Reading From Harmer

7/30/2019 Reading From Harmer

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ReadingExtensive nd intensive eadingTo getmaximum benefit rom their reading, tudents eed o be nvolved n both extensiveand intensive eading'whereaswith the former,a teacherencourages tudents o choosefor themselveshat theyreadand to do so for pleasure nd generalanguagemprovement,the atter s often (but not exclusively)eacher-chosennd directed.t is designedo enablestudentso develop pecificeceptive killssuchas eading orgist(or generalrnderstanding- often caTledkimming) reading or specificnformation (oft"n called,canning) reading ordetailed omprehensionr reading or inference what s'behind'thewords)andattitude.

Extensive readingwe havediscussedhe mportanceof extensiveeading or the development f our students,word recognition and for their improvementas readers verall.But it is not enough otell studentso'read a lot'; we need o offer hem a programmewhich includesupproi.iu,"materials, uidance,asks nd facilities, uchaspermanentor portable ibrariesof books.o Extensivereadingmaterials: oneof the fundamentalconditionsof a successfulxtensivereading rogrammes hatstudentshouldbe eadingmaterialwhich heycanunderstand.If theyarestrugglingo understand veryword, heycanhardlybe reading or pleasure- themain goalof thisactivity. hismeanshatweneed o providebookswhicheitheruychance, r becauseheyhavebeen pecially ritten,ur" ,.uiily u.cessibleo our studenrs.speciallywritten materials or extensiveeading what RichardDay and fulianBamfordcall'languageearneriterature'(1998:r) - ur" ofte.r eferredo asgratlecleadersot simplifiedeaders.heycan ake he form of original ictionandnon-fictionbooksaswellassimplifications f establishedorksof literalure. uchbookssucceedecausehewritersor adaptorswork within specificistsof allowedwordsandgrammar. hismeansthatstudents t heappropriateevel an ead hemwith ease ndconfidence.t theirbest,despitehe imitations n anguage,uch ooks anspeako the eaderhrough hecreationof atmosphere nd/orcompellingplot lines.consider, or example,he followingshortextract rom thesecond hapter f a evel (elementary) urdermysteryor adults.n thefirstchapter, man n a hospitalbedappearso be sufferingrom amnesia.n thesecondchapter,hat sameman speakso usdirectly:

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There s a man nearmy bed.His clothesare white. No. Someof his clothesarewhite.He hasawhite coat,but his trousersarebrown. He alsohasbrown hair.The man in the white coat sayshe'sa doctor.He says is name s Doctor Cox.He tellsme to call him Philip. He says e s goingto help me.But he'snot going to help me. They think I don't remember.They think I don,t know anything.Theyknow nothing, the doctors.or the police.Nobody knowswho I am. I sit in the bed andanswerquestions.They ask ots of questions.'Do you know what amnesias,John?'Doctor Cox asksme.Doctor Cox.Doctor Philip Cox.He thinks he'ssomebody.He'snobody. knowwhat amnesias.

From ohn Doeby A Moses CambridgeUniversitypress)The anguages simpleandcontrolled, ut the atmosphere in true murder-mystery- is satisf ngly creepy. studentwho enjoyshis kind of story,but whoseevelof Englifairly low,will enjoy t enormously.To encourage tudents o read his kind of learner iterature- or anyother textswhich mbe comprehensiblen the sameway- we need o act n the following ways:

o Settingup alibrary: in order o setup an extensiveeadingprogramme,we need o buup a ibrary of suitablebooks.Although thismayappear ostly,t will bemoneywell spIf necessary,eshouldpersuade ur schools nd nstitutionso provide uch undsor rmoney hroughothersources.If possible'we shouldorganise tatic ibraries n theclassroom r in someotherpof theschool.f this s not possible, e need o work out somewayof carrying he boaroundwith us in boxes r on trolleys.Oncebooks havebeenpurchased, e shouldcode hem for leveland genreso tstudentsaneasilyidentifywhatkindf books heyare.Wehouldmake hestudents wof what he ibrarycontains nd explainour classificationystemo them.We need o devisesomeway of keeping rack of the books n the ibrary.A simsigning-out ystem houldensurehatour collection oes ot disappearver ime.All of these etting-up roceduresake ime.Butwe canusestudentso helpusadminithescheme.We can, f we are ucky,persuadehe schooladministrationo helpus.If our students ake part in extensiveeadingprogrammes,all the time we havespon setting p a ibrarywill not have eenwasted.

