Week 12 & 13 Teaching Reading PDF

TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS I Week 12-13 Teaching Reading Dr. Sedat BECEREN WHAT IS READING? Reading is a process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of interrelated sources of information....

TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS I Week 12-13 Teaching Reading Dr. Sedat BECEREN WHAT IS READING? Reading is a process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of interrelated sources of information. WHAT IS THE GOAL OF READING? A good reading comprehension FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE READING COMPREHENSION: The reader The text Interaction between the reader and the text: Strategies Schema Purpose for reading Manner of reading Fluency  BACKGROUND TO THE TEACHING OF READING Interest in Second Language Reading has increased DRAMATICALLY in the last years.. WHY????? reading abilities are critical for academic learning L2 students can learn on their own the most important skills in academic context. writing and oral skills can be integrated with reading instruction.  A BRIEF HISTORY OF L2 READING TRENDS In the 1980s Nowadays  Build on learners’ L1 reading  Recognize that not all L2 schemata to foster learners will become development of L2 reading proficient at L2 reading skills  Achieve bottom-up skills  Activate prior knowledge first (linguistic processing) first  Focus mainly on meaning  Focus first on literal comprehension of the text  STUDY THESE TWO ACTIVITIES. WHAT ARE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THEM?  Learners are instructed to  Learners are given the read a text. Afterwards, the topic of a text and asked to teacher asks them to go make a list of everything through the article and they know about the topic. underline the sentences After reading the article, that indicate hypothetical they are asked to get into situations (conditional groups and talk about a sentences). time they had a similar experience. MODELS OF READING Bottom-up processing (decoding) Top-down processing (background knowledge) Interactive approach (Mixture)  BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING It was influenced by behaviourist psychology of the 50s’ Reader builds meaning from the smallest units of meaning to achieve comprehension. Word recognition (visual appearance) Phonological processing (sound-letter relationships) Visual information from the text  BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING Reading is considered a linear process by which readers decode a text word by word, linking the words into phrases and then sentences. It requires a strong emphasis on repetition and on drills using the sounds that make up words. Example letters → letter clusters → words → phrases → sentences → longer text → meaning = comprehension  BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING Letters, morphemes, Bottom-up Text-Based syllables, words, phrases Example: wet brought who socks some --------who brought some wet socks  BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING  This model of teaching reading is based on the theory in which reading (and listening, too) is regarded as a process of “decoding”, which moves from the bottom to the top of the system of language.  In the Bottom-up Model, the teacher teaches reading by introducing vocabulary and new words first and then going over the text sentence by sentence. This is followed by some questions and answers and reading aloud practice  A PHONICS APPROACH A phonics approach to teaching reading supports a bottom-up model The primary cause of reading difficulty is inability to decode or make the connection between English speech sounds and printed letters. Phonics should be taught before beginning to read books independently. Letter names & letter sounds are the building blocks of reading. Simplified reading materials should be utilized until phonological rules are advanced. Words should follow phonic generalizations or patterns, such as short vowel word families like can, fan, man. A high proportion of the words in a decodable book should conform to the phonics the students have already been taught.  THE ROLE OF PHONEMIC AWARENESS What is phonemic awareness? The consciousness that words are composed of separate sounds The strategies used to: Segment strings of sounds Discriminate between these sounds  THE ROLE OF PHONEMIC AWARENESS Why is it important for ESL/EFL readers? ESL and EFL learners need to acquire the knowledge base of English phonemes so that their aural discrimination of sounds can proceed effortlessly, quickly, and unconsciously”. Readers who have it are better readers. Readers are able to connect sounds with symbols. Readers can attach meaning to sounds. If readers can associate the sounds of words when learning the meaning of new vocabulary, it sticks better.  INTENSIVE READING  Intensive reading is used on shorter texts in order to extract specific information. It includes very close accurate reading for details.  Intensive reading "calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships.  CHARACTERISTICS OF INTENSIVE READING Reader is intensely involved in looking inside the text Focus on linguistic or semantic details of a reading Focus on surface structure details such as grammar and discourse markers Identify key vocabulary Draw pictures to aid them (such as in problem solving) Read carefully Aim is to build more language knowledge rather than simply practice the skill of reading.  