Chapter 7 – Teaching reading
Reasons for reading
There are many reasons why getting students to read English texts is an important part of the
teacher’s job. In the first place, many students want to be able to read texts in English either for their
careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasure. Besides that, reading is useful for language
acquisition and provides good models for English writing. Lastly, good reading texts can introduce
interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and provide the springboard for
well-rounded, fascinating lessons.
Different kinds of reading
 Extensive reading:
Often away from the classroom. Where possible it should involve reading for pleasure (joyful
reading).
 Intensive reading:
Usually in classrooms. A wide range of text genres (styles or types of text), determined by the
specific purposes that students are studying for. Usually accompanied by study activities.
Reading levels
Ideally we would like students to read authentic texts, intended for any competent user of the
language. There has to be a balance between real English and the students’ capabilities and interests.
How well the students are able to deal with reading material will depend on whether the texts are
designed for intensive or extensive reading. With the support of a teacher and other students they
are able to deal with higher-level material than if they are reading on their own. This is why lowerlevel students are encouraged to use simplified or graded readers for extensive reading, with
comprehensible input.
Reading skills
Three skills:
 Scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for.
 Skim a text (as if they were casting their eyes over its surface) to get a general idea of what it
is about
 Reading for detailed comprehension, whether this entails looking for detailed information or
picking out particular examples of language use, should be seen by students as something
very different from the other two skills.
Reading principles
 Principle 1: Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible
 Principle 2: Students need to be engaged with what they are reading
 Principle 3: Encourage students to respond to the content of a text (and explore their
feelings about it), not just concentrate on its construction  meaning
 Principle 4: Prediction is a major factor in reading
 Principle 5: Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts
Choose good reading tasks at the right level of challenge
 Principle 6: Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full
Reading sequences
Three examples:
 Example 1: Sunscreen (pre-intermediate)
Page 102
 Example 2: Campaigns (intermediate)
Page 103
 Example 3: Webquest (intermediate to advanced)
Page 105
Webquests normally have four basic stages:
- Introduction stage (where the overall theme of the webquest is presented with appropriate
background information, sometimes with key vocabulary)
- Task section (in which the task is explained, and the students are engaged with it)
- Process stage (in which students are given web links to click on to get the information they
need)
- Evaluation stage (where students and teachers evaluate what they have learnt – and perhaps
do some study work on language they have encountered and used during the quest).
Much of this is concerned with activation, but there may be many opportunities for language study.
More reading suggestions
 Jigsaw reading: students read a short text which sets up a problem and then, in three groups,
they read three different texts, all of which are about the same thing (different aspects).
After that, they come together in groups where each student has read a different text and
they try to work out the whole story.
 Reading puzzles: other ways of puzzled reading (after that order them or something like
that).
 Using newspapers: for example for matching exercises.
 Following instructions: e.g. put the instructions in the correct order.
 Poetry: e.g. reassemble the poem. Lexis.
 Play extracts: e.g. acting it out
 Predicting from words and pictures
 Different responses: different things with the same text. At higher levels you can also ask
things about the writer’s attitude or genre analysis.
Encouraging students to read extensively
There are four factors which contribute to the success of this kind of extensive reading:
 Library (access to a collection of readers)
 Choice (students can choose what they read)
 Feedback (opportunity to give feedback on what they have read, verbally or written)
 Time (we need to give students time for reading in addition to those occasions when they
read on their own)
Conclusions (In this chapter we have:)
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Talked about the fact that the more students read, the better they get at reading. We
suggested that reading is good for language acquisition in general, provides good models for
future writing and offers opportunities for language study.
Made a distinction between intensive and extensive reading, stressing the beneficial effects
of the latter (especially in relation to simplified readers).
Said that teachers should encourage students to read in a variety of genres and that, where
possible, the language of the texts should be authentic, unless it is too difficult for students
(in which case we will offer authentic-like language).
Said that students need to realize how to read for different purposes – including skimming,
scanning, reading for pleasure and reading for detailed comprehension.
