Brief Guidance on Reading Teaching

【Abstract】： The paper discussed the principles and the criteria of the design of reading class and questions about reading comprehension exercises， methods applicable to different levels of subjects and how to carry out appropriate activities to language learners of different level have been stressed. A study on reading teaching can provide the teachers with some helpful teaching models and strategies.

【Key words】： reading teaching; teaching guidance; teaching strategies; English teaching

Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. However， different reading strategies are required for different readings and different teaching methods are required for different tasks and for language learners of different levels. This paper aims to provide some guidance on reading teaching.

1. Principles of Reading Teaching

The principles of teaching reading are shown as follows.

（1）Design tasks before students read.

It is more effective to read with tasks. This requires teachers to carefully design some tasks before they start the actual reading teaching. The tasks should be designed to encourage selective and intelligent reading for the central meaning.

（2）Introduce effective reading techniques.

Students have many difficulties in their reading such as not knowing how to find the main ideas， how to speed up their reading， how to judge the author’s attitudes， and how to infer things from the context. Because of these difficulties， the teacher ought to introduce reading techniques to students by means of discussion.

There are many kinds of reading and the main ways of reading are as followed： （1） skimming and scanning： Skimming means quickly running one’s eyes over a text to get the gist of it， while scanning refers to quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of information. （2） extensive reading and intensive reading： extensive reading is usually for one’s own pleasure and the reading texts are longer. This is more a fluency activity， mainly involving global understanding， while intensive reading is usually for extracting specific information. This is more an accuracy activity involving reading for detail. Two types of distinction show some similarities. Students need to know different techniques and types in cultivating their good ability to read efficiently and joyfully. These different ways of reading are not mutually exclusive. For instance， one often skims through a passage to see what it is about before deciding whether it is worth scanning a particular paragraph for the information one is looking for.

（3）Avoid explaining sentence after sentence.

It is unnecessary for the teacher to explain one sentence after another in reading classes. Students will learn to understand the whole passage by practicing reading from the context and by discussing with other students.

（4）Assign homework.

The teaching hours are very limited in class and the teacher should assign students some tasks after class to read on their own so that they can develop to be independent learners gradually.

（5）The material taught must be interesting and instructive.

The selected texts should be accessible to students. If the texts are interesting and instructive， students will enjoy reading the materials and they can produce better results in their reading.

2. Research on reading comprehension exercises

There are a number of considerations to be borne in mind when producing or using reading comprehension exercises.

（1） Materials have concentrated on the sentence and units smaller than the sentences. It was assumed that a text was a succession of separate sentences thematically related and that is was necessary merely to deal with the structure and meaning of the sentences. But， if reading is to be efficient， the structure of longer units such as the paragraph or the whole text must be understood. It is no good studying a text as though it were a series of independent units. This would only lead the students to become dependent on understanding every single sentence in a text， even when this is not necessary to fulfill their reading purposes， and as a result students would tend to read all texts at the same speed and to be reluctant to infer the meaning of sentences or paragraphs from what comes before or after.

（2）One should start with global understanding and then more towards detailed understanding rather than working the other way round. （3）It is important to use authentic texts whenever possible. （4）Reading comprehension should not be separated from the other skills. （5）Reading is an active skill. It constantly involves guessing， predicting， checking and asking oneself questions. （6）The reading comprehension exercise should be flexible and varied. （7）The aim of the exercises must be clearly defined and a clear distinction must be made between teaching and testing.

Several types of exercises can be used to develop students reading skills. These questions-types can have two different functions： （1） to clarify the organization of the passage. The questions can be about the function of the passage; the general organization; the rhetorical organization （contrast and comparison）;the cohesive devices （link-words）; and the relations （derivation， morphology， hyponymy）; （2） to clarify the contents of the passage. The questions can be about plain fact; implied fact; deduced meaning; and evaluation. Questions are suppose to be sequenced from easy to difficult. There are several different question types： yes-no questions， tag questions， then true/1 questions， wh-questions， and multiple-choice questions. If students are quite advanced， they should be required to formulate the questions themselves. This will contribute substantially to furthering their understanding of texts.

