UNIT 5 READING

What is reading?

Reading is a receptive Skill where learners gain more information about something and this language skill gives more input by the same token it helps us to learn, to summarize, analyze, connect, develop personal opinions and ideas .

At my classroom, I can do many activities to develop this Skill by providing authentic materials and guidelines on how it can be improved during the course. Likewise, it could be assigned as homework to read a short article and summarize in few lines. Also, I want to start with easier tasks / follow up activities where learners can recognize, matching, filling in, T or F, multiple choice and work individually, in pairs or groups.

In addition, we as English teachers need  to know the use of  Reading techniques and the types. I learned that skimming is one of the technique that provides a general idea of the whole text it concerns discovering the main idea of a text, where learners read just the first and the last part of a text  also the topic sentences and paying attention to others details like italics, pictures, etc.

Besides, scanning is another technique used to find the specific information by searching important words, facts or phrases to get it. At my teaching process, I can give to my learners some useful tips like read paragraphs diagonally, read the page in a “Z” or “U” or read the first sentences of each paragraph. Similarly, we can ask learners underline, highlight a key word or sentence and take notes or draw charts or graphs of the whole text to show the importance. It helps them becoming independent learners and develop their critical thinking.

Following this, there are two types of Reading namely extensive and intensive Reading so I am going to analyze how they work.  Extensive Reading consists of get the general idea and people read for pleasure , it helps to improve their general knowledge  about any topic, for example, a novel you read before going to bed or articles from any magazine  that interest you because they are longer texts  . On the other hand, intensive Reading focuses on shorter texts and it includes finding specific information to be accurate in any detail, for example, a business letter.

Finally, I learned about lead- in activities it involves mainly looking pictures to understand the text using a brainstorming  and introductory activities helping to teach vocabulary. According to Howarth, P (2004) Students can integrate the skills by talking or writing about it or could focus on specific language in the text. In other words telling someone about what we have read is a very natural reaction to a text.

Additional information:

1. Www2.le.ac.uk,. (2015). Improving your reading skills — University of Leicester.

2. Leb.k12.in.us,. (2015).
http://www.leb.k12.in.us/StaffSites/boyetts/files/guidedreading/SDE-GettingStartedwithGuidedReading.pdf

Bibliography: 


Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.

The TKT course. Module 1,2,3