Topic: Developing Reading Skills
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General objectives:
 Students will be able to give a lesson in
developing reading skills.
 Students will be able to integrate reading
with listening, speaking, and writing.
Lesson One
Giving a Lesson in Developing Reading Skills
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Pre-task activities
Step One: elicit Kinds of real-life reading
Step Two: elicit characteristics of Real-life listening
Step Three: discuss the factors affecting reading.
Step Four: identifying different types of listening texts.
Step Five: suggested activities in developing reading skills.
Step Six: tips in design a reading task
While-task activities
Step Seven: trainee giving lessons in developing reading skills.
Post-task activities
Step Eight: students evaluate the lessons.
Developing Reading Skills
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What do we read?
Why do we read?
How do effective readers read?
Ways of reading
Skills of reading
How to design reading tasks?
Reading activities
Procedures of teaching reading
What do we read?
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Calendars, addresses, phone books, name cards,
bank statements, credit cards, maps,
anecdotes,weather forecast, pamphlets ,
product labels, washing instructions, short stories,
novels, plays, poems, handbooks,
Clothes size labels, children’s scribbling, informal
letters, business letters, rules and regulations,
electronic mails, fax messages,
Junk mail, postcards, greeting cards, comic books,
Newspapers, diplomas, application forms, store
catalogues, magazines, radio/ TV guides,
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Advertisements posters, travel guides,
cookbooks, repair manuals, memos, time
schedules street signs syllabi, journal
articles, song lyrics, film subtitles, diagrams,
 Flowcharts, name tags
Why do we read?
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Reading for pleasure
 Reading for information
How do effective readers read?
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They have a clear purpose in reading;
 They read silently;
 They read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word;
 They concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and
skip the insignificant parts;
 They use different speeds and strategies for different
reading tasks;
 They perceive the information in the target language rather
than mentally translate;
 They guess the meaning of new words from the context, or
ignore them;
 They have and use background information to help
understand the text.
Ways of reading
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Skimming
 Scanning
 Extensive reading
 Intensive reading
Reading skills
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Recognizing the script of a language
 Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items
 Understanding explicitly stated information
 Understanding information when mot explicitly stated
 Understanding conceptual meaning
 Understanding the communicative value of sentences and
utterances
 Understanding relations within the sentence
 Understanding relations between the parts of a text through
lexical cohesion devices
 Understanding cohesion between parts of a text through
grammatical cohesion devices
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Interpreting text by going outside it
 Recognizing indicators in discourse
 Identifying the main point or important information in a
piece of discourse
 Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details
 Extracting salient points to summarize(the text, an idea etc.)
 Selective extraction of relevant points from a text
 Basic reference skills
 Skimming
 Scanning to locate specifically required information
 Transcoding information to diagrammatic display
How to design tasks?
Accessible to students
Pre-set purpose
Top-down and bottom-up
At discourse level
Authentic texts
Linking different skills
Flexible an varied
Developing reading skills rather than testing
Using strategies
Interesting
Tangible result
Immediate feedback
Reading comprehension
exercise-types
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Reading techniques
How the aim is conveyed
Understanding meaning
Assessing the text
I.
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Reading techniques
1.Sensitizing
 2. Improving reading speed
 3. From skimming to scanning
1. Sensitizing
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1.1. Inference: Deducing the meaning and use
of unfamiliar lexical items through contextual
clues
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Deducing the meaning and use of
unfamiliar lexical items through understanding
word formation
 1.2.Understanding
relations within the
sentence
1.1. Inference: Deducing the meaning and use of
unfamiliar lexical items through contextual clues
 Exercise1
 a) In paragraph 3, find two nouns meaning more or less the
same as
 killings' : ……………
 b) In paragraphs 2 and 3, find the equivalents of the
following words:
 changing: …………………….
 Take place……………………
 Declare………….
 c) In paragraph 3
 - -find an adjective which means the opposite of `for short
periods`
 -- find a noun which means the opposite of `free and
footloose young
 people' (para. 4)……………….
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Exercise 2
 In the text ‘Programming People’, one of the
recurring ideas is the loss of one’s independence
and personality. Read the text again to find all the
words related to that idea and fill in the following
table.
