Recently, research on L1 reading has highlighted the need for readers to develop essential reading processes and abilities such as rapid word recognition, vocabulary development, text-structure awareness, and strategic reading. But the actual ability to comprehend texts comes about through reading. A good way to understand reading is to consider what is required for fluent reading. Fluent readers, especially good L1 readers, typically do all of the following: read rapidly for comprehension, recognize words rapidly and automatically, draw on a very large vocabulary store, integrate text information with their own knowledge, recognize the purposes for reading, comprehend the text as necessary, shift purpose to read strategically, use strategies to monitor comprehension, recognize and repair miscomprehension, and read critically an evaluate information. Students become better readers only by doing a lot of reading, there are no short cuts.
L2 readers generally have reader linguistic skills and a more limited vocabulary than do L1 readers. They do not have an intuitive foundation in the structure of the L2, and they lack the cultural knowledge that is sometimes assumed in texts. L2 students may also have some difficulties recognizing the ways in which texts are organized and information is presented, leading to possible comprehension problems. But at the same time, L2 students, working with at least two languages, are able to rely on their L1 knowledge and L1 reading abilities when such abilities are useful. L2 students often have a range of motivations to read that may be different from many L1 students’ motivations. Because of differences in socioeconomic classes and cultural backgrounds, teachers need to inform themselves and adjust their teaching accordingly to reach as many students as possible. There are at least six important goals that should be considered in planning any extended EAP reading curriculum:
1. Conduct needs analyses to interpret institutional goals and expectations for learning
2. Plan reading curricula in relation to specific goals, topics, texts, and tasks
3. Select appropriate text materials and supporting resources
4. Diversify students’ reading experiences
5. Work with texts by means of a pre-, during-, and post reading framework
6. Recognize the complex nature of reading through meaningful instruction
- Vocabulary Development
- Careful Reading of Texts
- Awareness of Text Structure and Discourse Organization
- Use of Graphic Organizers to Support Comprehension and Discourse Organization Awareness
- Strategic Reading
- Fluency Development
- Extensive Reading
- Student Motivation
- Integrated-Skills Instruction
Each goal is describe in detail throughout the reading in full detail. The sixth goal describes in nine ways how meaningful EAP reading instruction can account for the complexity. But reading teachers need to decide which areas to focus more attention on, while not losing sight of the primary means for reading development: Students need to read extensively.
TASK: Reflect on your own experiences in reading for academic purposes. Which purposes for reading have been most important for you? What have you done to comprehend texts that have been challenging for you? What can you apply from your experiences to your teaching? Choose one of the six goals and describe how it relates to your reading experiences. And since teachers cannot focus on every area, choose one area from the list of nine techniques to focus more attention on that you think your students would benefit most from.
I find that I skim a lot in my L1, and that I can get by in class just fine. In my L2, I am not fluent, so I have to read word for word, and look up the vocabulary I do not know that comes along in the sentences. I am not comprehending the L2 reading because looking up the different words is to distracting from the main point in the reading. In class, I comprehend more if I have an idea of what the story is about. For example, my Spanish teacher gives us a synopsis of what we will be reading, so when I do read in my L2, I comprehend more than just reading aimlessly. It is still difficult to remember the entire story, while looking up the Spanish vocabulary, so my teacher always makes sure we review and go over sentences that we didn't quite understand. Then I feel more confident about the readings.
ReplyDeleteAlice Wilcox 002
ReplyDeleteWhen I get assigned some sort of academic text it is usually to learn new information. Most of the time I don’t have any idea what it is about, except for the title. While I should do some sort of pre-reading activity, like skimming, I tend to just dive right in. While I am reading though, I do a lot of summarizing and picking out the main points. If I don’t do that, I usually just quickly read through it and don’t comprehend everything that I should. When I am a teacher, I would like to focus on and teach how to use pre-, during-, and postreading activities. I know that I have a much easier time comprehending a text if I have a good understanding of it before I being to read. Also, postreading activities could be used to sum up the whole reading and find ways to connect it to previous knowledge. I think this is an important step because it makes it seem like there was an intended purpose to the reading, not just busy work. Of the nine techniques, I thought the section on extensive reading was very important. While all the techniques are useful, it seemed like an underlying message of this article is that the skills that children need to be skillful readers will not develop if they are not exposed to large amounts of texts. I think that time for silent reading is very important and is something that I want to make time for in my classroom.
