L4 Reading Essay Example for Free

L4 Reading Essay What do listening and reading comprehension skills have in common? ?BOTH ARE RECEPTIVE SKILLS ?THEY PROVIDE INPUT FOR LLS (LLS NEED TO BE EXPOSED TO THE LANGUAGE THEY LEARN AS much as possible) ?LLS LISTEN AND READ BOTH EXTENSIVELY AND INTENSIVELY ?INPUT HYPOTHESIS (KRASHEN) – LLS ARE ABLE TO ACQUIRE LANGUAGE THAT IS SLIGHTLY ABOVE their level (i+1) ? GOALS OF LISTENING AND READING – SIMILAR ?IT IS NECESSARY TO FOCUS ON THE PROCESS, NOT ON THE PRODUCT ?THREE STAGES: PRE-, DURING-, AFTER- ?IN COMPARISON WITH LISTENING AND SPEAKING, READING IS A RELATIVELY EASIER SKILL. ?REASONS: ? THE READER HAS TIME TO PROCESS THE WRITTEN TEXT (HELP OF A DICTIONARY) ? WRITTEN TEXT CAN BE USED REPEATEDLY Bottom-up view of Reading ?PROCESSING IN READING FROM LETTERS TO SOUNDS, TO WORDS, TO MEANING (DATA-DRIVEN) ?COMPREHENSION TO PROCEED LINEARLY FROM THE ISOLATED UNITS (LETTERS, WORDS) TO HIGHER units of comprehension. Top-down view of Reading Reading texts 1. Literary texts (novels, short stories, plays, essays) 2. Specialized or technical texts (reports, reviews, textbooks) 3. Correspondence (letters, e-mails, postcards) 4. Journalistic literature (articles from newspapers and magazines, weather reports). 5. Information texts (dictionaries, timetables, signs) 6. Realia (tickets, menus, recipes) Different kinds of reading 1. Scanning – looking for a particular piece of information. 2. Skimming – looking for the main idea or the general gist of a passage. 3. Extensive reading – longer texts for pleasure, needing global understanding 4. Intensive reading – shorter texts, extracting specific info, detail Decide: skimming, scanning, extensive reading or intensive reading ?THE ‘WHAT’S ON’ SECTION OF THE LOCAL PAPER ?A NOVEL ?AN ARMCHAIR TRAVEL BOOK ABOUT A COUNTRY YOU HAVE ENJOYED VISITING ?A NEWSPAPER  ? A TEXT IN CLASS ?A SERIES OF ARTICLES, ONLY SOME OF WHICH WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, FOR A REPORT YOU’RE writing ?A POEM ?THE TELEPHONE DIRECTORY ?A POSTCARD ?INSTRUCTIONS FOR KITSET FURNITURE YOU’RE ASSEMBLING (YOU’RE USUALLY NOT VERY GOOD AT doing this) ?A TRAIN TIMETABLE ?A RECIPE ?A TRAVEL BROCHURE WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO DECIDE ON A HOLIDAY DESTINATION Reading aloud ?FOR PRACTISING PRONUNCIATION AND INTONATION (CHILDREN) ?SHADOW READING: ? LLS FIRST LISTEN TO THE WHOLE TEXT (NOT BE VERY LONG, ONE PARAGRAPH) ?LLS LISTEN TO ONE SENTENCE, THE TEACHER STOPS THE CD AND LLS READ THE SENTENCE OUT,  paying attention to correct pronunciation and intonation ?WHEN THEY CAN DO IT WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS, THEY ARE ASKED TO READ THE TEXT TOGETHER with the CD ?AFTERWARDS, INDIVIDUAL LLS MAY BE ASKED TO READ THE TEXT OUT. Feedback on during-reading activities ?AFTER LLS HAVE READ THE READING COMPREHENSION TEXT AND WRITTEN THEIR ANSWERS, THEN check the answers in pairs ? LLS UNDERLINE THOSE SENTENCES – THE EVIDENCE FOR THEIR DECISIONS ?AFTER THE ANSWERS AND THE EVIDENCE HAVE BEEN CHECKED IN PAIRS OR SMALL GROUPS, THE T elicits the answers from the LLs ?ELICITATION – T KNOWS WHICH PASSAGES CAUSED PROBLEMS AND CAN HELP LEARNERS TO  analyse the particular section ? IF LLS’ ANSWERS DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER, T SHOULD NOT TELL THEM THE CORRECT ANSWER, BUT let LLs discuss their decisions and evidence and come to a conclusion Reading Strategies for Efficient Reading ?BE PREPARED FOR READING THE TEXT (ASK QUESTIONS FOR YOURSELF WHICH YOU THINK THE TEXT may answer; read the title, subtitles; look at pictures and other visuals to predict the content of the text) ? READ THE TEXT QUICKLY FOR THE GIST; ?YOU MAY HIGHLIGHT KEY VOCABULARY AND LOOK THE KEY WORDS UP; ?TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE MAIN IDEAS AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM; ?TRY TO FIND THE LINKING WORDS; THEY INDICATE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN IDEAS AND MAKE the text coherent; ?IGNORE UNKNOWN WORDS OR TRY TO GUESS THEIR MEANING FROM THE TEXT; ?USE DIFFERENT READING STRATEGIES TO READ DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEXTS (SKIMMING, SCANNING, reading for detail) ? READ WIDELY Don’t!!! ?TRANSLATE THE TEXT; IT REQUIRES VERY CAREFUL READING WHICH IS NOT NECESSARY FOR understanding the main ideas and doing the tasks; ?TRY TO UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD, IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF THE text; ?READ ALOUD; IT SLOWS YOU DOWN AND IT MAKES YOU LOOK UP THE WORDS YOU CANNOT pronounce.