TOP-DOWN PROCESSING In the 1960’s a paradigm shift occurred in the cognitive sciences. Behaviourism became somehow discredited as the new cognitive theory represented the mind´s innate capacity for learning. This gave new explanatory to how humans acquired their first language and produced and impact in the field of ESL/EFL  TOP-DOWN PROCESSING  It is based on the theory in which reading is regarded as a prediction- check process ,“a psycholinguistic guessing game” (Goodman, 1970).  In the Top-down Model, not only linguistic knowledge but also background knowledge is involved in reading.  Reader generates meaning by employing background knowledge, expectations, assumptions, and questions, and reads to confirm these expectations.  Known as problem solving model Example Pre-reading activities (i.e. activating schema, previewing, and predicting) + background knowledge (cultural, linguistic, syntactic, and historical) = comprehension  TOP-DOWN PROCESSING Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. TOP-DOWN PROCESSING Learners draw their own Top-down Reader-based intelligence and experience to understand the text Example: Fo- ex-mp-e, y-u c-n r-ad -h-s se-te-ce -it- ev-ry -hi-d l-tt-r m-ss-ng. For example, you can read this sentence with every third letter missing.  TOP-DOWN PROCESSING Relies on Schema Theory “Meaningful” learning (as opposed to rote learning) Reading constitutes a dialog between reader and text The reader’s experience and background knowledge is considered important Influenced by psycholinguists SCHEMA THEORY AND THE READING PROCESS Formal schemata Content schemata  The structure of a text.  What learners already know  How texts are organized, about the topic. (e.g. a recipe, a scientific  The more familiar a learner article, a postcard, a letter is with the subject in the to an editor, etc.). text, the better they understand the text.  Prediction, brainstorming, and semantic mapping  SCHEMA THEORY TO L2 READING Select texts that are relevant to the students needs, preferences, individual differences and cultures. After selecting the text, follow the three stages that are used to activate and build students’ schemata: Pre, While and Post reading activities The pre-reading stage deserves special attention since it is here where their schemata will be achieved  PRE-READING ACTIVITIES To activate existing schemata To build new schemata To provide information to the teacher about what the students know Formal schemata will be activated by using devices such as advance organizers and overviews to draw attention to the structure of the text. Content schemata will be activated by using various pre-reading activities to help learners brainstorm and predict how the information fits in with their previous knowledge.  WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH Whole language approach to reading is supportive of top-down models of reading. Four key features highlight a whole language approach to teaching reading. 1. It is a literature-based approach. Books are used which contain authentic language. Readers are exposed to a wide range of vocabulary. 2. Whole language is student-centered; the focus is on the individual reader choosing what he or she wants to read. 3. Reading is integrated with writing. Classes work on both skills simultaneously. 4. Emphasis is on constructing meaning. The focus should be on meaning and keeping the language whole, as opposed to breaking it down into smaller units. Whole language is a method, not the goal.  EXTENSIVE READING Extensive reading is carried out "to achieve a general understanding of a text. Extensive reading as "occurring when students read large amounts of high interest material, usually out of class, concentrating on meaning, "reading for gist" and skipping unknown words." The aims of extensive reading are to build reader confidence and enjoyment. Extensive reading provides opportunities to practice strategies introduced during intensive reading instruction  CHARACTERISTICS OF EXTENSIVE READING The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding. Reading is its own reward. Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of the students in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Reading is individual and silent. Reading speed is usually faster than slower. Teachers orient students to the goals of the program. The teacher is a role model of a reader for the students.  EXTENSIVE READING ACTIVITIES Interview each other about their reading. Reading may be combined with a writing component. For example, after reading the newspaper, students may be asked to write a newspaper report. Class time reading Students may set their own goals for their next session. A reading log (recording number of pages read and at what level) A reflection on what they noticed about their own reading A book report or summary A retelling of part of the text  INTERACTIVE APPROACH Reader uses both bottom-up and top-down strategies simultaneously or alternately to comprehend the text. Example Reader uses top-down strategies until he/she encounters an unfamiliar word, then employs decoding skills to achieve comprehension.  