Come up with six reading ‘principles: read as often and as much as possible; students need to
be engaged while they are reading; students should be encouraged to respond to the
content of a text (and explore their feelings about it), not just concentrate on its
construction; prediction is a major factor in reading; match the task to the topic when using
intensive reading texts; and good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.
Looked at three reading sequences comprising a newspaper article, a magazine article and an
extended Internet-based webquest.
Listed a number of other reading possibilities.
Discussed ways in which students can be encouraged to read extensively by providing
libraries and time, letting students have choice and getting them to give feedback.
Chapter 10 – Teaching listening
Reasons for listening
Most students want to be able to understand what people are saying to them in English. Listening is
good for students’ pronunciation too, they absorb appropriate pitch and intonation, stress and the
sounds of individual words and those which blend together in connected speech.
Successful spoken communication depends not just on our ability to speak, but also on the
effectiveness of the way we listen.
There are many regional varieties in just one country, so it is obvious that the different Englishes
around the world will be many and varied (that’s why listening is also important).
Different kinds of listening
A distinction can be drawn between intensive (in classroom) and extensive (outside classroom)
listening. Extensive listening is everything you listen to for fun (CD/radio/tv/podcasts). Intensive
listening is different in that students listen specifically in order to work on listening skills, and in order
to study the way in which English is spoken.
Listening sources
A lot of listening is experienced from recorded extracts, which are frequently commercially produced.
But there is no reason why teachers should not record their own listening materials (adapted to the
students). There is also live listening, real-life face-to-face encounters in the classroom.
Listening levels
We will want our students to hear listening material in a number of different genres and registers.
But we will also have to decide whether what they listen to should be authentic or not. (Authentic
listening is often far too difficult for lower-level students, but can be adapted).
Listening skills
Students need to be able to listen to a variety of things in a number of different ways. They need to
be able to recognize paralinguistic clues (intonation etc), listen for specific information and general
understanding.
Listening principles
Principle 1: Encourage students to listen as often and as much as possible.
The more students listen, the better they get at it.
Principle 2: Help students prepare to listen.
Make sure that they are engaged with the topic and the task and really want to listen.
Principle 3: Once may not be enough.
Students will want to hear it again to pick up the things they missed the first time.
Principle 4: Encourage students to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the language.
Draw out the meaning of what is being said.
Principle 5: Different listening stages demand different listening tasks.
Because there are different things we want to do with a listening text, we need to set
different tasks for different stages.
Principle 6: Good teachers exploit listening texts to the full.
Use various kinds of study.
Listening sequences
The following listening sequences are pitched at different levels. (The elaborate examples are in the
book, page 136).
Example 1: live interview (beginner onwards)
Asking questions, follow-up questions and listening.
Example 2: buying tickets (pre-intermediate)
Listening leads to speaking.
Example 3: prerecorded authentic interview-narrative (upper intermediate)
Listening to interview, answering questions.
More listening suggestions
 Jigsaw listening
 Message-taking
 Music and sound effects
 News and other radio genres
 Poetry
 Stories
 Monologues
Audio and video
Almost everything we have said about listening applies to video too. Video is richer than audio,
because it’s also visual. Some teachers, however, might say that students pay less attention to what
they are actually hearing.
Four particular techniques are especially appropriate for language learners, and are often used with
video footage:
- Play the video without sound
- Play the audio without the picture
- Freeze frame
- Dividing the class in half
Conclusions (In this chapter we have:)
 Discussed the reasons for using listening in the classroom. These include the effect on the
students’ acquisition of good pronunciation and other speaking habits. We also need to
expose students to different varieties of English, and different kinds of listening.
 Identified the difference between intensive (detailed) listening and extensive listening, saying
that in the case of extensive listening students should listen to things they can more or less
understand, mostly for pleasure.
 Talked about the difference between live listening and prerecorded extracts, saying that
whereas live listening allows students to interact with speakers, they cannot do this with
speakers on audio tracks. Nevertheless, the latter provide ample opportunities for hearing
speakers of different language varieties.
