> getting the students to handle 'real-life' texts which they will have to manage at work or on holiday or on the net
Firstly, what makes these texts 'difficult'?
Helping ESL students understand written texts
Challenges for ELLs in Content Area Learning
Here are some tips on how to manage these difficult texts:
What Skillful Readers Can Do
There are three characteristics skillful readers have when they read expository texts: activation of their background knowledge, making inferences, and possession of rich experience.Activation of Background Knowledge
When skillful readers happen upon information or words they have not learned, they activate their background knowledge to relate the new information or words to previously acquired information or word knowledge. Even when they simply read passages, they can bring out connected information as much as possible from their prior knowledge. For example, while reading a text about fish, they tap their schemata to gather information regarding fish, such as types of fish, places they live, and their characteristics. Making associations with the text information helps them understand the text. On the other hand, struggling readers do not connect new information or words to old by making use of their background knowledge. This isolates struggling readers and causes increased difficulty.Making Inferences
Readers have to read between the lines and relate the text information that has a less explicit explanation to their existing knowledge for better comprehension. The use of background knowledge assists readers to grasp the content of expository texts, as they can refer to their prior knowledge in order to fill in gaps between old and new information. On the other hand, struggling readers have no idea what to do when they read a text because their critical thinking does not get involved in their reading process. They either keep reading without understanding much of what is written, or stop reading when they think they cannot understand any further.Possession of Rich Experience
Another aspect of skillful readers is that they have rich experience; whereas, struggling readers generally lack experience and fail to establish their vocabulary knowledge or reading understanding. For example, if readers have a variety of experience with animals, it is less complicated for them to categorize animals, understand their characteristics, and learn new vocabulary related to animals. Reading can be more concrete to them because they know, or at least can guess, what a text is talking about. However, struggling readers who have less experience with animals may have a hard time understanding the content and making inferences from unfamiliar information in texts, for they do not have prior knowledge with which to make any connections.Suggested Strategies
There are some strategies that are recommended to develop a reader's vocabulary base and activate background knowledge for better understanding of expository texts.Use of Transition Words
It is beneficial for readers to learn and practice recognizing key and clue words. If a text contains transition words such as “first,” “second,” and “third,” readers know this text structure is listing some concepts or events in order. When readers know contradictory key words including “however,” “but,” and “on the other hand,” they know they are going to read something opposed to the information they have just read. Additional clue words like “moreover,” “in addition,” and “also,” assist readers in expecting that they will gain extra facts or concepts related to the information they have read so far, or in understanding that the sentences they are about to read will describe events, concepts, or facts before these particular transition words. In sum, learning to spot major and clue words aids readers to read the text clearly.Organizing Text Information
Awareness of text pattern is indispensable for readers (Peregoy, & Boyle, 2001). Since expository texts contain specific text structure, it is useful for readers to know each text frame. If readers know they are reading passages that compare and contrast two things, events, or concepts, they can categorize information into appropriate groups. Koda (2005) points out the effectiveness of teaching how texts are organized by using first language experiences or knowledge. Reading a text with the understanding of its text framework helps readers organize information. This facilitates their reading comprehension.Establishing Vocabulary Knowledge
Because expository texts tend to have complicated vocabularies, it is essential for readers to develop their vocabulary knowledge. Understanding new vocabulary should be meaningful to them. Memorizing new words without connecting them to readers' schemata may work in their short term memory. However, if readers learn unfamiliar vocabulary by associating it with something they already know, it is more effective for them to capture its meaning and store its information in their long term memory.Semantic mapping is a graphic display that shows clusters of related words. Readers write down a key word or concept from their reading in the middle of a sheet, then add and connect linked information or terms from their prior knowledge. Relating words to their existing knowledge is important (Vacca, J. L., Vocca, R. T., Gove, M. K., Burkey, L., Lenhart, L. A., & McKeon, C., 2003). This facilitates readers to connect their old and new information, which requires them to activate their background knowledge and cognitive processes.
