interesting?

. The text
. Reading activities in pre-while-post reading stages

=> Find texts in English, of an appropriate level, on similar topics and of

interest to Ss.
9 Principles & Implications
# 2: Activating Ss’ background knowledge
“A reader’s background knowledge can influence his/her reading
comprehension”
(Carrell, 1983)

ÞT should activate Ss’ background knowledge before reding by:

. Asking Qs/ Eliciting
. Group discussion/ Sharing
. Making predcictions
9 Principles & Implications
# 3: Building strong vocabulary base

A strong vocabulary base helps Ss to understand the text better

=> T should teach Ss basic vocabulary in the text and develop the ability
to guess the meaning of the unknown words in context
9 Principles & Implications
# 4: Teaching for comprehension

Teaching for comprehension means teaching Ss how to comprehend

the text

=> T should teach Ss strategies to monitor their reading process and

construct meaning from the text as they read.
9 Principles & Implications
# 5: Teaching reading strategies
“To achieve the desired results, Ss need to learn how to use a range of
reading strategies that match their purposes for reading. Teaching them
how to do this should be a prime consideration in the reading
classroom”
(Anderson, 1991)
=> T should teach Ss how to use strategies to achieve the purpose of
reading
9 Principles & Implications
# 6: Encouraging Ss to transform strategies into skills
Strategies vs. Skills

=> The goal for teaching reading comprehension is to move readers

from consciously using strategies to unconsciously using skills.
9 Principles & Implications
# 7: Working on increasing reading fluency
“The virtuous circle of the good reader: reads faster, reads more,
understands better, enjoys reading, reads faster”
(Nuttall, 1996:127)

=> Discourage Ss from using dictionaries when they come across words
they don’t understand
9 Principles & Implications
# 8: Building assessment into reading
Assessment for reading serves 3 important purposes:
. Knowing the entry level of Ss
. Monitoring Ss’ progress
. Informing instructions
9 Principles & Implications
# 9: Striving for continuous improvement as lifelong reader
“We read to learn”
(Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great Be Great)
Being a lifelong reader is part of being a lifelong learner
Being a lifelong learner means constantly seeking for new knowledge
through reading
=> T should implement a scheme of extensive reading by means of a
graded reader system.
Reading stages
Pre-reading purposes & activities:
Pre-reading – Purposes
• To activate or build Ss’ background knowledge
• To get Ss become familiar with the language
• To predict the contents of the reading text
• To motivate Ss to read
Pre-reading – Activities
To activate or build Ss’ background knowledge
. Activate when Ss know about the topic
. Build when Ss do not know or know little about the topic
. Activities: questioning, brainstorming, previewing the text…
E.g.
Pre-reading – Activities
To get Ss become familiar with the language
. Pre-teach new vocabulary can help facilitate Ss ’reading
comprehension
Letting Ss guess the meaning form unknown words is also a reward for
real-life reading
. Activities: categorizing, connecting words, predicting, using context,
matching…
E.g. Using the context of the text
Pre-reading – Activities
To predict the contents of the reading text
. Predicting gives Ss a purposes and motivation for reading
. Activities: T/F, ordering, open prediction,…
Pre-reading – Activities
To motivate Ss to read
“If Ss are highly motivated to read, they are more likely to become
engaged readers who are knowledgeable, strategic and socially
interactive”
(Grambrell, 1996)

. Motivating Ss to read is a key task for T

. Pre-reading tasks help create motivation for T to read
Remember
- to spend time on organizing activities in Pre-reading stage because
they will help:
• activate or build Ss’ background knowledge about the reading topic
• teach new vocabulary that is present in the reading text
• predict main contents of the text
• and motivate Ss to read
- to diversify the activities in Pre-reading stage to keep Ss’ interests
- to expand more to exploit and build more background for the while-
reading stage
Post Reading Activities
Discussion
Reproducing the text
Role-play
Summarizing
Language review
Post Reading Activities
• Consists of one activity
• Focus on speaking skill
• Include just general instructions
Post Reading Activities
Teacher should:
Briefly wrap up the language
Carefully plan the activity
Diversify types of activities to stimulate Ss