Teaching Reading Strategies to Students who Study Foreign Languages (discussion part 2)

Haloo, as I mentioned in the previous post, this time I will continue the next stage of the learning method, they are During Reading Activities and Post-reading Activities. Happy reading :)

During Reading Activities

1.    The Text (as a whole class)

This activity shows students how the text is arranged to reach the genre. At this stage, the teacher guides the class in discussing text features. Then, the teacher tells students that the language features that are typical of the genre are as follows:

• Material processes in past tense are employed to retell what happened in the past. 

• Verbal processes are used to project the comment by expert in sources stage. 

• Many circumstances are applied to tell when, where, and how the events happened.

2.    Stop and Think (in pairs)

The teacher asks students to read the text in pairs and asks them to discuss what they have just read, paraphrase it, identifying the main ideas, and make questions from the text in pairs.

3.    Reciprocal Teaching (as a whole class)

At this stage, the whole class discusses to produce questions, make summaries, predict and clarify the text. The teacher monitors student performance and confirms whether students can use new vocabulary, express ideas and concepts, and connect ideas related to the text.

4.    Finding the Main Idea (as a whole class)

The teacher asks students to find the main ideas in the paragraph or the entire text.

5.    Signal Words (as a whole class)

The signal word is used to indicate a particular text pattern and to show how these words function in the text. For example, 'so' indicates cause and effect. Teaching these words and their functions can give the reader a new or different idea to understand the text.

6.    Key Words (as a whole class)

The teacher asks students to identify key words to distinguish important words from less important words in the text by asking the following questions:

• What was the event? 

• When did the event occur? 

• Where did the event occur? 

• Who was involved in the event? 

• How did the event occur? 

• Why did the event occur? 

7.    Developing Data Banks (as a whole class)

The teacher asks students to write important words and often appear in student notebooks to help develop their vocabulary.

Post-reading Activities

1.    Cloze Passages (as a whole class)

This activity is designed to help students (readers) develop vocabulary, understand cohesion in the text, and investigate the text further.

2.    Comprehension Questions (individual)

Comprehension questions are asked to students to confirm their understanding of the contents of the entire text. The teacher prepares a question sheet that contains various questions for each student to do individually. The question is:

a.  True or False Questions

    - Computer training is offered on the trains.  True or False? 

    - The training is offered on morning trains.  True or False? 

b. Alternative Questions

    - Was the first lesson on March 26 or March 30? 

    - Was the first lesson English or Russian?   

c. WH-questions

    - How many languages are taught on the trains? 

    - Why are the lessons given on the trains? 

After students complete this activity, the teacher checks their answers together in the class to confirm their understanding of the context before moving on to the next activity.

3.    Compare Ideas (in pairs)

The teacher asks students to make a chart to ask questions to their partners and fill in their answers on the chart. Example:

4.    Discussion (as a whole class)

Discussing topics helps students (readers) to connect text themes to their experiences and develop their understanding. Examples of questions are:

• Do you want to study language on trains?  Why? 

• Do you think language training on trains is a good idea?  Why? 

The answers to these questions are not in the text. Therefore, students must use their own ideas to answer questions about the topic.

Thus the stages of this learning method, I hope that it will be useful for you guys ^_^

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Teaching Reading Strategies to Students who Study Foreign Languages (discussion part 1)

       

          Hello, this time I will continue my review of the journal "Teaching Reading Strategies to Students who Study Foreign Language". Check it out :)

      As I mentioned in the previous post, the learning methods used in reading teaching strategies are whole class activities, group activities, pairing activities, and independent activities. Teaching materials used in this learning method are articles from graded-down for non-native speakers, texts printed on large sheets used for whole class activities, and handouts given to students for group activities, pairing activities and independent activities.

          The stages of the above learning methods are divided into Pre-reading Activities, During Reading Activities, and Post-reading Activities. In this post, I will discuss the first stage, Pre-reading Activities. In this stage, there are several learning steps, including:

1. Setting the Purpose of Reading (as a whole class)

   The teacher explains the purpose of reading to students for example to learn new information, get overall ideas from text, etc. Then, the teacher introduces the necessary reading strategies (skimming, scanning, etc.).

2. Signpost questions (as a whole class)

  The teacher asks questions to motivate and activate the students' background knowledge. Example:

- How do you come / go to school / work? (By bus, bicycle, or on foot?)

- Where do you study English? (At school, home, library or elsewhere?)

3. Prediction Activities (as a whole class)

   The teacher only shows the title of the text (and photos if available) then asks students to predict the topic based on questions or prior knowledge and the title of the text. Next, the teacher can ask questions such as:

- Who was the text written for?

- What style of language might be used?

     Active participation from students is encouraged to take advantage of their knowledge background so that it can help their reading comprehension. Therefore, the three activities above must be carried out in order to come up with as many ideas as possible.

4. Skimming (in groups)

   The teacher shows all the text printed on large sheets that are placed on the board for students. Then, the teacher asks several questions such as:

- What is the text about?

- What is the purpose of this type of text? (to provide information, to recount an event, etc.)

   Next, the teacher asks students to read the text and discuss the questions above in the group. Skimming reading strategy is introduced to get an overall picture of the text and ensure the genre of text.

5. Scanning (in groups)

   The teacher asks students to answer the questions designed in the third stage (prediction activities) then write the answers on the board. Scanning activities are introduced so that students can find the appropriate information in the text that they need to succeed in reading comprehension.

6. Breaking up the text (in groups)

    The teacher provides handouts in the form of text which is broken down into sections for each group and asks students to summarize the texts in the group. Then, the teacher asks students to present their summaries to other groups.

  Skimming, scanning, and breaking up the text were introduced as group activities to develop and confirm students' reading comprehension further. This can be useful when they will use vocabulary, explain, classify, compare, give examples, question, and say words.

7. Brain Storming (as a whole class)

  By doing this process, the teacher can confirm students' understanding by examining the answers answered in the fifth stage (scanning) and summaries reported at the sixth stage (breaking up the text).

8. Pre-teaching Important Words (as a whole class)

 Before carrying out actual reading activities, teaching new and important words is needed to help reading comprehension. That way, students can expand and connect their current knowledge and gain new knowledge. 

        That's enough for this time. Regarding the next 2 stages (During Reading Activities and Post-reading Activites) I will discuss them in the next post. See you ^_^

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