WHICH MODEL SHOULD BE ADOPTED? Relying too much on either top-down or bottom-up processing may cause problems for beginning ESL/EFL readers. To develop reading abilities, both approaches should be considered, as the interactive approach suggests. We need to provide learners with shorter passages to teach specific reading skills and strategies explicitly.(Intensive R.) We also need to encourage learners to read longer texts without an emphasis on testing their skills (Extensive R).  INTERACTION (“BALANCE”) OF BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN STRATEGIES: Bottom-up strategies Top-down strategies (“phonics” (“whole language” approach) approach) ________________ ________________ Examples: Examples: decoding using background knowledge using capitalization to infer predicting proper nouns Bottom-up Top-down guessing the meaning of graded reader approach unknown words from context pattern recognition skimming /scanning  WHAT DO WE READ? AUTHENTIC TEXTS VS SIMULATED TEXTS Authentic reading materials The reading material must be the kind of material that students will need and want to be able to read when traveling, studying abroad, or using the language in other contexts. Simulated texts The materials are written esp. for language students with some language control. Simulated texts are aimed for beginner students who are probably not able to handle genuine authentic texts.  PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING READING 1. EXPLOIT THE READER’S BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE. 2. BUILD A STRONG VOCABULARY BASE. 3. TEACH FOR COMPREHENSION. 4. WORK ON INCREASING READING RATE. 5. TEACH READING STRATEGIES. 6. ENCOURAGE READERS TO TRANSFORM STRATEGIES INTO SKILLS. 7. BUILD ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION INTO YOUR TEACHING. 8. STRIVE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AS A READING TEACHER. 1.EXPLOIT THE READER’S BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Background knowledge includes all the experiences that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, knowledge of how texts can be organized rhetorically, knowledge of how one’s first language works, knowledge of how the second language works, and cultural background and knowledge. background knowledge can be activated by setting goals, asking questions, making predictions, teaching text structure, and so on. It is especially useful when students are reading an unfamiliar topic. There may be a negative influence if students have incorrect background knowledge about the topic.  AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE  Name: An anticipation guide  Purpose: to learn what the readers already know about the topic of the reading Process: ask five key questions about the content of a reading passage based on the reading skill you are trying to develop.  For example:  If you are trying to develop the readers’ ability to make inferences, prepare five inference questions. Before the students read the passage, they read the inference statements and determine whether they agree or disagree with the statement. The students then read the passage and respond a second time to the same inference statements. We expect that the students will not be able to respond correctly to the inference statements before reading the passage. But, after reading the passage, we expect that they will be able to answer the statements correctly.  2.BUILD A STRONG VOCABULARY BASE 1. What vocabulary do my learners need to know? 2. How will they learn this vocabulary? 3. How can I best test to see what they need to know and what they now know? basic vocabulary should be explicitly taught and L2 readers should be taught to use context to effectively guess the meanings of less frequent vocabulary.  AN EXAMPLE OF CULTIVATING VOCABULARY  Name: Word webs  Purpose: building students’ vocabulary skills  Process: Begin by writing a key concept in the middle of the board. Choose a concept that is central to the reading text you are about to do. Have the students work individually, in small groups, or as a class in building from the centre of the word web by adding other vocabulary that is related to the key word.  3.TEACH FOR COMPREHENSION Testing reading comprehension versus Teaching readers how to comprehend. Teach students how to monitor their comprehension processes. Use «Questioning the author» technique. This activity is to be done during the reading process, not after reading. Rather than asking questions about testing the reading comprehension, the teacher ask questions which make sense of what is being read. Some questions: What is the author trying to say here? What is the author’s message? What is the author talking about? What does the author mean here? Does the author explain this clearly?”  4.WORK ON INCREASING READING RATE Do NOT focus much on accuracy as it inhibits fluency. Do NOT focus on speed readers but fluent readers Teach readers to reduce their dependence on a dictionary. Skills such as scanning, skimming, predicting, and identifying main ideas get students to approach reading in different ways rather than focusing on unknown words.  AN EXAMPLE OF INCREASING READING RATE  Name: Repeated reading  Purpose: Increasing reading rate  Process: Students read a short passage over and over again until they achieve criterion levels of reading rate and comprehension.  