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nouns
adjectives
 dependence
e.g. slaves
 independence
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verbs
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Exercise 3
 Read the following paragraph and try to
guess the meaning of the word ‘zip’.
Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical
items through understanding word formation
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Exercise 4
a)
Two words with the suffix ‘-ible’ appear in
the text. What are they?
What effect does the suffix have on the meaning
of the word?
B) Underline the suffixes in the following words
-hypnotist
-predictable
-beautiful
-apparently
-observation
1.2.Understanding relations
within the sentence
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Exercise 1
 Read the following sentences and underline the
subject and the main verb of each of them..
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Exercise 2
 In the following text, a number of link-words have
been italicized. Replace them by other link-words,
or rewrite the sentences, making sure the meaning
remains the same
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Exercise 3
Look at the text and classify the italicized linkwords according to their function:
Cause:………
Consequence……………
Time sequence:…………….
Concession ;……………
Opposition:……………
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Exercise 4
 Read the following text and select the mos6
appropriate link-words from the list given
below.
 a) because
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b) although
 c) for example
 d) since
2. Improving reading speed
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Exercise 1
 a)Underline the word which is the same as
the first one given.
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told bold
told
hold
bolt
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a) Find the word which means the same
thing as the first word mentioned.
 grab
hold
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snatch
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leave
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give
3. From skimming to scanning
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3.1 Predicting
 3.2 Previewing
 3.3 Anticipation
 3.4 Skimming
 3.5 Scanning
3.1 Predicting
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Exercise 1
After reading each of the sentences in column 1, link at
column2 and choose the sentence which you think isl most
likely to follow. Go on in the same way until you reach the
end of the text.
 Ss 1…………………
Ss 2 a)…………….
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b)……………
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c)…………….
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d)……………
 ss 3…………………
Ss4 a)…………….
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b)……………
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c)…………….
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d)……………
 ss5…………………
Ss5 a)
3.2 Previewing
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Exercise 1
You have been given a page from a book to read.
It is entitled ‘The New Famines’, What do you
think the passage is about?
Think of at least three possibilities.
The title of the book is The End of Affluence and
here is the beginning of the table of contents. Does
this lead you to reconsider your former opinion
and make a more accurate guess at the contents of
the passage?
3.3 Anticipation
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Exercise 1
 Before studying a text about robots:
 1 What is a robot?
 2 Is there any difference between a robot
and an automaton?
 3 What can robots be used for?
 4 Do you think they can ever completely
replace human beings for some jobs?
Which ones?
3.4 Skimming
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Exercise 1
 Here is the beginning of a short story by
Roald Dahl. Skim through it and underline
the sentence or the words that best sym up
the main idea of each paragraph.
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Exercise 2
Read the following articles as quickly as you can and decide which
title is best suited to each of them.
………………………………
A lucky meeting
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Violence in Detroit
……………………………..
A clever policeman
……………………………..
A good detective
…………………………….
3.5 Scanning
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Exercise 1
You’re thinking of buying a cottage in the Cotswolds
This is what you want:
-three bedrooms or more
-an old house you could modernize yourself
in a small village
- price unde$40000
Look at the following page and circle the
advertisement corresponding to what you are looking for
- Try to do this as quickly as you can
II.
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How the aim is conveyed
1. Aim and function of the text
2.Organization of the text: different
thematic patterns
1.
Aim and function of the text
1.1 Function of the text
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Exercise1
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Match the following passages and their function:
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Persuasion
Warning
Giving information
Giving direction
Invitation
Request
1.2 Functions within the text
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Exercise1
Read the following dialogue and match what the characters say and
the functions listed underneath.
A ……………………B ……………………
C …………………….D ……………………
E ……………………..F ……………………..
G ……………………H ……………………
I ………………… J ………………………
1
Demand for evidence
1
Agreement
2
Farewell
3
Asking for information
4
Greeting
5
Evidence(explanation)
6
Giving information
2.Organization of the text: different thematic patterns
2.1 Main idea and supporting details
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Read the opening paragraphs of the suggested texts and
decide which category they fall into
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summary of the
 main point
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question to
hold the
reader’s
attention
……
……
example
2.2 Chronological sequence
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Exercise 1
 After reading the text complete the
sentences with one of the following words ;
before, after, when, since, while, during, as
soon as
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2.3 Descriptions
Exercise 1
 Read the following passages and decide which type of organization they
represent
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2.3 Descriptions Exercise 1
Read the following passages and decide
which type of organization they represent
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Down
up
outside
inside
detail
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general
impression
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Up
down
general
inside
outside
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1
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2
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3
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4
impression
detail
2.4 Analogy and contrast
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Exercise 1
 Can you draw a tree diagram to represent
the different types of vehicles? Think of as
many branches as you can besides the ones
mentioned in the text.
