Teaching advanced reading skills
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Transcript of Teaching advanced reading skills
Teaching advanced students to read effectively
Guy Brook-Hart
XIII NATIONAL FENAPIUPE CONGRESS
25th September 2009
This talk will cover
• why we should be teaching reading skills to
students in class
• what reading skills we should expect advanced
students to acquire
• different classroom reading activities to deal with
different types of reading task.
• examples are taken from Complete First
Certificate (Cambridge University Press 2008)
and Complete CAE (Cambridge University Press
2009).
Why do reading activities in class?
• To ensure that all students have read the text(s)
• To teach and practise different reading
techniques and strategies
• To explore texts on different levels
• To limit time.
Some features of advanced reading texts
• ‘Advanced’ / lower-frequency vocabulary
• Complex grammar and syntax
• Complex / unfamiliar ideas and subjects
• Opinion, not just fact
• Ideas which are implied, not stated explicitly
• Longer texts
• Stylistic features such as irony, humour etc.
Some advanced reading skills
• Self-sufficiency strategies for dealing with
vocabulary
• Ability to understand complex / unfamiliar ideas and
subjects
• Ability to distinguish opinion from fact
• Ability to understand implications
• Ability to recognise and react to features such as
irony, humour etc.
• Ability to make connections between ideas /
information expressed in different parts of the text
General considerations
• What are ‘natural’ reading activities?
• What outcomes do we want from reading activities?
‘Natural’ reading activities
• Skimming
• Scanning
• Reading in detail
• Note-taking
• Oral summarising, re-expression and reacting
to the text
Outcomes (Common European Framework of Reference C1)• I can understand fairly long demanding texts and summarise
them orally.
• I can read complex reports, analyses and commentaries where opinions, viewpoints and connections are discussed.
• I can extract information, ideas and opinions from highly specialised texts in my own field, for example research reports.
• I can go beyond the concrete plot of a narrative and grasp implicit meanings, ideas and connections.
• I can give clear, detailed descriptions of complex subjects.
Multiple choice tests ability to read:
• in detail
• and infer opinions and ideas rather than
distinguish fact
• deduce meanings from context
Questions
• are likely to deal with more than one part of
the text
• should focus on the main ideas of the text
Suggested approach:• read the title (if there is one)
• skim the text for a general overview
• read stem of first question and underline the key idea
• scan to find where the question is dealt with in the text.
• read this section of the text carefully to find the answer to the
question.
• read each of the 4 alternatives with the stem.
• match the correct one with the text.
• underline the evidence in the text supporting your choice
• repeat procedure for question 2 etc. (answers appear in the same
order)
Classroom activity 1:
• Give students the text with a skimming task and a strict time
limit.
• Give students the stems of the questions, but not the
alternatives. Ask students to locate where the answers occur.
Objective: scanning
Classroom activity 1:
• Give students the text with a skimming task and a strict time
limit.
• Give students the stems of the questions, but not the
alternatives. Ask students to locate where the answers occur.
Objective: scanning.
• Ask students to note answers in their own words.
• Give them the alternatives. They choose.
Objective: to encourage students to go from the text to the
alternatives, rather than vice versa, note-taking
Classroom activity 2:
• Ask students to work in pairs. Give one pair questions 1, 3
and 5. Give the other pair questions 2, 4 and 6.
• Ask them to read the text and answer their questions with
their partner.
• Students then change partners, show their new partners
their questions and explain the answers, justifying their
choice with evidence from the text.
Objective: to find and justify evidence in the text /
communicative activity
Classroom activity 3:• Ask students to work in pairs. Give them either the first half of
the text or the second half.
• Ask them to read and orally summarise together.
• Students then change partners and work with someone who
had the other half. Give each student the questions
corresponding to the other half.
• Students must explain what they have read. Their partner must
answer the questions depending on what they have been told.
• Students then check with complete text + all the questions.
Main objective: advanced communicative activity; mini-
presentations; asking questions
Multiple matching tasks test ability to
• scan for details
• read at speed
• locate information/opinions
There will always be concrete evidence in the text
which produces the answer.
What problems do students have with Multiple Matching tasks?
• understanding the task and how to approach it
• dealing with a lot of information in a short time
• distinguishing between texts
Suggested approach:
• First read the questions carefully underlining
key ideas.
• While reading the questions, think how the
ideas may be expressed in the texts.
• Read texts carefully one by one to locate where
the ideas are expressed.
• Underline evidence in texts for your choice.
• Make sure each text provides at least one
answer.
Classroom activity 1:
Ask students to focus on the questions without looking at the texts:
They should
• underline main ideas in each question
• spend 2 minutes studying and ‘memorising’ the questions
• with questions hidden, brainstorm in pairs how many of the
questions they remember
They then read the texts once only and with a strict time limit
(perhaps 8 – 10 minutes) to locate the answers.
Main objective: to teach scanning for pre-determined information.
Classroom activity 2:
Give students the questions and 1 text each.
Ask them to
• find the questions which correspond to their text
• work with 3 or 4 other students and explain why
the questions they chose correspond to their text.
Main objective: class-based communicative
activity, oral summarising, uncertainty about how
many questions they should answer.
Classroom activity 3:
Give students the texts without the questions.
Ask them to
• work alone and write 1 question for each text which is
only true for that text. Students should be careful not to
repeat the exact words of the texts.
• work in pairs and combine their questions
• give their combined questions to another pair to answer.
Objective: students read varied texts in detail to find how
they vary.
General considerations
• Use all the clues on the page
• Work on the example
• Raise interest
• Negotiate a time limit
• Avoid vocabulary explanations
• Make students do the work (not you!)
• Discuss strategies