Teaching Reading

Onea Veronica
Chelaru Alina-Georgiana
MA in ELT, Year I

Contents
I. Research on reading a second language
II. Types of written language
III. Characteristics of written language
IV. Macro & micro-skills for reading comprehension
V. Strategies for reading comprehension
VI. Types of reading
VII.Principles for designing interactive reading
techniques
VIII.Conclusion
IX. Bibliography

Research on reading a second language

1. Bottom-up and top-down processing
. Bottom-up
Skills-based
. Top-down
Strategies-based

multiplicity of linguistic signals

data-driven
field-independent
puzzle-solving process
conceptually driven
field- dependent

2. Schema theory and background knowledge

Skill in reading depends on the efficient interaction
between linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the
world. ( Mark Clarke and Sandra Silberstein)

3. The role of affect and culture

language ego
self esteem
motivation
empathy

4. The power of extensive reading

Krashens The Power of Reading /Day and
Bamford extensive reading is a key to
student gains in reading ability,linguistic
competence, vocabulary, spelling and
writing.
John Green and Rebecca Oxford reading
for pleasure and without looking up all the
unknown words were correlated with overall
language proficiency.

5. Adult literacy training

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand,
interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written
materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a
continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to
develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their
community and wider society.
A significant number of immigrants
arriving on the shores of USA are nonliterate
in their native languages, posing special issues
in the teaching of English.
Skills-based and
strategies-based approaches
are used in adult literacy training

II.Types of written language

Academic

Job-related

Personal

III. Characteristics of written language

1. Permanence
. The written language is permanent and the reader has
the opportunity to return again and again.

2. Processing time
. Most reading contexts allow the readers, to
read at their own rate.

. fast reader vs. slow reader

3. Distance
. Messages are sent across two dimensions
psysical distance and temporal distance .

4. Orthography
English orthography is highly predictable from its
spoken counterpart.

For literate learners of English, the spelling

system presents only minor difficulties.

5. Complexity
Writing vs. Speech
Most salient difference is the nature of clasues.

6. Vocabulary
Written English utilizes a greater variety of lexical

items than spoken language.

7. Formality
Formality refers to prescribed forms that certain
written messages must adhere to.
Rhetorical, logical order, openings &closings,
non-redundancy and subordonation of clauses etc.

IV. Macro & micro-skills

for reading comprehension
Micro-skills

Macro-skills
Recognize the rhetorical forms
of written discourse and their
significance for interpretation.
Recognize the communicative
functions of written texts,
according to form and purpose.
Infer context that is not explicit
by using background
knowledge.
Distinguish between literal and
implied meanings.
Detect culturally specific
references and interpret them in
a context of the appropriate
cultural schemata.

Discriminate among the

distinctive graphemes and
orthographic patterns of English.
Retain chunks of language of
different lengths in short-term
memory.
Process writing at an efficient rate
of speed to suit the purpose.
Recognize grammatical word
classes, systems, patterns, rules
and elliptical forms.
Recognize cohesive devices in
written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between
and among clauses.

V. Strategies for
reading
comprehension
1. Identify the purpose of
reading
2. Use graphemic rules and
patterns to aid in bottom-up
decoding
3. Use efficient silent reading
techniques for relatively
rapid comprehension
4. Skim the text for the main
ideas
5. Scan the text for specific
information

6. Use semantic mapping

or clustering
Enumerative

7.Guess when you arent

certain

Additive
Reinforcing
Similarity
Transition

8. Analyze vocabulary
9. Distinguish between
literal and implied
meaning
10. Capitalize on discourse
markers to process
relationships

Logical
sequence
Summative
Resultative

Types of
discourse
markers
Explicative

Resultative
Contrastive
Replacive
Antithetic
Concessive

VI. Types of reading

Perceptive. Perceptive reading tasks involve
attending to the components of larger stretches of
discourse: letters, words, punctuation, and other
graphemic symbols.
Selective. In order to ascertain ones reading
recognition of lexical, grammatical or discourse
features of language within a very short stretch of
language, certain typical tasks are used: picture-cued
tasks, matching, true/false, multiple-choice etc.

 Interactive. Reading is a process of negotiating

meaning; the reader brings to the text a set of
schemata for understanding it, and intake is the
product of that interaction. Typical genres that
lend themselves to interactive reading are
anecdotes, short narratives and descriptions,
excerpts from longer texts, questionnaires, memos,
announcements, directions, recipes. Top-down
processing is typical of such tasks.
Extensive. Extensive reading applies to texts of
more than a page, up to and including professional
articles, essays, technical reports, short stories,
and books.

VII. Principles for designing

interactive reading techniques
1. Make sure that you dont
overlook the importance of
specific instruction in reading skills.
2. Use techniques that are
intrinsically motivating.
3. Balance authenticity and
readability in choosing texts.
4. Encourage the development of
reading strategies.

5. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques.

6. Follow the SQ3R sequence, a process consisting of the
following five steps: survey, question, read, recite, review.
7. Subdivide your techniques into pre-reading, duringreading, and after-reading phases.
8. Build in some evaluative aspect to your techniques.

VIII. Conclusion
It is not enough to simply teach children to
read; we have to give them something worth
reading. Something that will stretch their
imaginations--something that will help them
make sense of their own lives and encourage
them to reach out toward people whose lives
are quite different from their own.
- Katherine Patterson

IX. Bibliography
Books

Brown, H. Douglas,Teaching by
Principles, An Interactive Approach
to Language Pedagogy, Second
Edition, New York: Pearson
Education Company, 2000.
Brown, H. Douglas, Language
Assessment. Principles and
Classroom Practices, New York:
Pearson Education Company, 2004.
Dorob, Dumitru, The Methodology
of Evaluation and Testing, 2007.
Chilrescu, Mihaela. Paidos,
Constantin, Proficiency in English,
Ed. Institutul European, 1996.
Internet sources
https://www.google.ro/imghp?hl=ro&ta
b=wi
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/
goalsread.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lit
eracy