For example, students may try to read a short 100-word paragraph four times in two minutes.  5.TEACH READING STRATEGIES Sts need to learn how to use a range of reading strategies that match their purposes for reading. Teaching sts how to do this should be the major consideration in a reading classroom. Strategic reading means not only knowing what strategy to use but knowing how to use and integrate a range of strategies. A good technique to teach reading strategies is to get students talk about thought processes as they read. Students can listen to other students who has just read the same material and learn how others have done to get meaning from a passage. In this way, students become more aware of their reading strategies and have the ability to describe reading strategies. STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING READING SKILLS Previewing --reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection Predicting --using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content Skimming and scanning-- using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions Guessing from context--using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up Distinguish between literal and implied meanings Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships Paraphrasing--stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text AN EXAMPLE OF VERIFYING READING STRATEGIES  Name: Think-aloud protocols  Purpose: get learners to identify the strategies that they use while reading  Process: ask readers to respond verbally to five questions. 1. What are you trying to accomplish? 2. What strategy(ies) are you using? 3. Why did you select this/these strategy (ies)? 4. How well is/are the strategy (ies) working? 5. What other strategy(ies) could you use to accomplish your purpose? Responses to these five questions allow the readers to share with each other a wide range of strategies available for comprehending reading material.  6.ENCOURAGE READERS TO TRANSFORM STRATEGIES INTO SKILLS Strategies are conscious actions whereas a skill is a strategy that has become automatic. As learners consciously learn and practice specific reading strategies, the strategies move from conscious to unconscious; from strategy to skill.  HOW TO PROMOTE READING STRATEGIES?  By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.  By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.  By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.  By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.  When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language.  7.BUILD ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION INTO YOUR TEACHING Assess growth and development in reading skills. Both quantitative and qualitative assessment activities should be included in the reading classroom. Quantitative assessment ----- reading comprehension tests, reading rate tests. Qualitative information -----reading journal responses, reading interest surveys, and responses to reading strategy checklists. AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO EVALUATE PROGRESS Name: Reading journals Purpose: to evaluate reading progress. Process: Students make a journal entry each day. They respond to different questions based on different areas of focus they are working on in class. One day I may ask the students to engage in a repeated reading activity and then record in their reading journal what they have learned about their reading rate after doing the activity. On another day I may ask the students to do a written protocol and record the strategies they have used while reading during a homework assignment. The reading journal helps the students see the progress they are making in class. 8.STRIVE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AS A READING TEACHER Reading teachers need to be passionate about their work Success depends on the teachers  SOME MORE PRINCIPLES The selected texts and attached tasks should be accessible to the students. Task should be clearly given in advance. Tasks should be designed to encourage selective and intelligent reading for the main meaning rather than test the students’ understanding of trivial details. Tasks should help develop students’ reading skills and strategies rather than test their reading comprehension. Teachers should help the students not merely to cope with one particular text in front of them but with their reading strategies and reading ability in general. Teachers should help the students to read on their own so that they eventually become independent readers.  THE THREE STAGES OF READING The three stages are pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading. They are very important when teaching any reading text. Each of these stages has its own characteristics, although they are related to one another. That is, the pre-reading stage leads to the while-reading stage and finally to the post-reading one. These stages make the student understand and comprehend text reading.  