Teaching Reading

The communicative approach

and the role of reading in the
language classroom

When the goal of instruction is

communicative competence, everyday
materials such as train schedules,
newspaper articles, and travel and
tourism Web sites become appropriate
classroom materials, because reading
them is one way communicative
competence is developed

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Purpose of reading

gain information or verify existing knowledge

to critique a writer's ideas or writing style
for enjoyment
enhance knowledge of the language being read

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader
and the text, resulting in comprehension

Linguistic
competence:
the ability to
recognize the
elements of the
writing system;
knowledge of
vocabulary;
knowledge of how
words are
structured into
sentences

Strategic competence: Discourse competence:

knowledge,
the ability to use top-down knowledge of discourse
strategies, as well as markers and how they
knowledge of the language (a connect parts of the text to
bottom-up strategy). one another

skills, and
strategies for Sociolinguistic
competence:
knowledge about

reading
different types of
texts and their
usual structure
and content

comprehension
taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Teaching Reading Goals and
Techniques for Teaching Reading

Focus: The
Reading Process

They encourage
They allow They have the development
students to students practice They do not
When working of reading skills
They develop practice the full reading strategies assume that
with reading tasks and the use of
students' repertoire of in class and ask students will
in class, they show reading strategies
awareness of the reading strategies them to practice transfer strategy
students the by using the
reading process by using authentic outside of class in use from one task
strategies that will target language
and reading reading tasks. their reading to another. They
work best for the to convey
strategies by They encourage assignments. They explicitly mention
reading purpose instructions and
asking students to students to read encourage how a particular
and the type of course-related
think and talk to learn (and students to be strategy can be
text. They explain information in
about how they have an conscious of what used in a different
how and why written form:
read in their authentic purpose they're doing type of reading
students should office hours,
native language. for reading) by while they task or with
use the strategies. homework
giving students complete reading another skill.
assignments, test
some choice of assignments. content.
reading material.

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Reading
strategies
After reading: Evaluate
Before reading: Plan for the comprehension and
reading task strategy use
During and after reading: Evaluate
Set a purpose or decide Monitor comprehension
in advance what to read comprehension in a
for Verify predictions and particular task or area
check for inaccurate Evaluate overall progress
Decide if more linguistic guesses
or background knowledge in reading and in particular
is needed Decide what is and is not types of reading tasks
important to understand Decide if the strategies
Determine whether to
enter the text from the top . Reread to check used were appropriate for
down (attend to the comprehension the purpose and for the
overall meaning) or from Ask for help task
the bottom up (focus on Modify strategies if
the words and phrases) necessary Using Authentic
Materials and Approaches

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
to develop
communicative
competence
Reading, classroom and
homework reading activities must
resemble (or be) real-life reading
tasks that involve meaningful
communication.
Must be authentic in three ways.
The reading material
The reading purpose
The reading approach

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 1. PREVIEWING

5.
2 .PREDICTING
PARAPHRASING

STRATEGIES
OF READING

4. GUESING 3. SKIMMING
FROM CONTEXT AND SCANNING

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 How instructors can help students learn
to use reading strategies

By encouraging students to
By allowing time in class for
By modeling the strategies talk about what strategies
group and individual
aloud, talking through the By using cloze (fill in the they think will help them
previewing and predicting
processes of previewing, blank) exercises to review approach a reading
activities as preparation for
predicting, skimming and vocabulary items. assignment, and then talking
in-class or out-of-class
scanning, and paraphrasing. after reading about what
reading.
strategies they actually used.

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Reading to learn the language: Reading material is
language input

Reading for content information: Students' purpose for

reading in their native language is often to obtain
information about a subject they are studying, and this
purpose can be useful in the language learning classroom
as well
Reading to
Learn
Reading for cultural knowledge and awareness: Reading
everyday materials that are designed for native speakers
can give students insight into the lifestyles and worldviews of
the people whose language they are studying.

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 GOOD READERS

Activate Predict or
Have a purpose
background anticpate
of reading
knowledge content

Identify Use top-down Check

appropriate and bottom-up comprehension
strategies skills

taken from: 2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC
 Conclusions
Reading is a process that promotes language acquisition, therefore, it is
important to develop students the skills and the use of appropriate strategies
to learn how to read in order to get information requiered.

References
National Capital Language. (2003). Teaching Reading. Retrieved from:
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/goalsread.htm