1. Unit 10 Teaching Reading
Aims of the unit:
How do people read?
What do people read?
What are the skills involved in reading?
What is the role of vocabulary in reading?
Principles and models for teaching reading
Procedures and common types of activities in teaching reading

2. 1. Reflecting on your own reading experiences
Try to finish Task 1 on pp and reflect on your own reading experiences

3. 2. How do we read?
Some assumptions about reading: See the table on pp

4. For the responses of the author of the book, please see pp. 322-323

5. The nature of reading Reading aloud Silent reading Manner
Utterance of every word
Silent
Speed
Usually slow
Usually fast
Purpose
Usually to share information
Usually to get information
Skills involved
Pronunciation and intonation
Skimming, scanning, predicting; Guessing unknown words; Understanding details; Understanding relations between sentences and between paragraphs; Understanding references; Understanding inferences , etc;

6. Level of difficulty in classroom management
The nature of reading
Reading aloud
Silent reading
Form of activity
Collective activity
Individual activity
Level of difficulty in classroom management
Easy to manage as it can be observed and heard
Difficult to manage as teachers cannot see what is going on in the students’ minds

7. What do effective readers do?
have a clear purpose in reading;
read silently;
read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word;
concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and skip the insignificant parts;
use different speeds and strategies for different reading tasks;
perceive the information in the target language rather than mentally translate;
guess the meaning of new words from the context, or ignore them;
have and use background information to help understand the text.

8. 3. What do we read?
We believe ESL/EFL reading textbooks should have a great variety of authentic materials, as much as the coverage allows. Of course, textbooks should always be supplemented by extra materials.
A list of things we read in daily life (p. 180):

9. Calendars
Clothes size labels
Magazines
Addresses
Graffiti on walls
Radio/TV guides
Phone books
Children’s scribbling
Advertisements
Name cards
Informa1 letters
Posters
Bank statements
Business letters
Travel guides
Credit cards
Rules and regulations
Cookbooks
Maps
Electronic mail
Repair manuals
Anecdotes
Telegrams
Memos
Weather forecast
Fax messages
Time schedules
Pamphlets
Junk mail
Street signs

10. Product labels
Postcards
Syllabi (syllabus的复数 )
Washing instructions
Credit cards
Journal articles
Short stories
Comic books
Song lyrics
Novels
Newspapers
Film subtitles
Plays
Diplomas
Diagrams
Poems
Application forms
Flowcharts
Handbooks
Store catalogues
Name tags
(adapted from Gebhard 1996:189)

11. It is important for ESL/EFL teachers to bear in mind what we read in real life, so that when we select reading materials for our ESL/EFL classroom, we not only have a greater variety but also meet the needs of different students.

12. Besides authentic texts, ESL/EFL textbooks also employ a lot of non-authentic texts, i.e. simulated text. Simulated texts are aimed for beginner students who are probably not able to handle genuine authentic text. It is believed that the reading of such texts will help students to acquire the necessary receptive skills they will need when they eventually come to tackle authentic materials (Harmer, 1983).

13. 4. Strategies involved in reading comprehension
Two broad levels in reading:
Visual signal from the eyes
A cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating the received information with the reader’s own general knowledge, and reconstructing the meaning that the writer had meant to convey.

14. Writer’s meaning Visual information Reader’s knowledge Visual signal
reconstruction

15. Reading strategies
Specifying a purpose for reading.
Planning what to do
Preview the text
Predicting the contents of the text
Checking prediction
For more reading strategies, please refer to p.181
(Adapted from Grabe and Stroller, 2002:83)

16. Strategic skills needed in reading
Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details;
Skimming: reading for the gist or main idea;
Scanning: reading to look for specific information;
Predicting: guessing what is coming next;

17. 5 .The role of vocabulary in reading(pp.182-193)
Sight vocabulary
近来国外L2教学领域的许多研究都指出在指导学生通过上下文推断词义的同时，有必要使用明确的词汇教学法（explicit vocabulary teaching），有必要建立大量的即识词汇（sight vocabulary）Sight vocabulary类似生词表，使学生在阅读时能立即知道词义。即，对生词短语或容易引起歧义的词加注，以扫除阅读中的障碍。

