Using Reading Strategies

Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include

• Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection

• Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content

• Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

• Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up

• Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text

Instructors can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in several ways.

• By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.

• By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.

• By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.

• By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.

When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language.

(The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC)

Task 1

Match the following reading techniques with their definitions:

1. skimming

2. scanning

3. contextual guessing

4. cloze exercise

5. outlining

6. paraphrasing

7. scrambled stories

8. information transfer

9. making inferences

10. intensive reading

11. extensive reading

12. passage completion

1. making guesses about the meaning of the words by looking at the surrounding words or situation

2. note-taking technique designed to help the reader see the overall organization of the text

3. exercise which requires readers to transfer information from the text to another form of related text or drawing (e.g. filling in a chart, tracing a root on the map); designed to measure comprehension

4. “reading between the lines”: reader understands what is meant but not stated in a passage

5. finishing a reading passage (orally or in writing); involves predicting a logical or suitable conclusion based on a thorough understanding of the text

6. reading a passage quickly to grasp the main idea (or gist)

7. the ability to say or write ideas in other words; measures the reader’s understanding of the main idea of the text

8. also known as jigsaw reading: the reader re-orders the mixed-up pieces of a text to show he understands how a text fits together

9. reading a passage quickly to find specific information

10. reading carefully for complete, detailed comprehension, (e.g. main ideas, details, vocabulary)

11. fill-in-the-blank exercise, in which some words are omitted, designed to measure how well the reader understands how a text is linked together

12. reading widely in order to improve reading comprehension, reading speed and vocabulary

Task 2

Work in pairs. Study the text “Travelling” (Supplement Pages, p.43) and the tasks suggested to it. Comment on the advantages and possible problems/disadvantages of the tasks. Design pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading tasks for this text.

Task 3

Work in groups. Discuss the problems and work out solutions.

• You want to check whether your low-level advanced level learners understand the relationship between sentences in a chronologically organized passage. What technique would you use? How does it work?

• Explain to your class five reasons for reading in English.

• Give three arguments for reading aloud and three arguments against it.

• Your class has just read a text about young people drinking a lot of alcohol. Invent a role-play to follow on from the text.

• You are going to read an article with your class about camping holidays. Invent five questions involving a personal response from your learners about the topic.

• Explain to your class in simple English two reasons for not underlining every word they do not know in a reading passage.

Task 4

Comment on the following opinions about teaching reading.

Making reading fun

I am an English teacher in Mauritius teaching students aged from 11-16 years old. I have to teach reading comprehension passages and this can get quite boring at times. How can you make a comprehension passage interesting for teenagers?

This question from Yesha, Mauritius

Nadezhda, Russia

I ask them to read the first sentences and then stop and think what may happen then. Kids like making their own stories, that's why reading may be boring for them. After that go on - they will be eager to know what will happen in the book. They will be more attentive to details and comprehension will be successful.

Reema Jamal, Palestine

I think connecting the material with the students' life is a really good way to inspire them. Also asking them to read silently and prepare their own simple questions to ask the each other instead of just using the questions in the book... Asking them to then choose the best question for each paragraph will encourage them, too.

Barbara Phippen, UK

One way that I have found to be effective with students is to get them to imagine that they are detectives looking for clues in the text that will enable them to answer comprehension questions. Another is to give students a copy of the text that they can freely annotate its features.

Esperanza S. Ramos, Philippines

Literature Enrichment exercises are usually received well by students because they are able to share their multiple intelligences. When teaching a short story, the lesson does not have to end with the comprehension questions. One activity that can be used is "Design Me the Cover". Short stories don't have covers since they are only a part of a collection. The following are the steps of the activity: 1. Form groups of four or five. 2. Pre-assign each group to bring drawing materials, coloring materials and poster paper. 3. After the discussion, each group will design a cover page for the short story that has just been discussed. 4. Remind the students to visualize the cover based on the content of the story. 5. Use a rubric to evaluate output.

Effective reading strategies

I want to know your opinion on learning English through reading passages. We do not learn the grammar specifically but just try to know what kind a reading passage is. I guess from the reading we are able to learn about the vocabulary, and the structure of some sentences can be learned from it too. Do you think it is an effective way to learn English?

Afshin Vatandoost, Iran

Texts could be used for a variety of purposes in teaching. In addition to reading skills such as skimming, scanning, intensive reading and so on, there are activities which could exploit a text to the best of it. This is referred to as "textploitation" by Ray Parker, the widely recognized teacher trainer. We could use a text as a medium to engage the students and generate interest in the lesson of the day. We might as well decide to either establish a preliminary familiarity with a certain structure by exposing our students to it through a text or simply reinforce it by telling our learners to underline the structure in that text. Vocabulary expansion is another use we could safely associate with a text, believing that contextualization is a principle in teaching and expanding vocabulary. Some teachers even use a text to evaluate and enhance their students' pronunciation by having them read the text aloud. These are only a few of the things we could do with a text, so the question is what couldn't we do with a text?!

Heath, China

One of the biggest differences between L1 and L2 learning is that most people have read and heard millions and millions of different texts. Many people believe that this is the most obvious reason why learners of second languages never quite get to the same level as native speakers - because it is quite impossible, even with intensive courses over a long period of time to make up for 20 years worth of input. Due to this, it seems highly likely that just through reading (or listening) we learn a great deal about vocabulary and structure, and many EFL experts recommend that all students of a second language should 'read for fun'. That said, however, many experts do believe that actively paying attention to vocabulary and structure is still beneficial. I'm not sure I agree with them, but what I would suggest is:

1. Read two pages for fun.

2. After completing the second page, choose either 'vocabulary' or 'structure'.

3. Follow the steps below for 'language focus'.

4. Repeat the process. Fun, fun, fun, focus, fun, fun, fun, focus...etc... etc... Then you can be sure to get the best of both worlds!

For vocabulary

• Scan the two pages for 5-10 new words or phrases (or perhaps more importantly new 'uses' for words or phrases you already know).

• See how much you can work out about those words or phrases from the context.

• Check them in an L2 only dictionary.

• Write them down for future reference (and later during reading exercises, if you find the word a second time you can compare with the first time).

For structure:

• Pick a paragraph at random.

• See if there are any new or unusual structures, or some that you have problems producing.

• On a spare slip of paper, write down 3-6 key words from that sentence (depending on the length of the sentence), and then hide the text.

• Try to rewrite the sentence using your own knowledge of grammar, and memory.

• Compare your sentence with that in the text.

Reflection

Reflect on your own experience of learning reading in English. What types of reading tasks do you prefer? Why?