o The role of the teacher n extensive eading progr:unmes: most studentswill not dlot of extensiveeadingby themselvesnlessheyareencouragedo do soby their teachClearly,hen,our role is crucial.We need o promotereadingand by our own espousreadingasa validoccupation, ersuade tudents f its benefits. erhaps,or examplecan occasionallyeadaloud from bookswe ike and show,by our mannerof reading,hexciting ookscanbe.Having persuaded ur students f the benefits f extensiveeading,we canorganreadingprogrammeswherewe indicate o them how manybookswe expect hemreadover a givenperiod.Wecan explainhow theycan make heir choiceof what to remaking t clear hat the choices theirs,but that theycanconsultotherstudents'revand comments o help them make hat choice.Wecansuggesthat they ook for books


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a genrebe t crime fiction, romanticnovels, cienceiction, etc.) hat theyenjoy,and thattheymakeappropriateevelchoices.We will act hroughoutaspart organiser' art tutor(seeChapter ,Br).Extensive eadingtasks:becausetudents houldbeallowed o chooseheir own readingtexts, ollowing their own likesand nterests,hey will not all be reading he same extsatonce. or his eason andbecauseewant opromptstudentsokeep eading weshouldencouragehem o reportbackon theirreadingn anumberof ways.One approachs to setasideatime atvariouspoints n a course sayevery wo weeks- at which students anaskquestions nd/or ell their classmatesboutbooks heyhavefoundparticularly njoyable r noticeably wful.However,f this s nappropriateecausenot all students eadat the samespeed or becauseheyoftendo not havemuch to sayabout hebook n front of theircolleagues),ecanask hemeacho keepa weekly eadingdiary,eitheron its ownor aspart of any earningournal heymaybewriting (seeChapter4,p.3).students analsowriteshortbookreviewsor theclass oticeboard. t theendofa month,a semesterr ayear,theyanvoteon themostpopularbook n the ibrary'Otherteachersave tudentsil l in readingecord harts wherehey ecord itle,publisher,evel,startandenddates, omments bout evelanda good/fairlpooroverall ating), hey askstudentso keepa reading otebook wherehey ecordacts ndopinionsabout hebookstheyhavegone hrough) or theyengage tudentsn oral nterviews boutwhat theyarereading BamfordandDay zoo4:77-85).

Wecanalsoput comment heetsnto thebooks or studentsowrite n, as he ollowingexampleor a book calledTheEarthquake hows:

Rating Your comment andYour name5 l 'matraidearr'hquakeaVpenooua .thoko5 Greatl

Oabriels nice.He s cool. TOMOKO4 "Whos r eally akinqcareof mel'

I hink alter readinq his ook. YOKOA1 lhada chancetu 'hinkwhaiahe moot

imprlanNThinq u readinqhio book,HiaakoFrom ExtensiveReading n the Second anguageClassroom

by R Day and J Bamford (CambridgeUniversityPress)It doesnot reallymatterwhich of theseasks tudents reaskedo perform,provided hat

what heyareaskedo do helps o keep hemreading smuchandasoftenaspossible'285


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AE Intensive eading: the roles of the teacherIn order to getstudents o readenthusiasticallyn class,we need o work to createnterestthe topic and tasks'However, hereare urther roleswe need o adoptwhen askingstudento read ntensively:o Organiser:we need o tell studentsexactlywhat their readingpurpose s, give hem cleinstructionsabouthow to achievet and explainhow long theyhave o do this.OncewhavesaidYouhavefour minutesfor this,weshouldnot changehat time unlessobservati(see elow)suggestshat it isnecessary.o Observer:whenwe askstudents o readon their own,we need o give hem spacedo so.This means estrainingourselvesrom interrupting that reading,even hough thtemptationmaybe o addmore nformationor instructions.While studentsare eadingwecanobserveheir progress ince his will giveus valuabinformationabouthow well theyaredoing ndividuallyandcollectively.t witt also eus whether o give hem someextra ime or, nstead,move o organisingeedbackmorquicklythanwe hadanticipated.o Feedbackorganiser:when our studentshavecompleted he task,we can eada feedbasessiono check hat theyhavecompletedt successfully.emaystartby having hem