18. Sight vocabulary 的建立可以是Priming glosses,在读课文前先提供生词短语的注释，也可以是Prompt Glosses,在课文中生词短语出现的地方即时加注。不过，Widdowson 早在1978就指出 Priming Glosses和Prompt Glosses这两种注释法各有弊端：由于尚未接触课文，Priming Glosses可能会使学生以为词汇表中的解释即是该词的唯一意思，当某一词语出现在不同的语境中，可能会引起误解；而Prompt Glosses的弊端是剥夺了学生根据上下文推断词义的机会。因此，教师要注意在课堂教学中引导学生避免这两类sight vocabulary可能导致的负面影响。

19. 如果认知词汇（recognition vocabulary，也叫sight vocabulary）——看见就认识、但未必会使用的词汇——低于六级水平（基本词汇为5，500，不涉及派生词），阅读水平就会受限；如果低于四级水平（基本词汇为4，500，不涉及派生词），受限程度更高。

20. 6. Principles and models for teaching reading
Principles for teaching reading:
The texts and tasks should be accessible to the students.
Tasks should be clearly given in advance.
Tasks should be designed to encourage reading for the main meaning rather than test the students’ understanding of trivial details.
Tasks should help develop students’ reading skills and strategies rather than test their reading comprehension.
Teachers should help the students to read on their own, so that they eventually become independent readers.

21. Models for teaching reading
The Bottom-up Model
The Top-down Model
The Interactive Model

22. The Bottom-up Model
This model of teaching reading is based on the theory in which reading (and listening, too) is regarded as a process of “decoding”, which moves from the bottom to the top of the system of language.

23. Linguistic knowledge is used.
The Bottom-up Model
Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes语素,词素 Phonemes音素;音位
Linguistic knowledge is used.

24. In the Bottom-up Model, the teacher teaches reading by introducing vocabulary and new words first and then going over the text sentence by sentence. This is followed by some questions and answers and reading aloud practice.

25. The Top-down Model
This model of teaching reading is based on the theory in which reading is regarded as a prediction-check process (一个假设—检验的过程) , “a psycholinguistic guessing game” (Goodman, 1970).
In the Top-down Model, not only linguistic knowledge but also background knowledge is involved in reading.

26. Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes
The Top-down Model
Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes
Linguistic Knowledge
&
Background Knowledge

27. The Top-down Model
Therefore, it is believed that in teaching reading, the teacher should teach the background knowledge first, so that students equipped with such knowledge will be able to guess meaning from the printed page.

28. The Interactive Model
This model of teaching reading is based on the theory in which reading is viewed as an interactive process.

29. According to the Interactive Model of reading (also called as “the Schema Theory Model”), when one is reading, the brain receives visual information, and at the same time, interprets or reconstructs the meaning that the writer had in mind when he wrote the text. This process does not only involve the printed page but also the reader’s knowledge of the language in general, of the world, and of the text types.

30. the schema of language;
The Interactive Model
Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes
Schemata to be activated
the schema of language;
the schema of content;
the schema of forms

31. The Interactive Model
Based on such understanding, teaching reading in the classroom divides reading activities into basically three stages, in which bottom-up and top-down techniques are integrated to help students in their reading comprehension and in increasing their language efficiency in general.

32. The three stages are pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading.

33. 7. Pre-reading activities
The purpose of pre-reading (also called Lead-in) is to facilitate while-reading activities.
predicting,
setting the scene,
skimming,
scanning

34. Predicting
Predicting will get the reader’s mind closer to the theme of the text.
Ways of predicting:
predicting based on the title,
redicting based on the T/F questions.

35. Setting the scene
Setting the scene means getting the students familiarised with the cultural and social background knowledge relevant to the reading text.
The culture-bound aspect of the text can start at the beginning with the title. e.g.:

36. Skimming
Skimming means reading quickly to get the gist, i.e. the main idea of the text.
Some suggestions:
Ask general questions. e.g. “Why did the writer write the article?”
Ask the students to choose a statement from 3-4 statements.
Ask the students to put subtitles for different parts of the text into the right order. e.g.:

37. Headings: Where can we put it?
Confirming Action
Greetings
Interrupting without insult
Closing the call
Getting to the point

38. Scanning
Scanning means to read to locate specific information.
The key point in scanning is that the reader has something in his mind and he or she should ignore the irrelevant parts when reading.