2.5 Classification Exercise 1
Read the text which describes eighteenth-century houses in
London. Then complete the diagram below showing the different
types of housing.
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18th century London house
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along streets
III.
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1.
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Understanding meaning
Non-linguistic response to the text
Linguistic response to the text
1.
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Non-linguistic response to the text
1.1 Ordering a sequence of pictures
 1.2 Comparing texts and pictures
 1.3 Matching
1.1 Ordering a sequence of pictures
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Exercise 1
 Here are the photos that Pat sent to Tom.
Can you put them back in the order in
which they were taken?
1.2 Comparing texts and pictures
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Exercise 1
 Now that you have read the short story, look
at the following drawing. Are there any
common points between the two?
 In what way does the cartoon differ from
the story?
1.3 Matching
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Exercise 1
 Read the letter and choose the family tree
that corresponds to Gwenda’s family
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Exercise 2
 Match the following comments with the
photographs of the people who made them.
1.4 Mapping it out
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Exercise 1
 Read the following passage and indicate on the diagram;
 a)All that Iverson can see in Groot’s
room
 b) Groot’s movements(use arrows)
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Iverson’s room
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door
Groot’s room
1.5Jigsaw reading
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Exercise1
Work in groups of two, each group having only
one of the passages that follow.
In your group, follow these steps:
- read the passage carefully
- sum up what it is about for the other groups
- try to guess how it is situated kin the whole text
- discuss all this with the other groups until you
can reconstitute the whole story, from beginning to
end.
2.Linguistic response to the text
2.1 Reorganizing the information: Reordering events
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Exercise 1
Can you put these events back in their
chronological order?
a)……………………………………
b)………………………………..
c)……………………………………
d)………………………………………
e)………………..……………..
g)…………………………………
2.2 Reorganizing the information: Using tables
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Exercise 1
Read this article from Times and complete the table that follows
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When?
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who?
Where?
What?
Why?
2.2 Comparing several texts
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Exercise 1
The three texts that follow all relate to the same incident.
Read them carefully and fill in the comparison table
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Features
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Text No. 1
Text No. 2
Text No.3
2.3 Study skills: Summarizing
 Exercise 1
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Read the following article and the summaries written by
four students.
Then decide which of the summaries is the best.
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……………….
…………………..
…………………
………………..
……………………
……………………
………………..
……………….
…………….
…………………
…………………
Study skills: Note-taking
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Exercise 1
 Read the article and the notes taken by three
students below. Which of these notes is the
best, according to you?
IV. Assessing the text
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1.Fact versus opinion
 2. Writer’s intention
1.Fact versus opinion
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Exercise 1
 Read the following statements and decide whether they are
facts or opinions.
 1……………………………………………………………
 2……………………………………………………………..
 3……………………………………………………….
 4…………………………………………………….
 5………………………………………………….
2. Writer’s intention
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Exercise 1
1 Recognizing type of texts
After reading this passage, can you tell whether it is
A letter to the editor
A passage from a novel
A passage from a science-fiction story
A passage from a textbook on sociology
A satire on modern society
A passage from a horror story
2. The author’s intention
What is the author’s intention in this passage?
To amuse the reader
To predic5 what the future will be like
To shock the reader
To reassure the reader about the future
To criticize society
To teach us something about life in the future
3
The author’s attitude
 In this passage you can feel that the author’s attitude
towards the human beings he describes is one of
 Indifference
 Sympathy
 Pity
 Admiration
 Anxiety
 Detachment hiding concern
 Criticism
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3 Tone
 Write a,b, or c in front of the following
sentences according to what you think the
tone of the sentence is
 Matter of fact
 Humorous
 Ironic
Procedures of teaching reading
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Pre-reading activities
 While-reading activities
 Post-reading activities