 Said that the students need to hear people speaking in different genres, and that while we
want them all to hear authentic English, at lower levels this may not be feasible;
nevertheless, the language they hear should be as much like the ‘real thing’ as possible.
 Discussed the fact that students need to be able to deploy different skills for listening in
order to understand general meaning or, alternatively, to get specific details.
 Provided six principles for listening: listen as often and as much as possible, preparation is
vital, once may not be enough, students should be encouraged to respond to the content of
the listening, not just the language, different listening stages demand different listening
tasks, good teachers exploit listening texts to the full.
 Looked at three listening sequences showing how preparation is a major part of the
sequence, and showing how listening leads on to follow-up tasks.
 Offered a range of other listening genres and activities.
 Discussed where video (or digitally delivered images) fits in, mentioning some video
techniques and stressing that using video is not an excuse for TV watching.
Chapter 12 – Planning lessons
Reasons for planning
Some teachers with experience seem to have an ability to think on their feet, which sometimes
makes them believe planning is unnecessary. However, most teachers prepare their lessons. The
resulting lesson plans range from very formal and elaborate to a few hurried notes. For students, it
strongly suggests a level of professionalism and a commitment. For teachers, a plan gives the lesson
a framework, an overall shape. A plan helps to remind teachers what they intended to do. There is
one particular situation in which planning is especially important, and that is when a teacher is to be
observed as part of an assessment or performance review.
A proposal for action
Lesson plans should never be thought of as instructions, but rather as proposals for action. We may
have an idea of what the learning outcomes for the lesson should be, but we will only really know the
outcome when a lesson has finished. There can be problems in a class (something takes more time
than planned). The teacher can bypass the problem and keep going or they can realize that now is an
ideal time to deal with the issue, and amend the plan accordingly.
Good teachers need to be flexible enough to cope with unforeseen events, even when they are
positive (magic moments – a student says something really interesting and you can work with that).
There will always be a tension between what we had planned to do and what we actually do when
magic moments or unforeseen problems present themselves.
Lesson shapes
A good lesson needs to contain a judicious blend of coherence (a logical pattern to the lesson) and
variety. In effective lessons, the teacher has thought (and is thinking) carefully about the balance of
engagement, study and activation (ESA!). The ideal compromise, is to plan a lesson that has an
internal coherence but which nevertheless allows students to do different things as it progresses.
Planning questions
When we discuss plan formats, we will see differences between more and less formal thinking of this
kind, but in every case teachers will be answering seven fundamental questions when they decide
what activities to take to a lesson.
1) Who exactly are the students for this activity?
You can think about age, level, cultural background and individual characteristics, but also
about individual differences in learning style.
2) What do we want to do and why?
We have to decide what we want to do in the lesson in terms of both activities, skills and
language. We also need to know why we want to do it. We need to try to predict what the
activity will achieve (learning outcome).
3) How long will it take?
The students’ confidence in the teacher can be undermined if they never finish what they set
out to do. Teachers, for their part, are made uncomfortable if they have overestimated the
amount of time something might take and are thus left with time on their hands. We should
at least try to estimate how long each activity will take (based on our experience and
knowledge of the class) and have some spare activities with us.
4) How does it work?
We need to know how we and our students are going to do it.
5) What will be needed?
It is important to think about the best way of doing something (in other words, the most
effective piece of classroom equipment), rather than automatically choosing the most
technologically exciting option.
6) What might go wrong?
If teachers try to identify problems that might arise in the lesson, they are in a much better
position to deal with them if and when they occur.
7) How will it fit in with what comes before and after it?
It might be useful to have a connection between lessons, for example a multi-lesson
sequence. Perhaps an activity has no connection, it is there to break up the monotony or be
an icebreaker (sometimes called a warmer).
