Week 9 Dealing With Texts: Selecting Reading Texts PDF
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Uploaded by SuitablePhiladelphia
2019
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Summary
This document provides guidelines for selecting appropriate reading materials for ESL students. It emphasizes the importance of considering factors such as the suitability of text content, its exploitability, readability, and presentation. The document highlights the need to engage students by selecting texts that pique their interest, represent materials they will need after school, and cater to varied levels of proficiency. It also emphasizes that texts should be chosen with the purpose of the reading lesson in mind, and how language is used to convey the content, as well as real-life applications. Furthermore, it mentions integrating reading skills, such as flexible reading techniques, and tackling unfamiliar vocabulary and structures.
Full Transcript
DEALING WITH TEXTS: SELECTING TEXTS GV3224: TEACHING OF READING IN AN ESL CONTEXT Criteria in Choosing Texts In choosing texts for your reading class, you need to consider the following criteria: Suitability of content Exploitability Readability Variety Authe...
DEALING WITH TEXTS: SELECTING TEXTS GV3224: TEACHING OF READING IN AN ESL CONTEXT Criteria in Choosing Texts In choosing texts for your reading class, you need to consider the following criteria: Suitability of content Exploitability Readability Variety Authenticity Presentation 2 Suitability of Content Choose texts which will interest students. Make reading more rewarding. Make class work seem more effective. Find out what interest students – what they like. 3 Suitability of Content… Conduct a survey with the students. What books do they read in the L1? Observe what books students borrow from the library. Monitor the “titles” you have chosen – be prepared to change to new ones if students are not reading them. 4 Suitability of Content… Choose texts YOU yourself find interesting and want to read. Texts chosen should also represent the type of materials they need to read once they leave school. 5 Exploitability The term means “facilitation of learning”. Exploiting a text is to make use of it to develop students’ competence as readers. We need to consider the purpose of exploiting the text. 6 Exploitability… The purpose of the reading lesson. Is reading taught to teach language? Students learn better when the focus is on meaning and on the purpose of the text (learning how language works when it is used). 7 Exploitability… In a reading lesson, the main aim is not on teaching language. Texts are not chosen to teach content – math, biology, or economics. An addition of knowledge is an incidental bonus. 8 Exploitability… Focus is on both content and language – how language is used to convey content. Our aim is to help develop independent readers. We develop readers who are able to interpret strategies that can be applied across texts. 9 Exploitability… Integrating reading skills When choosing texts, we need to be clear how we can exploit the text to help develop interpretive strategies. Some of these skills include: 1. Strategies in using flexible techniques: variations in reading rate; skimming, scanning; study reading 10 Exploitability… 2. Strategies of using information that is not part of a linear text: reference; graphic conventions; figures; diagrams 3. Word attack skills: tackling unfamiliar lexical items by using morphology; inference from context; a dictionary 11 Exploitability… 4. Text attack skills: interpreting the text as a whole; using all clues available for top-down and bottom-up strategies including cohesion and rhetorical structure. 12 Let’s rest your eyes… 13 Exploitability… It is important to consider texts that can help students practice the individual skills, but also for the outcomes and follow-up work to integrate the skills. i.e. to use the skill of making sense of text. 14 Exploitability… Simulating real-life purposes Using authentic texts can be motivating because language is used for real-life purposes. If the text is used only as an academic exercise, we will not be able to sustain interest. 15 Exploitability… What would the text be used for in the real situation? e.g. functional texts: those with a clear practical purpose --- straightforward purpose such as a travel brochure to help plan a holiday; a magazine to choose a camera; a set of directions guiding one to a place 16 Exploitability… Such texts help integrate many skills --- discussion leading to a group holiday plan or choice of camera; a map showing how to get to a place 17 Exploitability… Longer texts Longer texts allow practice of strategies such as prediction, reference skills, scanning, skimming Longer texts allow for meaning to be related to a wider context and to explore the details in which the author achieves certain effects. 18 Readability Refers to the combination of structural and lexical difficulty. Before deciding on the right level of texts for the students, we need to first consider the level of the students. 19 Readability… Assessing the students’ level – Consider the vocabulary and structures students are familiar with. Graded cloze tests can be used to find out about students’ knowledge of words and structures. 20 Readability… The different range of levels can be solved by having materials for extensive reading. New vocabulary can be introduced once you know the approximate range of vocabulary your students know. 21 Readability… Readability also involves structural difficulty. Sentence length and complexity can be a problem. Experienced teachers often can gauge the right level for students. 22 Break Time… 23 Readability… You can also use readability formulas to assess the difficulty level of reading texts. Readability indices are only rough guides. 24 Readability… Cloze tests can be used to determine the difficulty level of texts. Students are expected to score abut 45 % on a cloze extract. For independent reading, texts chosen should be easier e.g. 60% Additional Notes: All about Readability 25 Variety A variety of texts should be used in reading lessons throughout the year. Using familiar or topical texts – texts on a single topic – has advantages too. Vocabulary can be recycled. 26 Authenticity Authentic texts are real texts used for the target native speakers and not for language learners. Using real texts help demonstrate the use of language in true discourse. Simplified texts often lack the characteristics of authentic texts. Making everything explicit may not provide students with the strategies such as making inferences etc. 27 Presentation Texts chosen must look authentic and attractive to the readers. Authentic texts help provide the context in which the texts appear. This helps make the function of the text clear and helps students see how the text is used. 28 29 Guidelines for Choosing Texts for Classroom Study When choosing texts for classroom study, consider the following factors: 1. Will the text do the following: Tell Ss things they don’t already know 30 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… Introduce new and relevant ideas making Ss think about things they have not thought of before Help Ss understand the way others feel or think 31 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… Make Ss want to read for themselves. 32 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… 2. Does the text challenge the Ss’ intelligence without unreasonable demand on their use of language? 33 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… 3. Is the language natural or distorted by numerous teaching items? 4. Does the language reflect written or spoken usage? 34 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… 5. If there are new lexical items, are they worth learning at this stage, and not too numerous. 6. Is the text too explicit? 35 Guidelines for choosing texts for classroom study… 7. Does the text lend itself to intensive study? 36 That’s all for now! THANK YOU! (Hey Goodlooking…) 37