compare heir answersn pairsand thenask or answersrom the classn generalol. .o-pairs n particular.Students ftenappreciate ivingpairedanswersike thissince, y sharintheirknowledge,heyarealsosharingheirresponsibilityor theanswers.Whenwe askstudents o giveanswers, e shouldalwaysask hem to saywhere n thtext theyfound the relevant nformation.Thisprovokesa detailedstudyof the textwhicwill helpthem the next time theycome o a similar readingpassage.t also ellsusexactwhat comprehension roblems heyhave f andwhenthey getanswerswrong.It is mportant to be supportivewhenorganisingeedback fterreadin! if we arecounteranynegativeeelings tudentsmight haveabout he process, nd f we wish tosustainheirmotivation.I Prompter: whenstudents ave eada ext,wecanprompt them o notice anguageeaturewithin it . Wemayalso, scontrollers, irect hem o certain eatures f textconstructioclarif ing ambiguities nd making hem aware f issues f textstructurewhich heyhanot comeacross reviously.Intensive reading: th e vocabulary questionA commonparadoxn readingessonss thatwhile eachers reencouragingtudentso reafor generalunderstanding, ithout worrying aboutthe meaningof everysingleword, thstudents'on the other hand,are desperateo know what each ndividual word meanslGivehalf achance,manyof themwould rather acklea readingpassage ith adictionary(electronor otherwise)n onehandandapen n theother o write translations ll over he page!It iseasyto edismissivef such tudentpreferences,yetsCarolWalkerpoint, .rt,'Itsee-scontradictory o insist hat students read or meaning"while simultaneously iscouraginthem rom ttyingto understandhe extat a deeperevel hanmerelygist' e99,t:yz).Cle"arwe need o find someaccommodation etween ur desireo have tudents evelop articula

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reading skills (such as he ability to understand the generalmessagewithout understandingeverydetail) and their natural urge to understand the meaning of everysingleword'

One way of reaching a compromise is to strike some kind of a bargain with a class(seeChapter 4, Bz) whereby they will do more or lesswhat we ask of them provided that wedo more or lesswhat they ask of us. Thus we may encouragestudents to read for generalunderstanding without understanding every word on a first or second read-through. Butthen, depending on what else s going to be done,we can give them a chance o askquestionsabout individual words and/or give them a chance o look them up. That way both parties inthe teaching-learning transaction have their needsmet.

A word of caution needs o be added here. f studentsask for the meaning of all the wordsthey do not know - and given some of the problems inherent in the explaining of differentword meanings - the majority of a lessonmay be taken up in this way. We need, herefore, olimit the amount of time spent on vocabulary checking in the following ways:o Time limit: we can give a time limit oi say, ive minutes for vocabulary enquiry, whether

this involvesdictionary use, anguagecorpus searches r questions o the teacher.o Word/phrase limit: we can say hat we will only answerquestions about five or eight words

or phrases.o Meaning consensus: we can get students to work together to search or and find wordmeanings.To start the procedure, ndividual studentswrite down threeto five words from

the text they most want to know the meaning of . When they have each done this, theyshare heir list with another student and come up with a new joint list of only five words.This means hey will probably have o discusswhich words to leaveout. Two pairs oin tomake new groups of four and onceagain hey have o pool their lists andend up with only{ive words. Finally (perhapsafter new groups of eight have been formed - it dependsonthe atmosphere n the class), tudentscan ook for meaningsof their words in dictionariesand/or we can answerquestionsabout the words which the groups have decided on.

This processworks for two reasons.n the first place,studentsmay well be able o tell eachother about some of thewords which individual studentsdid not know. More importantly,perhaps, s the factthat by the time we areasked or meanings, he students eallydo wantto know them because he intervening processhas encouraged hem to invest some timein the meaning search.'Understanding everyword'has been changed nto a cooperativelearning task n its own right.

In responding to a natural hunger for vocabulary meaning, both teachersand studentswillhave to compromise. It's unrealistic to expect only one-sided change,but there are ways ofdealing with the problem which make a virtue out of what seems to many teachers afrustrating necessity.

A4 Intensive eading: letting the students inIt is often the case hat the comprehension tasks we askstudentsto do are basedon tasks na coursebook. In other words, the students are responding to what someone else has askedthem to find out. But students are ar more likely to be engaged n a text if they bring theirown feelingsand knowledge to the task,rather than only responding to someone else's deas

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CHAPTER 17

of what they should find out.One of the most important questionswe can everget studentso answer s Do you lithe text?.Kennedyzoooaand b). This question s included n the initial task n Example(below).The questions importantbecausef we only everaskstudentsechnicalquestioabout language,we are denying them any affective esponseo the content of the text. Bletting them give voice (if they wish) to their feelingsabout what they have ead,we are more ikely o provoke he cuddlefactor'(see ageS8) han f we ust work througha serof exercises.Anotherwayof letting he studentsn is to allow hem to create heir own comprehenstask.A popularway of doing this - when the text is aboutpeople,eventsor topicswhiceveryone nows somethingabout - is to discusshe subjectof the text with the classbefothey read.Wecanencouragehem to complete chart(on the board)with things hey knoor don't know (or would ike to know) about he text,e.g.

