The Reading Process
The Reading Objective
Reading Aloud
Specific Procedures
Reading for Comprehension
Difficulty Level of Reading Materials Introduction to Reading for Comprehension Specific Suggestions Reading Shortcuts Other Clues Looking up Words Introducing the Reading Assignment Follow-up Activities in the Classroom
Supplementary Reading
Identifying Student Difficulties
Prior to the revolution in second-language teaching in the direction of the audio-lingual approach, the major objective in language study was reading. Students, in general, studied a second language for only two years, and this objective seemed realistic. Teachers either used a reading approach per se or a grammar-translation method as a means of teaching students to read. The audio-lingual approach came about as a reaction against these past methods, which placed almost exclusive emphasis upon the written aspects of language while virtually ignoring the oral skills. These past methods, however, did not seem to be consistent with a world characterized by increasing international trade and travel and connected by almost instantaneous communication networks. In the ensuing enthusiasm for the oral skills, some teachers began to ignore reading and writing in their classrooms. Others believed that the term audio-lingual implied an exclusive concentration on listening and speaking. Because of this misunderstanding, another term, the fundamental skills
method (FSM), was coined. FSM stressed that such an imbalance was not the intention of the early proponents of the audio-lingual approach.
Reading is the skill in which the students will have the greatest ability at the end of their language study. It can be a basis for individual learning about the country and its people. It can serve as a vehicle for entering into the belles lettres of the country's present and past civilization. The ability to read will stay with them longer than the other skills, and it is the skill that will be most convenient to use. Reading remains a valid goal in the second-language classroom.
Reading is a receptive skill. In this respect, the cognitive processes involved are similar to those employed while listening. In both, the students are engaged in decoding a message rather than encoding. Both require a passive knowledge of the vocabulary and structure of the language. Reading, however, is a written skill as opposed to an oral one. Reading employs the visual sense while listening utilizes the auditory sense modality. Another difference lies in the fact that reading is a more solitary experience. Listening requires that one be able to hear someone else, but one may read alone. Thus, reading and writing are less social than the oral skills.
The preceding paragraph indicates that, as far as the mental processes and the underlying language knowledge required are concerned, the shift from listening to reading should be quite simple. Although the gap between listening and reading is not so great as that between the receptive and the productive skills, there are differences that necessitate separate practice with reading. First, the fact that a different sense modality is employed makes practice with the written word necessary. Of course, a rather phonetic language like Spanish poses fewer problems in this respect than a less phonetic language like French. Second, most other subjects in the curriculum require that much of the knowledge be gained from books. Therefore, students are more accustomed to reading than to listening, and many feel more comfortable in this phase of language acquisition than in the oral. Some have difficulty knowing what to do with their hands and eyes while concentrating on listening. Third, some students are more at ease reading a book than listening to someone speak. This reaction may be due (1) to the fact that they can reread sections they did not understand and (2) to the fact that reading can be done in relative peace and quiet as compared with listening. Too, reading allows the students to control the speed (if not the level of linguistic complexity) at which they process the content of the passage.
The goal in reading is to be able to read comfortably in the second language. The word comfortably implies that the students should reach a level at which they do not feel a conscious strain while reading. Naturally, students who spend most of their time thumbing through the dictionary while preparing an assignment have not attained a reading level consistent with the aforementioned objective. This implies that the students should acquire the ability to read, processing the content in the second language rather than immediately converting everything into their native tongue. They should not be expected to comprehend each individual element in the sentence or paragraph, but they should understand the message the writer is attempting to convey. Certainly, the content of intermediate and advanced courses should not be viewed as primarily a vehicle for forcing the students to memorize endless lists of words. Enlarging the learner's vocabulary is not synonymous with increasing reading fluency.
In order to attain this objective, the teacher has the responsibility, as in the other language skills, of leading the students from their state of knowledge at the beginning of the sequence to the desired goals. As with the other language skills, this objective is both overall and specific. The goal of the course is to be able to read without concentrating on structure or translating into their own language. The goal at the end of each chapter is to be able to handle the content of that particular chapter in the same manner. The sequence, then, proceeds in a stair-step fashion with the students always working to attain a short-range objective in the process of achieving the long-range goal.
