FLTRP Training Program for College
English Teaching (July 21-24, 2010)
Reading and Writing Teaching Seminar
LONG Yan
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
I. Integrated Course teaching in
GDUFS
II. A demo class
III. Exchange of ideas
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
College English teaching in GDUFS
Placement test in Grade1
 All-English Class
Year1: College English+CECL
Year2: English Writing
 Stream A
Year1: College English
Year2: Western Culture; Translation
 Stream B: College English
 Stream C: College English
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Genearl issues in integrated course of
reading and writing
 Writing skill is not fully developed if
not completely neglected in
classroom teaching
 Writing as language learning, not
for real communication
 Product-oriented, not process
approach
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Why is writing not fully integrated
in ELT?
This is so partly because it is laborious and
time-consuming to mark learners'
compositons and partly because relatively
few non-native speaking EFL teachers
themselves are able to write good English.
-- Wang Chuming
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
More manageable tasks involving listening,
reading and speaking receive much more
attention in EFL teach, with speaking as
the major mode of developing productive
skills.
----Wang Chuming
(The Length Approach in ELT)
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
"learn together,use together"
 context
 interaction
 alignment
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
A Case Study:
 Material:
Unit 2 Childhood memories (Book 3)
New Standard College English
---Real Communication:An Integrated
Course
 Target Students:
Sophomores (Semester 1)
Class size: 50
Time duration:80 mins
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Starting point: reading
Reading for entertainment
Reading for writing
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
 "I took a speed reading course and
read 'War and Peace' in twenty
minutes. It involves Russia."
---- Woody Allen (US movie actor,
comedian, & director)
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Goals of teaching reading
1) developing students’ reading skills and
strategies;
2) maintaining students’ motivation for
reading;
3) helping students have effective
language output：
reading--speaking (interesting topic)
reading--writing(language accuracy)
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Teaching objectives
K: 1. features of descriptive writing
2. key vocabulary and expressions
S: the use of description and imagery
A: Childhood as an important period in
one's life
3/21/2016
Y.Zhu Y.LONG
Guangdong
Guangdong
University
University
of Foreign
of Studies
Foreign Studies
12
Focal point:Description
people
place
events
the use of imagery
A descriptive essay needs sharp,
colorful details that appeal to readers’
senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell,
and touch).
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Related writing skills and tasks
 Highlight the uses of description and
imagery achieved through long
phrases and sentences, and
employment of allocation
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Unit Overview
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Starting point
Active reading(1)
Talking point
Active reading (2)
Talking point
Language in use
Reading across cultures
Guided writing
Unit task
Unit file
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Procedures
 Pre-reading activities:arouse curiosity
 While-reading activities:help students interact with
the text
 Post-reading activities:integrate reading, speaking
and writing skills
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Pre-reading activities
A game: find out the differences in the pictures
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Pre-reading activities
What is the girl doing in the picture? Does this picture
remind you of anything from your childhood?
What did you do with your lost tooth? What do kids
Guangdong University of
in other countries Y.LONG
do with
their lost teeth?
Foreign Studies
Pre-reading activities
 Group work: (p.18)
 Do any photos remind you of anything from
your childhood?
Which picture do you find a little unusal
from the common practice in China?
 Individual work:
Read the short biography about the author.
Read the title and the illustration to get
more information.
 Describe the Superman briefly on p.20
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
While-reading tasks
 Individual tasks:
Skim the text and find out its text type,
then sum up the main idea of each
paragraph in one word.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Use Culturally Relevant Texts and
Materials
Culturally relevant texts and materials are ones
that students can connect with, ones that draw on
their background and culture (Freeman and
Freeman 2004). They do this by connecting to
students lives, not just to their cultural heritage.
They dras on students' exprience at home,
in the community, and at school and contribute to
the students' process of making meaning.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Questions to examine cultural
relevance
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
While-reading activities
 Teacher gudied reading:
Description of places in paragraph 2&5, notice
the use of imagery, ask student to underline
the allocations
 Group work:
Read the rest of the text, notice the description
of real and imaginery people in the text, focus
on:
1) their look
2) their personality
3) how the author creates the image
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Post-reading activity
 Group work: use as many as possible the
following words and phrases to make up a
short story orally.
vague twilight
blaze light
giggle
outlaw
sallow
bookish
roaring
whistling
soaring
whirling
cape
sallow
mamma's boy
perpectual droning sound
blink
tag
broomstick
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
An alternative task
 I used to be afraid of....(p.27)
 How many students have the same
fear? Why?
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Issues to be considered in teaching
writing
 Generate an appropriate task
 Take care of the process of writing.
 Give feedback as soon as possible
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
 "Tasks form the heart of writing
teaching"
(Hyland, 2003,p.139)
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Taking care of the process of
writing
 When every stage of the writing process
is well taken care of, the writing product
comes as a natural development.
-- Zhou Yan
 Let students actively participate. Take a
variety of roles from active direction to
reflective support.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Procedures of process writing
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Creating a motivation to write
Brainstorming
Mapping
Free-writing
Outlining
Drafting
Editing
Revising
Proofreading
Conferencing
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Writing tasks
 An important person in my
childhood(p.31)
 Write an essay narrating an
experience in which a certain emotion
was predominant:
Fear
Love
Greed
Pride
Sympathy
Anger
Silliness
Loneliness ...
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
More suggested topics
 my biggest fear
 The most courageous thing I've ever
done...
 An old neighborhood
 My first day at school
 A rebellious act
 ...
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Structure
 A thesis sentence
"My first day in kindergarten was one
of the scariest days of my life."
 "When I was young, I used to be
afraid of the dark...
 conflicts
 details
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Prewriting
 Talking point (p.27)
 Freewriting
 Outlining
1)a thesis sentence
2)conflicts
3)details
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Outlining
Who (society,relationship,self)
What(money,need,extra benefits)
When (past,present,future)
Where(school,home,extracurricular
places)
 Why(beauty,relaxation,fun)