PRE-READING ACTIVITIES The purpose of pre-reading (sometimes also called Lead-in) is to facilitate while-reading activities. predicting, setting the scene, skimming, scanning  PREDICTING Predicting will get the reader’s mind closer to the theme of the text. Ways of predicting: predicting based on the title, predicting based on vocabulary, predicting based on the T/F questions  PREDICTING BASED ON THE TITLE A Nation of Pet-Lovers Save the Jungle: Save the World Police Hunt for Child  If the students are not good at predicting, the teacher can help them by asking certain questions. Text 1: What is a pet? What are pets for? Why do people love pets? Are there any problems with pets? Text 2: What is a jungle? Where can you find jungles? What do you think has happened to the jungle? Text 3: What happened to the child? How do you think the parents would feel? What could the police do?  PREDICTING BASED ON VOCABULARY  Having made predictions based on the title, students can be asked to predict some lexical items that they think are likely to occur in the text. Then the students read the text to confirm their predictions.  A variation of this prediction activity is that the teacher provides students with a list of words, and asks the students to predict which of the words are used in the text, and to read the text and confirm their predictions. PREDICTING BASED ON THE T/F QUESTIONS  e.g. Reading “How to behave at a job interview”  SETTING THE SCENE Setting the scene means getting the students familiarised with the cultural and social background knowledge relevant to the reading text. The culture-bound aspect of the text can start at the beginning with the title. e.g.: All Greek to me  SKIMMING Skimming means reading quickly to get the gist, i.e. the main idea of the text. Some suggestions:  Ask general questions. e.g. “Why did the writer write the article?”  Ask the students to choose a statement from 3-4 statements.  Ask the students to put subtitles for different parts of the text into the right order. HEADINGS: WHERE CAN WE PUT IT?  HEADINGS  Text :Top tips for telephone English  Confirming Action  If you're looking for a challenging situation to  Greetings practice your English, just pick up the telephone. Not being able to see the person you're talking to  Interrupting without insult and the body language they're using can make  Closing the call chatting on the phone one of the most difficult forms of communication. Never fear, though!  Getting to the point We've compiled some tips to guide you through an average telephone conversation in English.  WHICH HEADING SHOULD BE HERE?  Every phone call should begin  There always comes the point, however, with a polite greeting such as, Hi, where you want to move on from how've you been? or Nice to hear friendly banter and get down to business. For this situation, use the phrase I'm just from you. Even if you're calling a calling to... to transition to the topic at business contact for a specific hand. For example, I'm just calling to see purpose, it'd be rude to jump if you'd like to set up a meeting. If the right into business without a little situation is reversed, however, and you small talk at the beginning. are waiting to find out why someone called you, you can guide the conversation by saying, So what can I do for you?  WHICH HEADING SHOULD BE HERE? If you happen to be speaking with a very  Sometimes this can be the trickiest part of the talkative person, it may be difficult to get a conversation! It may be the time to offer some word in edgewise or contribute to the conversation. If someone is going on and on, good wishes, such as good luck on that and you'd like to interrupt, be sure to do it interview or hope you feel better soon if it's politely. For example, begin with I would like to appropriate. Additionally, you may want to say something here, if I may or Allow me to make a point. Or, you could just ask: May I interrupt confirm any plans you've made: I'll see you on you for a second? Friday, then. Sometimes it's easiest to just say If you're making plans on the phone, be sure you enjoyed speaking to the other person. to confirm the details toward the end of the call. Also, keep in mind that strategically saying Begin with phrases like Please let me confirm... the word well at the beginning of a sentence and So, let me make sure I've got things straight... can indicate that you are ready to end the and follow up with the details as you understand them. conversation: Well John, it's been a pleasure talking to you.  SCANNING Scanning means to read to locate specific information. The key point in scanning is that the reader has something in his mind and he or she should ignore the irrelevant parts when reading. Questions for a scanning activity are often about specific information. We can also ask students to scan for vocabulary. We can pre-teach some words within the semantic area of the theme. This does not mean that we are teaching reading following a Bottom-up model, because the schema of content is activated after the students have scanned the text. We can also ask students to scan for certain structures, e.g. tense forms, discourse connectors, particular sentence structures SOMETHING TO BEAR IN MIND WHEN CONDUCTING SCANNING Set a time limit. Give clear instructions. Wait until 70% of the students finish. Make clear how you are going to get feedback. Answers to the scanning questions should be scattered throughout the text rather than clustered at one place.  WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES While-reading activities focus on the process of understanding rather than the result of reading. Information transfer activities Reading comprehension questions Understanding references Making inferences INFORMATION TRANSFER ACTIVITIES USING TRANSITION DEVICES Transition device: A way to transfer information from one form, e.g. the text form, to another, e.g. a visual form. Sophisticated Transition Device Output Input (SI) (TD) (OP) Transition devices can be used to make information in text form effectively processed and retained.  SOME TRANSITION DEVICES Pictures, drawings, maps, tables, tree diagrams, cyclic diagrams, pie charts, bar charts, flow charts, chronological sequence, subtitles (providing subtitles), notes (taking notes while reading), etc  EXAMPLES OF USING TRANSITION DEVICES Example 1 :Read the following passage and complete the table, which compares the two earthquakes. At 5:13 on the morning of April 18th, 1906, they city of San Francisco was shaken by a terrible earthquake. A great part of the city was destroyed and a large number of buildings were burnt. The umber of people who lost their homes reached as many as 250 000. About 700 people died in the earthquake and the fires. Another earthquake shook San Francisco on October 17th, 1989. It was America’s second strongest earthquake and about 100 people were killed. It happened in the evening as people were travelling home. A wide and busy road, which was built like a bridge over another road, fell onto the one below. Many people were killed in the cars, but a few lucky ones were not hurt. Luckily the 1989 earthquake did not happen in the centre of town but about 50 kilometres away. In one part of the town a great may buildings were destroyed. These buildings were over 50 years old, so they were not strong enough. There were a lot of fires all over the city. The electricity was cut of for several days too.  EXAMPLES OF USING TRANSITION DEVICES Example 1 :Read the following passage and complete the table, which compares the two earthquakes.  EXAMPLES OF USING TRANSITION DEVICES It is important that students fill in the table while they are reading rather than after they finish reading. Then a follow-up output activity can be conducted based on the results. e.g.: The teacher can ask questions like “Which earthquake caused more damage and why?” EXAMPLE 2- EXAMPLES OF USING TRANSITION DEVICES  SUMMARY ON TRANSITION DEVICES The purposes of TDs: Focus on the main meaning. Simplify sophisticated input. Allow students to perform while reading. Highlight the main structural organization, and show how the structure relates to meaning. Involve all students. Go step by step. Conduct follow-up activities for oral and written output.  READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS Questions for literal comprehension. (Answers directly and explicitly available in the text) Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation. (Require Ss to obtain literal information from various parts of the text and put it together or reinterpret it) Questions for inferences. (what is not explicitly stated but implied)- Questions for evaluation or appreciation. (making a judgement about the text in terms of what the writer is trying to convey) Questions for personal responses. (reader’s reaction to the content of the text)  UNDERSTANDING REFERENCES  All natural language, spoken or written, uses referential word such as pronouns to refers to people or things already mentioned previously in the context.  MAKING INFERENCES  Making inferences means “reading between the lines”, which requires the reader to use background knowledge in order to infer the implied meaning of the author.  e.g. What can you infer from the following?  Blandida is a country which has every climatic condition known to man.  When she came into the room, the large crowd grew silent.  The painting had been in the family for years, but sadly Bill realised he would have to sell it.  POST-READING ACTIVITIES  Post-reading tasks should provide the students with opportunities to relate what they have read to what they already know or what they feel.  In addition, post-reading task should enable students to produce language based on what they have learned.  For example: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS  Do you think he was a good doctor?  How do you think the young man felt? REPRODUCING THE TEXT Tell part of the story from these prompts:  A doctor – village – annoyed.  People – stop – street – advice.  Never paid – never – money – made up his mind – put and end  ROLE PLAY 1.Act out the conversation between the doctor and the young man. 2. Act out an interview between a journalist and the doctor. GAP-FILLING One day the doctor ________ by a young man. The doctor _________ to be interested. He felt the young man __________ in the street with his tongue ______ out.  RETELLING  The teacher provides the students the key words and phrases and students retell the story according to these words. Or the teacher asks the students to retell the story from another character's point of view.  WRITING  Writing based on what the students have read, e.g. producing a tourist brochure, an advertisement, a short summary, etc. ACTIVITIES  CONCLUSION The teaching of reading should focus on developing students’ reading skills and strategies rather than testing students’ reading comprehension. We should view reading as an interactive process. Reading in the classroom can be divided into 3 stages: pre- reading activities, while-reading activities, and post-reading activities. ANY QUESTIONS