Reading in my L1 is a process that I don't normally pay attention to, because I just do it. The purpose for those readings is usually just to gain information for a variety of purposes. However, in my L2 language, I have to be much more conscious of what I am doing, because not only am I reading for content but I am learning the language at the same time. I have found that increased vocabulary is a huge component of my reading fluency. As my vocabulary has increased, reading has become much easier. Vocabulary acquisition is something that I will definitely do with my students. I think that in the context of a reading the vocab has more meaning, and students are likely to remember the words better. In my L2 I also need to employ various strategies that I don't use in my L1. For example, I do extensive post-reading activities to check for my comprehension as well as address any language issues that were a stumbling block in the reading. As a college student I end up taking extensive notes, but with my students I could see diagramming, outlining, or making visuals could be good ways to organize the input from a reading. I think that reading for comprehension is very important in the L2 language, and an exposure to a wide variety of texts will help learners. As a teacher, it is important to find texts that are engaging and don't feel like an assignment. In a class I took, we were in charge of finding our own magazine or newspaper readings to report back on to the rest of the class. This is a good activity, because it lets students take ownership of the material and also increases their exposure to the written language as they search for an article they like. I definitely think readings should never be arbitrary, and hopefully I can find engaging material for my future students.
ReplyDeleteI think college has taught me most about how to skim while reading in my L1. Teachers assign so much reading that it is almost unrealistic to think that every student can read every article or page in a book completely. However, this being said, I don't think that skimming is a bad thing. If, because I am a fluent reader in my L1, I can read, comprehend, understand and recite what I have just read even while skimming than I am doing enough to be considered a good reader.
ReplyDeleteIn my L2 however, I find myself having to read the entire book slowly. Often even repeating what was just read. I get the overall gist of the play or story I have just read in Spanish but often miss minor details, like tense and time. I also find it the most helpful when i read the story before class and then my professor re-reads it or gives a detailed summary that I can take notes on to review for later. Also, when I read in my L2, I partake in pre- and post reading. I look at all the titles of a text beforehand and read the backs of the books to get a summary before diving into the book. Post reading I usually take notes or have to write a paper so I use that time to reflect on what I have just written.
I think in the future I would focus on Fluency development amongst my students. It is often the area that gets overlooked by teachers because it can be seen as "unimportant." However, I believe that because fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension it is imperative for student learning. If a student is stuck decoding there is no way that they will be able to read for complete comprehension. Decoding takes too much focus away from what is being read so students can't focus on the important reading. That being said, when students become fluent readers they can focus more on the topic and spend less time decoding the information.
If texts are challenging for me (like textbooks) I highlight what I consider to be important or confusing information and wait for class the next day. At that point, hopefully the teacher will review the chapter or at least ask for questions so I can alter my confusion. I understand though that ELLs often have fears of asking questions in class, so in the future I would provide ample alone time for students to ask me questions so they wouldn't feel embarrassed in front of their peers.
As an English major, I have to read many novels for my classes. For me, I don't ever skim material. I think it's especially important in novels for one to read everything to not only be able to fully understand the story, but to also pick out themes, important quotations, and be able to analyze characters. When it comes to textbooks, I try and highlight key terms and ideas that I know will be directly applicable to later information. The "texts" or workbook material I have encountered with my L2 I read quite differently. As we discussed in class, reading a second language is very different. Looking at one word at a time is much easier and natural as opposed to reading a whole sentence and understanding the main idea.
ReplyDelete"5. Work with texts by means of a pre-, during-, and post reading framework" My English teacher in high school did this approach when it came to reading. We would always do a little research of the novel's history, what the main idea was, and certain aspects we should look for as we were reading. My teacher encouraged us to underline or write in the margins anything that we thought was interesting or didn't understand as we were reading. Obviously we would then discuss the novel overall when we were finished reading.
"Use of Graphic Organizers to Support Comprehension and Discourse Organization Awareness" I think visual aids can be very beneficial for all subjects, regardless of age. If students can have a visual understanding of the reading, they would be able to make many connection, which is crucial for understanding what you read, and perhaps discover information they previously didn't understand.
Whether I skim or actually read a text carefully to get the information depends on the class and the difficulty of the material. Generally, when a text is easy but not particularly interesting I will skim to get the most information. If a text is hard but interesting I will read carefully so I can understand the most that I can.
ReplyDeleteGenerally if I am having difficulty with a text, I read and re-read parts of the text as many times as is necessary for me to understand it. I will use a dictionary to look up words if that is the issue, or refer to summaries online to help me understand what is going on in a narrative.
I would take the goal of "selecting appropriate text materials and supporting resources" into my classroom someday. If a text is particularly difficult for my students, I either need to re-evaluate whether or not that text is necessary and appropriate for that class level. If it is, then in order to help them I would break the reading down into small chunks and look at one part at a time. I would provide the class with materials that would help them analyze the text-- such as worksheet summaries they can fill out that will help them pinpoint the most important aspects of a text.