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
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Oral composition
 Group work:
 based on the outline, share your
story with others.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
 Finish writing task after class.
 A sample writing by a student
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Those Days with Nature
Raina

When I was a little girl, I lived with my grandpa and
grandma in a small village, a beautiful village on the bank of a
long river. Those years I spent there composed my most
beautiful memory because of my freindship with my peers,
and with nature.

In the countryside, we were so close to the nature that we
thought it our friend whom we could never ever leave. We got
up as the sunshine slip into our bedrooms and the birds began
their a-whole-day-long singing. And then we had a day of
games with the nature—we went to the crook and caught
some tadpoles back home to observe how they grew into
frogs; we made nests with straw and put them onto the trees,
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
hoping that more and more birds would become
our neighbours; we picked the abandoned cats or
chickens to the safe corners, took some cloth and
food from home to them and kept them
acompanied; we liked to sprawl on the farmland in
the nightfall and played with the leaping crickets;
we enjoyed every bright night, counting the
countless stars and staring at the twinkling
fireflies. At the end of a day, we slipped into the
dreams where we played games with nature again
under blue sky.


The children growing up in the villages have a
sense of being a part of nature as the nature has
ever been played together with them for a whole
childhood.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Problems and possible solutions
 writers who don't
* allow
studnets to select their
own topic in a low-anxiety,
risk-free environment
write
writers whose writng
is difficult (or
impossible) to read
 writers whose
writing doesn't make
sense
have students read back
their writing
*
* writing parteners to
help each other with this
question
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
 writers who never
revise
 writers who edit
only a little, if not
all
 writers who take
forever to finish
 writers who find it
difficult to get
organized and
come up with
ideas
* select
one essay to be
read by student
*Edit one thing at a time
* motivation+ deadline
* Teacher as a facilitator
and encourager and
group help scaffold the
task
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies
Your Class.
Your Career.
Everyone’s Future.
Y.LONG Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies