Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Abstract
This paper was triggered by heated debates conducted with the students
in the second year English Specialists at the Faculty of Science and Arts,
Bisha , King Khalid University. The discussion was the result of some
enthusiastic questions raised by some students about the conventional
pattern of teaching reading they have used to at school and College and
the changes of approach that have been taking place, adopted by the
researcher in teaching reading to students. The purpose is to raise
awareness and to share ideas rather than to introduce innovation.
Introductory profile
In the last four decades or so , there has been a major shift from the
structure-based approach to the teaching of reading to a more growing
concern with reading for meaning. Reading is not merely the
identification of symbols on the page-a passive decoding process where
the reader soaks up the information provided by the writer. Reading is
characterized as a cognitive ,interactive and psycholinguistic process
where the reader is actively involved with the text and extracts meaning
as a result of the information supplied in the text the purpose of the
reading, and the knowledge of the world that the reader brings to the text.
Hill (1992) points out that
Readers bring their knowledge of the world,
Their own experience with other books, and
their knowledge of the subject to the text.
The text provides signals and clues which help
readers to get new information . Readers use
clues to predict the content of the text (or parts
of the text). In this way, good readers are always
one step ahead . (p 41)
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Linguistic Competence
As teachers we often try to compensate for students lack of language
proficiency by providing texts with restricted vocabulary and simplified
syntax . However , as Baudains and Baudains (1989) have shown ,
concern about unfamiliar vocabulary and syntactic complexity when
choosing reading texts is likely misplaced. They found that students
familiar with the cultural content of a text performed equally well on
texts with differing syntactic complexity. They conclude that syntactic
complexity should be less a concern than cultural familiarity when
choosing texts for EFL/ESL students. A further implication is that
simplifying the vocabulary and grammar of a culturally unfamiliar text
will not make that text more accessible to learners.
Therefore, effective reading cannot take place unless the readers mind is
engaged in two types of processing top-down processing, in which he has
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Selection of Material
The first critical decision the teacher faces in teaching reading is the
selection of the appropriate authentic texts which are relevant and related
to the students experience for a particular class . As Johnson (1982)
states The familiar setting not only arouses students interest but also
activates background knowledge that can facilitate reading
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prior knowledge, interest, and curiosity make it easier for them to engage
with it" (p. 324).
Having said that, we shall now explore some of the issues that
may help in selecting and grading authentic materials.
As already stated, interest is a primary ingredient of motivation.
Williams (1986) asserts that "interest is vital, for it increases motivation,
which in turn is a significant factor in the development of reading speed
and fluency" (p. 42). It is true that different students have different
interests, but through needs analysis, one would be able, to some
extent, to provide topics of common interest. Finding what interests
students, according to Rivers (1976), would ensure efficient learning.
The materials have also to be at the appropriate level
linguistically-to be demanding, but not to be discouragingly difficult.
There is theoretical support for the presentation of materials ahead of the
students' ability. As already pointed out, Krashen's (1985) recent research
suggests that the linguistic level of input should be slightly higher than
the learners' known competence on the ground that this would help them
gain further understanding and expand their mastery of the language.
Although there is no rigid rule as to an appropriate level of difficulty, it
is argued that high student interest can automatically simplify a
difficult reading selection. However, there are two well-known methods
of estimating text difficulty. The first method is to have students read
the selection aloud. If 85% of the words are read correctly, the text is
at an appropriate level. The second method is through a cloze test. If
students can supply 50% of the words correctly, the text is appropriate
(See Bowen, et al., 1985).
On the other hand, it must be said that difficulty of reading
materials often arises from many factors other than simply language.
As noted, background cultural assumptions are often much more
difficult for the learners to handle. An example is the story of "The
Untouchable" used in the proposed programme. This glimpse of the
Indian culture4 can be a principal cause of student frustration since
the cultural background knowledge required for understanding the story
might too great for Yemeni students. In such a situation, the teacher is
obliged to provide students with some information which may form the
background of the text, such as the setting of the story and the social
facts related to the topic.
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feel is the essence of communication, for this is what the text has
truly communicated" (p. 251). This suggests that the learner may give
authenticity to a text based on his/her knowledge of the topic. In this
context, Breen (1985) maintains that "authentic texts for language
learning ... will serve as a means to help the learner to develop an
authentic interpretation" (p. 68). This actually coincides with
Widdowson's earlier view (1978) that "authenticity is a characteristic of
the relationship between the passage and the reader" (p. 80). In other
words, if the material is meaningful to the learner, in that, there is a
connection between what he/she knows and the material, we could say
that there is some kind of authenticity. This, of course, would depend
on the learner's affective and cognitive involvement with the materials,
his/her perception of their interest value and usefulness, as well as the
types of questions about the content that provoke the learner's personal
reactions.
It is clear that authenticity is not only related to the materials
taken from real life to be used in the classroom setting, but also
related to different texts, different learners and different purpose.
Instructional Techniques
The traditional approach of teaching reading course has long been
ineffective for students at the University level. It follows a restricted set
of techniques which are primarily teacher-centered (i.e., teachers reading
aloud- translating difficult words- students reading aloud followed by
direct questions about rigid texts). Consequently, we feel that there is an
urgent need for introducing an approach for teaching reading based on
learner-oriented activities , as this approach assumes a less intrusive and
dominant role of the teacher and a considerable range of resources for the
students to work with and investigate.With globalization and the spread
of English, EFL instruction is ever more important. In addition to a new
language, learners are also exposed to different cultures and ways of
thinking. Thus, EFL classrooms provide ideal contexts for exploring
important critical thinking skills.( see Yang and Gamble) .
The three main stages undertaken are as follows:
Preparation Activities
This stage may include many activities. It covers the pre-reading stage
and serves to prepare the students mentally and emotionally for the work
to come . At this stage interest is aroused and the students tune in to the
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get main points and guessing the meaning of unknown words from
context and morphological analysis. The skills of finding cohesion
rhetorical structures and seeing grammatical forms as markers of
meaning are also introduced.
Follow-up Activities
In the final stage, emotions and intellect go together, offering a variety of
possibilities for exploring different types of language and creating an
involvement that is the core of language use , so that words and actions
can be experienced in an authentic manner. That is, the shift itself helps
to develop a wider perspective of different viewpoints on the text in
which the students get a chance to practice and share responses as
individuals and groups.
References
Baudains, R. and Baudains, M. (1989). New ways with reading texts.
Practical English Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 3, 17-18.
Eapen, R. (1998). Aspects of Reading. Hyderabad: CIE
Grellet, F. (1981). Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Hill, D. (1992). The E. P. E. R. Guide to OrganisingProgrammes of
Extensive Reading. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.
Isenberg, N. (1990). Literary competence: the EFL reader and the teacher.
ELT Journal, Vol. 44, No. 3, 181-190.
Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. New York: Pergamon Press.
Johnson, P. (1982).
Effects on reading comprehension of building
background knowledge. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 4, 503-516.
Littlewood, W. (1988). Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge:
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Silberstein, S. (1987). Lets take another look at reading: twenty five years
of reading instruction. English Teaching Forum, Vol. 25, No.
4, 28-35.
Ya-Ting C. Yang and Gamble, J. (2013). Effective and practical thinking
enhanced EFL instruction. ELT Journal , Vol, 67, No.4 , 398-412.
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