Things /we know Things /we arenot sureof Things I/we would liketo know

This activity providesa perfect ead-insincestudentswill be engaged, il l activate heschemata, nd will, finally,end up with a good reason o readwhich they themselvesavbrought nto being.Now they read he text to checkoff all the items heyhaveput into ththreecolumns.The text maynot give hem all theanswers, f course, or may t confirm (oeven efute)what they haveput in the eft-handcolumn.Nevertheless,he chances re hathey will readwith considerably ore nterest han for somemore routine ask.Another involving way of reading s to havestudents eaddifferent texts and then shathe information they havegatheredn order o piece ogether he wholestory.This s callejigsaw eading, nd wewill look at an extended ersionof the techniquen Example .Reading lesson sequencesWe use ntensive eadingsequencesn class or a number of reasons.We may want to havstudents ractise pecific killssuchasskimminglreadingor general nderstanding r'gis(usuallya Type task see age 7o)or scanninglreadingo extract pecificnformation(alsoften a Type task).We may,on theother hand,getstudentso read exts or communicatipurposes whichmixesboth Type and Typez tasks), spart of other activities, ssourcesinformation,or in order o identifiispecific ses f language.Most readingsequencesnvolvemore than one readingskill. We may start by havinstudents ead or gist and then get hem to read he text again or detailed omprehensithey may start by identi$'ing the topic of a text beforescanning he text quickly to recovspecific nformation; hey may read or specific nformationbeforegoingback o the text tidentifi' eatures f text construction.Examples of reading sequencesIn the following examples,he readingactivity is specified, he skills which are nvolvedardetailed nd he way hat the text canbe usedwithin a essons explained.

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Example ; AKADiaz Focus: reading to confirm expectationsSkil ls: pnedicting; eading or gist ; reading ordetai led ompnehensionAge: adul tLevel: intermediate

In this example, students predict the content of a text not from a picture, but from a fewtantalising clues hey are given (in the form of phrases rom the passagehey will read).

The teachergiveseach student in the classa letter from A to E. She ells all the students oclose heir eyes.She then asksall the students with the letterA to open their eyesand showsthem the word lion, written largeso that they can see t. Then she makes hem close heir eyesagainand this time shorvs he B students he phrase racialgroups.Sheshows he C students hephrasepaper aeroplanes,he D students he word tattoosand the E students he word guard.Sh enow puts the students n groupsof f ive,eachcomposedof studentsA-E. By discussingtheir words an d phrases, ac hgroup has o try to predict what the text sall about.Th e teachercan go round the groups encourarginghem and, perhaps, eeding he m with new words likecage, he tensest ton or moral authority, etc.

Finally,when the groups have made some predictions, the teacherasks her-r-rhether tlieywould like to hear the text that all the words came from, as a prelude to reading the follou'rngtext alor-rd,r-rvestingt with humour and drana, rnaking the readingclramaticand enjoyable.

'This is t,'Ricksaid, n a cheerfui oice.Through he windowsof theclassroorn couldsee he men.They werenot in theirseats;nstead heywerecircling he room restlessly,l ike ions n acage.'I s theregoing o be a guard n the room while teach?'lasked. realjzedthathiswassomething hat shouldhavebeenstraightened ut earlier.Rick ookedat n.re ith deepconcern.'l'll corneby abit later, ee hatyou,reOK,'hesaid.I walked hrough he door 'to rheclassroom. y students arely xrkedhuman.Thedeskswerearrangedn no special rder,excepthat someof the men had got ntoracialgroups.Many of them weresmoking, and under the glareof the igtrts couldsee heir tattoos.one man with a pointed beard and a ong rnaneof blaci< air circledbehindme and around he othersideof thedesk.He waseasily he ensestman I hadeverseen. thought of telling him to sit down but wonderedwhat I would clo f herefusedso kept the suggestion o myself. placed ny eatherbag on the clesk ncl acedthe class.Nobody paid any attention to me. The conversationgrew ouder. I wanted ocut out and run. I hadvolunteeredor this?Every eacherhas hesemolnents of panic.we worry about rebellion:our moralautholity ost, hestudentsakingo'er. I hada eachern high school, MissHutchinson,who after aking ro11 ould turn towards he board and be followedbyan avalanche f paperaeroplanes nd spitballs,sometimeseven he boclies f studentsflying forward, an imprompru rroi.I unpackedmy bag and began he roll. A fewnamesdown, I calredout'Diaz.'No answer. 'Diaz, 'said gain.Ain't my name,'a man in the front row volunteered.'Why did you ansr,ver?'Isked.

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Reading From Harmer

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