Teaching Reading
Topics for discussion:
1. How do people read?
2. What do people read?
3. What are the skills involved in reading?
4. Common types of activities in teaching
reading
How do we read?
The nature of reading
Reading aloud
Manner
Silent reading
Utterance of every word Silent
Speed
Usually slow
Purpose
Usually
to
information
Skills
involved
Pronunciation
intonation
Activity type Collective activity
Usually fast
share Usually to get information
and Skimming, scanning, predicting;
Guessing unknown words;
Understanding details;
Understanding relations between
sentences and between paragraphs;
Understanding references;
Individual activity
Management Easy to manage as it Difficult to manage as teachers
in the
can be observed and cannot see what is going on in the
classroom heard
students’ minds
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;
 guess the meaning of new words from the context, or
ignore them;
 have and use background information to help
understand the text.
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.
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
Product labels
Postcards
Syllabi
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
 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.
Skills needed in reading
 Understanding the explicitly stated
information;
 Understanding the communicative value
(function) of sentences;
 Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar
lexical items;
 Understanding relations within
sentences;
 Understanding references;
 Recognising indicators in discourse;
 Recognising the organization of the
text;
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;
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.
Models for teaching reading
 The Bottom-up Model
 The Top-down Model
 The Interactive Model
 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.
 In the Top-down Model 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.
 The Interactive Model divides
reading activities into basically three
stages, in which bottom-up and topdown techniques are integrated to
help students in their reading
comprehension and in increasing
their language efficiency in general.
 The three stages are pre-reading,
while-reading, and post-reading.
Pre-reading activities
The purpose of pre-reading (also
called Lead-in) is to facilitate
while-reading activities.
 predicting,
 skimming
 scanning
Predicting
Predicting will get the reader’s mind
closer to the theme of the text.
Ways of predicting:
 predicting based on the title,
 predicting based on vocabulary,
Predicting based on the title
A Nation of Pet-Lovers
If the students are not good at predicting,
the teacher can help them by asking certain
questions such as;
What is a pet? What are pets for? Why
do people love pets? Are there any
problems with pets?
Predicting based on vocabulary
 Having made predictions based on the title, students
can be asked to predict some lexical items that they
think are likely to occur in the text. Then the students
read the text to confirm their predictions.
Skimming
Skimming means reading quickly to get the
main idea of the text.
Some suggestions:
 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.:
Headings: Where can we put it?
 Confirming Action
 Greetings
 Interrupting without insult
 Closing the call
 Getting to the point
Text
Top tips for telephone English
If you're looking for a challenging
situation to practice your English, just pick
up the telephone. Not being able to see the
person you're talking to and the body
language they're using can make chatting on
the phone one of the most difficult forms of
communication. Never fear, though! We've
compiled some tips to guide you through an
average telephone conversation in English.
(Which heading should be here?)
Every phone call should begin
with a polite greeting such as, Hi,
how've you been? or Nice to hear
from you. Even if you're calling a
business contact for a specific
purpose, it'd be rude to jump right
into business without a little small
talk at the beginning.
(Which heading should be here?)
There always comes the point, however,
where you want to move on from friendly banter
and get down to business. For this situation, use
the phrase I'm just calling to ... to transition to
the topic at hand. For example, I'm just calling to
see if you'd like to set up a meeting. If the
situation is reversed, however, and you are
waiting to find out why someone called you, you
can guide the conversation by saying, So what
can I do for you?
(Which heading should be here?)
If you happen to be speaking with a very talkative
person, it may be difficult to get a word in edgewise or
contribute to the conversation. If someone is going on
and on, and you'd like to interrupt, be sure to do it politely.
For example, begin with I would like to say something here,
if I may or Allow me to make a point. Or, you could just
ask: May I interrupt you for a second?
If you're making plans on the phone, be sure to confirm
the details toward the end of the call. Begin with phrases
like Please let me confirm... and So, let me make sure I've
got things straight... and follow up with the details as you
understand them.
(Which heading should be here?)
Sometimes this can be the trickiest part of the
conversation! It may be the time to offer some good
wishes, such as good luck on that interview or hope you
feel better soon if it's appropriate. Additionally, you may
want to confirm any plans you've made: I'll see you on
Friday, then. Sometimes it's easiest to just say you
enjoyed speaking to the other person. Also, keep in
mind that strategically saying the word well at the
beginning of a sentence can indicate that you are ready
to end the conversation: Well John, it's been a pleasure
talking to you.
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.
 Questions for a scanning activity are often about
specific information.
 We can also ask students to scan for vocabulary.
 We can also ask students to scan for
certain structures, e.g. tense forms,
discourse connectors, particular
sentence structures.
Something to bear in mind when
conducting scanning





Set a time limit.
Give clear instructions.
Wait until 70% of the students finish.
Make clear how you are going to get feedback.
Answers to the scanning questions should be scattered
throughout the text rather than clustered at one place.
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
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.
Sophisticated
Input (SI)
Transition Device
(TD)
Output
(OP)
Transition devices can be used to make information
in text form effectively processed and retained.
Some transition devices
 Pictures, drawings, maps, tables, tree
diagrams, cyclic diagrams, pie charts,
bar charts, flow charts, etc.
Family
Family Tree
Anisa
Khadijah
Akmal
Ikrima
Taufik
Novia
Prediction Chart
90
80
70
60
50
Teacher
Doctor
Artist
40
30
20
10
0
2009
2010
2011
2012
Examples of using transition
devices
 Read the following passage and complete the table, which compares
the two families.
Daughter
Son
Budi’s
family
Nina’s
family
Favorite
Place
It is important that students fill in
the table while they are reading rather
than after they finish reading.
Then a follow-up output activity can
be conducted based on the results.
e.g.:
The teacher can ask questions like
“Which family is rich ?”
CLASSIFY
THE
INFORMATI
ON
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
 Questions for evaluation or appreciation. (making
a judgement about the text in terms of what the writer
is trying to convey)
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
Discussion questions
 Do you think he was a good doctor?
 How do you think the young man felt?
Reproducing the text
Tell part of the story from these
prompts:
 A doctor – village – annoyed.
 People – stop – street – advice.
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.
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.
False summary
The teacher provides a summary
with some wrong information,
and asks the students to correct
it.
Writing
Writing based on what the
students have read, e.g.
producing a tourist brochure, an
advertisement, a short summary,
etc.
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.
Thank you!