Another approach for establishing vocabulary knowledge is making a “vocabulary card bank.” On an index card, readers write a new word, its definition, and an original sentence using the new term (not just copying a sentence from a dictionary), as well as some pictures that can trigger them to remember the new vocabulary. This gets the readers involved in relating new vocabulary to their existing knowledge. In short, associating new terms with meaningful information is significant for readers to develop their vocabulary knowledge.
Iwai - Developing ESL/EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension in Expository Texts (TESL/TEFL)
How can we practice?
Here's a nice lesson plan on how to use job adverts:
Teaching Reading with Authentic Materials, ESL lesson
Here's Scott Thornbury reminding us on using gist:
reading for gist | An A-Z of ELT
And here are some classic approaches:
3 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
12 Comments
How do you deal with reading lessons in your ESL classroom? Do you have your students read silently in class? Do you assign the reading for homework? Many of the ESL-Library lessons have a reading component to them. How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive, communicative, and fun? I wanted to share three methods that have always worked well for me.
1) SUMMARIZE
This method incorporates many skills: reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and writing. Students must thoroughly analyze and understand a section of the reading, and only by working together can they understand the entire reading.
Instructions:
Instructions:
- First, assign a paragraph of the reading to each student. If you have a lot of students, assign the paragraph to a pair of students instead.
- Explain that each student (or pair) will be responsible for relating the information from their paragraph in their own words.
- Have students silently read through their paragraphs.
- If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer to have them give an oral, and more natural, summary.
- To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have each student (or pair) choose 3-5 vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with.
- Have each student (or pair) define their vocabulary words (via a dictionary: English-to-English is best) and write out each definition in their own words.
- Get each student to write down an example sentence for each word; this will ensure that they’ve truly understood the word.
- Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have each student (or pair) present their vocabulary and their summaries (in the order of the original reading).
- Then, in pairs or as a class, answer the comprehension questions and correct them before you let the students see the entire reading.
Many of the ESL-Library lessons are formatted in short paragraphs that are ideal for using this method (for example, in Famous People, Famous Places, Famous Things, Holidays, etc.). I usually have students write their words and definitions on the board for their classmates to see and copy down, but I get students to read their example sentences out loud as it usually takes too long to have them write those out, too.
2) CUT UP & REARRANGE
This works best for short readings or dialogues. This method ensures that students think very carefully about the meaning of each sentence.
Instructions:
Instructions:
- Divide students into small groups or pairs.
- Hand out a cut-up version of the story or dialogue.
- Have students try to arrange the sentences in order. It helps to tell them which sentence is first.
- Encourage them to tell each other why they think a particular sentence comes next.
- Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences that are not in the correct position. (It helps if you bring the original around with you for easy reference.)
- To make it fun, you could have a prize for the team or pair that finishes first.
ESL-Library has a whole section with dialogues that are all ready to cut up! Check out our Traveling in English section.
3) READ OUT LOUD
This technique easily turns a reading exercise into a listening exercise for a bit of variety. Students listen to you, the teacher, read aloud as a class activity.
Instructions:
Instructions:
- First, read through the comprehension questions as a class.
- Read the story out loud.
- Give students a few minutes to answer what questions they can.
- Read the story out loud a second time.
- Give students a bit more time to answer the questions. Then correct them as a class (and hand out the reading for reference or self-study, if desired).
Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and have students try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order to incorporate some speaking. To make it even more communicative, higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud to the other, then try to answer the questions together. If students are reading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation as needed, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as a class at the end of the activity.
Share
What are some other ways to make reading lessons interactive that work well for you? It would be great if we could share our preferred methods in the comment section below!
Read on, my friends, read on… Tanya
3 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive | ESL Library Blog
Here's an interesting academic study:
Authentic Materials in English as Second Language (ESL) Classroom | Noor Raihan Binti Ahmad - Academia.edu
.
.
.