In real life， our reading purposes constantly vary and therefore， when devising exercises， we should vary the questions and the activities according to the type of text studied， the purpose in reading it， and the different levels of subjects. Tasks designed to good readers are shown as follows. A good reader understands a new word by carefully reading the author’s definition. At this stage， the teacher should be most inventive or imaginative. He has to design some tasks which are relevant to the text being studies and appropriate to the students’ level. Some exercises are listed as follows： （1） Discussion; （2） Reproducing the text; The teacher provides key words and phrases and students retell the story according to these words. Or the teacher asks students to retell the story form another character’s point of view. （3）Role-play; （4） Gap-filling; （5） Writing; Students are asked to write something based on what they have read. There are many potential writing tasks： producing an advertisement for a product， rewriting a story， writing a short summary and so on.

3. Teaching Approaches

3.1 Traditional reading teaching methods of foreign language

There are four types of methods introduced in this part. They are reading aloud， listen and read （listen while read amp;listen then read）， questions and answers， and reading through pictures.

Reading aloud means reading the texts aloud in the classroom. It is a feasible way to carry out the reading teaching because reading aloud the texts can facilitate the students to hear good combination of sound and meaning. Reading aloud can enhance students’ comprehension of linguistic meanings and can also serve as a way to check students’ reading ability. However， traditional English teaching put much emphasis on reading aloud， as a consequence， most of students show a lack of active and logic thinking.

The method of “Listen and Read” can be classified into two subcategories. They are “l(fā)isten while read” and “l(fā)isten then read”. The method of “Listen while Read” is applicable to the beginners. Listening while reading helps improve the ability in reading comprehension and also the reading speed. The reader sets as a good example for the students on the pronunciation， intonation， stress， meaningful segments. And the reader also controls the reading speed， and helps them form a beneficial reading habit. It is also applicable to the higher level learners as it is an enjoyment to listen and read beautiful articles. However， the time in the class is limited， and these activities need to be arranged in the homework. “Listen then Read”， this method is based on the audio-lingual approach. The purpose is to enforce what they have heard through reading process. By this method， for the same material， the knowledge gained is more solidified.

Then follow the method of “Questions and Answers”. This method involves facts-finding and is aimed at solidifying the comprehension. It is one of the most commonly used methods in reading teaching. There are some advantages. For students， it can activate students’ thinking on certain issues and for teachers， it can help the teacher gather useful feedback to make progress in their teaching practices.

The last one introduced is “Reading through pictures”. This method can be carried out in the primary， secondary and tertiary levels depending on the difficulty of the pictures or charts. There is a need to make distinguishes between reading through pictures and reading the pictures. The former is to better understand the texts through the help of pictures. The latter is the task for students to express their understanding about the pictures.

3.2 Modern reading teaching methods of foreign language

There are four types of methods introduced in this part. They are silent reading， teaching reading based on schema theory， stepping method for cultivating students’ reading ability （such as predicting and reasoning），and teaching reading strategies.

Silent reading is voiceless. Usually， reading is carried out silently. It is used when the students need to finish certain reading tasks in the classes. The reading time and purposes are restrained by the teachers. The student-centered reading teaching practices respect the different personalities and features shown in their studies. Therefore， the silent reading method gives time for them to think individually. The time in silent reading is either short or long and the task can be either easy or hard. It can be flexibly used in carrying out reading activities.

The method of teaching reading based on schema theory argues that there are three kinds of knowledge concerning reading comprehension. They are general world knowledge， structure knowledge and social cultural knowledge.

Stepping method is aimed to facilitate students to take in new linguistic knowledge gradually. It highly recommends students to make predictions， or deductions on the texts. This method can inspire students to think actively.

4. Research on Choosing Materials for Subjects of Different Levels

There are debates on how do teachers encourage their students to do outside English reading and guide them to choose the appropriate materials. At the beginner’s level， the main aim is to get students used to reading in the target language. They will need to read simplified books since their language skills are still not good enough and bilingual dictionaries are likely to be most efficient. At the intermediate level， students need to begin to tackle English writing in the original language. At this stage， short stories， novels， and plays are usually the best. What works well is to have students read a book they have already read in their mother tongue. Adventure and mystery stories often have lively and natural dialogues， non- specialized vocabulary， and not too complicated grammar. At the advanced level， students are encouraged to read English magazines， newspapers and long novels.

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