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 ^_^