To be honest, when I am assigned to read academic texts, it is very difficult for me to just sit down and read word for word, every single detail because when I get to the end of the page, chapter, article etc. I usually could not tell you much about what I read (unless the topic really caught my interest). Because I know this is how I am, I usually just take note of the bolded words, main points etc. Then when I have to actually reflect on what I read that makes it easier to go back and read. When I have my own classroom I defininitely want to focus on comprehension strategies by incoorporating pre, during, and post reading ecercises. When students actually have something to fill out, such as a worksheet or questions while they read, it forces them to look at the important aspects of the reading.
ReplyDeleteMy main purpose for reading in the past four years has been limited to reading for general comprehension (to get through readings to participate in class discussion) and also to locate specific information (for use in writing argumentative or research papers that require supportive resources). When reading texts that are particularly challenging, I often use the same strategies: reading headings to determine what sections can be skimmed, highlighting important points and making annotations to summarized large ideas or sections of the text so that I don’t have to re-read them later on. I have found that in teaching reading comprehension strategies that I personally use, the SQP2RS framework outlined in the SIOP Model and the pre-, during-, and postreading framework outline in Grabe & Stoller are probably the most important and most effective strategies. In consideration of the six goals for an effective reading curriculum then, I think goals 2: “Plan (or fine-tune) reading curricula in relation to specific goals, topics, texts, and tasks” and 5: “Work with texts by means of a pre-, during-, and posting reading framework” are the most important in both my personal ability to read effectively and to teach my future students. This is because, to read effectively and efficiently you have to have a sequential system that works consistently. Of the nine techniques of “strategic readers” I think the ability to summarize is most important – or at least the technique that I rely most heavily on in my own reading comprehension. As I mentioned previously, I read a paragraph (or a chapter of a novel) and write 1-2 sentences summarizing what I’ve just read (main ideas) right in the margins of the book. This way, I can go back quickly and without re-reading determine the patterns and main ideas of the text as a whole.
ReplyDeleteReading in my L1 has come to be mostly skimming, even when I'm reading a novel or something outside of school. It's easy to grasp the concept of a sentence without scrutinizing every word or phrase. This has proved especially time-efficient when I am reading for academic purposes. However, this isn't always possible with really wordy texts or new content. Highlighting key words or ideas is something that helps me remember what I've read when I'm reading something more challenging like a scholastic article.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, I saw a lot of teachers planning reading based on specific content goals. Oftentimes they would choose many readings to complete one session of content learning. For example, in one class we did a unit on Greek literature. We first explored the history of this genre. The readings were very diverse in structure, content, and authors, and by the end of the unit we had been introduced to the world of Greek lit. Along those lines, extensive is something I would implement in a classroom as well, especially with L2 students. Exposure to different readings can help students grasp main ideas.
Reading for comprehension and for general enjoyment have been the most important to me. I also skim a lot because I do not enjoy reading as much as I used to. When texts are challenging, I usually look up words or topics that I am unfamiliar with online. I also ask my friends who know a lot about particular topics. In my classroom, I will let the students know that if they are like me, and they find reading to be boring, they can always skim books and find the most important information, then use their analytical thinking skills to figure out the rest. I will also do reading comprehension exercises.
ReplyDeleteI think that goal number six, diversify students’ reading experiences is really important, especially in my case. I do not like to read the same kinds of books/articles for an entire semester. I like different topics and genres because it makes reading more interesting. I would make sure to provide my students with various types of reading materials. Some would be from books, while others would come from newspapers and magazines.
In my classrooms, I really want to focus on fluency development because knowing another language is very advantageous in the job market. I do not want to waste their time teaching them something if they cannot use it to their advantage.
For me, the “most important” purpose for reading has changed with the amount of experience I have had both with reading and in school. It seems that when we are beginning to read, teachers and parents stress the purposes of reading for enjoyment, with hopes of gaining students’ interest in reading. However, as students reach higher and higher levels of schooling, it seems that the focus is switched from reading for enjoyment to reading for information, and eventually to evaluate that information. However, as I have reached college, it seems that having the “skimming” skill is quite helpful!
ReplyDeleteI consider myself a good reader, so I have been able to identify successful reading and comprehension strategies for myself. I am very visual, so I use lists, charts, and graphic organizers frequently as a quick reference. It helps me very much that the information I have just read is organized by some type of categorical system, so that I may interpret it in a more systematic way. I also take margin-notes, relating it to my prior knowledge so that I can create stronger mental bonds between the information. I expect these ideas to translate very much into my teaching, using technique #4. Although it may seem that I am only using these techniques in my class because they are helpful to me, this is only partially true. It has been proven that for many students learning English, a large amount of text is very daunting. These students are also not likely to have mastered the “skimming” skill to be able to easily go back to find important information. By using graphic organizers and similar strategies, these students can easily refer back to the points they found to be most interesting and/or important in the piece, while they develop “skimming” skills.