39. Questions for a scanning activity are often about specific information.
We can also ask students to scan for vocabulary.
We can pre-teach some words within the semantic area of the theme. This does not mean that we are teaching reading following a Bottom-up model, because the schema of content is activated after the students have scanned the text.

40. We can also ask students to scan for certain structures, e. g
We can also ask students to scan for certain structures, e.g. tense forms, discourse connectors, particular sentence structures.

41. 8 .While-reading activities
While-reading activities focus on the process of understanding rather than the result of reading.
Information transfer activities
Reading comprehension questions
Understanding references
Making inferences

42. Information transfer activities using transition devices
Transition device: A way to transfer information from one form, e.g. the text form, to another, e.g. a visual form.
Transition Device (TD)
Output
(OP)
Sophisticated Input (SI)
Transition devices can be used to make information in text form effectively processed and retained.

43. Some transition devices
Pictures, drawings, maps, tables, tree diagrams, cyclic diagrams, pie charts, bar charts, flow charts, chronological sequence, subtitles (providing subtitles), notes (taking notes while reading), etc.

44. Tree diagram

45. Bar chart

46. Pie chart

47. Summary on transition devices
The purposes of TDs:
Focus on the main meaning.
Simplify sophisticated input.
Allow students to perform while reading.
Highlight the main structural organization, and show how the structure relates to meaning.
Involve all students.
Go step by step.
Conduct follow-up activities for oral and written output.

48. Reading comprehension questions
Questions for literal comprehension. (Answers directly and explicitly available in the text)
Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation. (Require Ss to obtain literal information from various parts of the text and put it together or reinterpret it)
Questions for inferences. (what is not explicitly stated but implied)-

49. Questions for evaluation or appreciation
Questions for evaluation or appreciation. (making a judgement about the text in terms of what the writer is trying to convey)
Questions for personal responses. (reader’s reaction to the content of the text)

50. Understanding references
All natural language, spoken or written, uses referential word such as pronouns to refers to people or things already mentioned previously in the context.

51. Making inferences
Making inferences means “reading between the lines”, which requires the reader to use background knowledge in order to infer the implied meaning of the author.
e.g. What can you infer from the following?

52. Blandida is a country which has every climatic condition known to man.
When she came into the room, the large crowd grew silent.
The painting had been in the family for years, but sadly Bill realised he would have to sell it.

53. 9. Post-reading activities
Post-reading tasks should provide the students with opportunities to relate what they have read to what they already know or what they feel.
In addition, post-reading task should enable students to produce language based on what they have learned.

54. Discussion questions
Do you think he was a good doctor?
How do you think the young man felt?

55. Reproducing the text
Tell part of the story from these prompts:
A doctor – village – annoyed.
People – stop – street – advice.
Never paid – never – money – made up his mind – put and end

56. Role Play
1.Act out the conversation between the doctor and the young man.
2. Act out an interview between a journalist and the doctor.

57. Gap-filling
One day the doctor ________ by a young man. The doctor _________ to be interested. He felt the young man __________ in the street with his tongue ______ out.

58. Retelling (p.204)
The teacher provides the students the key words and phrases and students retell the story according to these words. Or the teacher asks the students to retell the story from another character's point of view.

59. Writing
Writing based on what the students have read, e.g. producing a tourist brochure, an advertisement, a short summary, etc.

60. 10. Conclusion
The teaching of reading should focus on developing students’ reading skills and strategies rather than testing students’ reading comprehension.
We should view reading as an interactive process.
Reading in the classroom can be divided into 3 stages: pre-reading activities, while-reading activities, and post-reading activities.

61. Homework
1. What are the main reading skills?
2. What are the main reading models for teaching reading?
3. What types of activities can we use in teaching reading?