Plan formats
When making plans you can use the following approaches: write down exactly, use note-form hints
(e.g. ‘pairwork’, ‘solowork’, ‘whole class’), notes with ordered paragraph headings, produce flow
diagrams or random notes. When teachers are observed they can adapt their plan and make it more
elaborate and clear to someone else. However, in some form or the other, the following elements
(which match the kinds of questions we asked in the previous section) are usually included:
 Description of the students
 Aims and objectives
 Procedures (can include patterns of interaction. TSS = teacher talks to whole class; SS =
pairwork; SSSSSS = groupwork)
 Anticipated problems
 Extra activities/material (just in case)
 Material to be used in the lesson
Lesson plan blank is on page 161.
Two elements we have not so far mentioned: Succes indicators (the planner writes down how they
will be able to measure the success of what happens) and Homework/Further work (shows the
planner is thinking ahead beyond the actual lesson to be taught. There can also be a special column
for interaction (part of the procedure  who’s interacting with whom).
Other trainers and schools may have their own formats, there is no one correct format.
To sum up: the purpose of a plan is to be as useful as possible to the people who are going to use it
(whether they are teachers themselves, their observers or an examination board). This, in the end, is
what should guide the form in which teachers put their thoughts down on paper.
Planning a sequence of lessons
We have stressed the need for variety in classroom activities and teacher behavior. This means that
teachers build in changes in pace and a variety of different activities (in their lesson plan). The same
principles also apply to a sequence of lessons, students want to see a coherent pattern of progress
and topic-linking, but there also have to be some overall aims and objectives.
However, two dangers may prejudice the success of a sequence of lessons: predictability (less
motivated than if their curiosity is aroused) and sameness (less enthusiastic with a lot of repetition).
Thinking about the three ESA learning elements will help us to avoid such problems.
An ideal multi-lesson sequence has threads running through it. These might be topic threads,
language threads or skill threads, but the students should be able to see some interconnectivity.
Blz 163  page 1 of a completed lesson plan. Blz 164  lesson threads.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember, however, is that a long teaching sequence (two
weeks) is made up of shorter sequences (six lessons) which are themselves made up of smaller
sequences (one or two lessons perhaps).
After the lesson (and before the next)
Evaluation of how well things have gone (for both teacher and students) is vital if our lessons are to
develop in response to our students’ progress. We need to plan future lessons on the basis of what
happened in previous classes. When evaluating, we need to ask ourselves questions such as, was the
activity successful? Did the students enjoy it? Etc.
One kind of data which will help us evaluate lessons and activities is feedback from students. Not all
students will discuss this topic openly in class, so you can do it on paper. A simple way of doing this is
to ask students once every fortnight, for example, to write down two things they want more of and
two things they want less of. Another way of getting feedback is to invite a colleague into the
classroom (peer observation), they can give you constructive advice rather than to concentrate on
apparent failings. Some teachers keep journals in which they record their thoughts about their
teaching.
Good teachers also need to assess how well their students are progressing. This can be done through
a variety of measures including homework assignments, speaking activities where the teacher scores
the participation of each student and frequent small progress tests.
Conclusions (In this chapter we have:)
 Discussed reasons for planning, showing its advantages both for student confidence in the
teacher and also as a framework for teachers to work from. We said how important plans are
for teachers in training
 Stressed that plans are proposals for action rather than the action itself. Teachers need to be
receptive and flexible when unforeseen problems and magic moments turn up in a lesson
 Talked about the need for a blend of both coherence and variety in a lesson plan
 Said that whatever the format the plan takes, it should be based on who the students are,
what we want them to do, how long each activity will take, how the activity actually works,
what equipment will be needed, what might go wrong and how what we are planning will fit
into what comes before and after it
 Discussed different plan formats, saying that there are many different ways of laying out the
information. A lot will depend (especially on training courses) on who the plan is written for –
apart from the teacher. However, we have suggested that most formal plans should include a
description of the students, a statement of aims and objectives, a description of procedures
(including who will be interaction with whom, and how long each activity will take),
anticipated problems, extra materials and the material to be used in the lesson
 Talked about planning a sequence of lessons where topic-linking is important, but there are
dangers of predictability and sameness. We introduced the concept of lesson threads which
run through a sequence of lessons
 Said that it is important to plan future lessons on the basis of what has gone before, and
using student feedback and our own observation to inform our future decisions