The teacher must first make the distinction between reading aloud and reading for comprehension, since the term reading is often used for both. Practice in reading aloud is a preliminary step to both reading for comprehension and writing. Before the students can do either very well, the connection between the sound and its written symbol (or symbols) needs to be firmly established. The importance of this relationship must not be underestimated, and sufficient practice to establish this sound-symbol relationship should be provided. Without this practice, the students are not likely to be very successful in the typical language class stressing the four language skills. (It is important, too, to emphasize here that the sound-symbol objective of reading aloud is separate and distinct from the objectives of pronunciation and auditory memory focused upon in choral practice, dialog memorization, and pattern practice.)
The relationship between sounds and their graphemic representations should receive major stress as soon as the written word is introduced. 1 Early in the beginning course, a great deal of time should be spent on reading aloud and dictation practice. The language laboratory or the tape recorder can be a valuable asset in this respect. The students can listen to the text on tape ora record. Then they can read the same or similar material aloud, recording it on tape, and later listen, while looking at the written text, to confirm their pronunciation of the written word.
When their reading indicates that the students are having little difficulty pronouncing the words that they see on the printed page, the teacher should relegate this activity to a minor position and employ it only periodically in order to reinforce prior knowledge. Student boredom is a problem which the teacher faces after a few weeks of asking the students to read aloud. Listening to someone else read is not a very stimulating or challenging exercise. Even at the elementary school level, reading aloud is one of the least liked activities. The teacher, therefore, should be careful not to employ this technique too much. Once the students demonstrate a facility in reading aloud, the time has arrived to initiate more challenging types of activities in the classroom. The students should subsequently be encouraged to read aloud at home in order to improve their pronunciation and intonation and to increase their speaking speed.
The teacher should identify the pronunciation problems of those students who continue to have problems reading aloud and specify what their weaknesses are. Subsequently, they should undertake additional practice with the teacher or with better students who have the time and the interest to listen to them read and to help them. They can also spend time in the language laboratory on special drills selected to improve their weaknesses. Obviously, a successful experience with second-language study requires that the students learn how to read aloud from the printed page. Equally obvious is the fact that the problems are not going to disappear simply by ignoring them. By facing the problems and delineating them for the students, the teacher can help them overcome their weaknesses.
Reading aloud to establish the connection between the pronunciation of a sound and its written symbol should be limited to the initial stages of second-language learning for the majority of the students. Reading aloud for
'Actually, some teachers prefer to correlate the oral and written aspects of the language from the very first day of class. The argument is made that writing is also an important aspect of language learning and that its introduction should not be delayed. In addition, these same people feel that seeing the written word is going to influence the pronunciation anyway, so why not tackle the problem from the very beginning? The teacher's choice in this matter will likely be influenced by two principal factors: (1) the degree to which the language is phonetic, and (2) the importance placed on the oral and written aspects of the language. The reader should see chapter 5, page 121, for a discussion of the prereading period.
other purposes, however, may well be included later in the students' experience. There are times in any class in which reading aloud can be a very productive activity. For example, in advanced classes the students may benefit a great deal from reading aloud the parts of a play, a poem, a conversation, a description, etc. However, at this level the purpose of the activity is to heighten comprehension, empathy, and feeling, not to improve pronunciation.
Until the students can read aloud from the printed page with acceptable pronunciation and intonation patterns, the teacher should read aloud in class any homework material before it is assigned. Asking students to read material that they cannot pronounce weakens students' pronunciation and hinders follow-up classroom activities in which the reading is discussed. As the students gain proficiency in reading aloud and as the reading assignments become longer, this introductory preparation for reading lessons can be considerably shortened and even dispensed with entirely.
Students who have spent considerable time repeating the dialogs have less difficulty reading aloud from the printed page with an acceptable pronunciation. In fact, one danger with audio-lingual students is that, cued by the initial word in the sentence, they will repeat the line from memory rather than read the words. This reliance on memorized knowledge may enable them to bypass learning the connection between the oral sounds and their written representations, and the teacher should make sure that they are actually reading the words. Students who do not memorize or repeat dialog lines need to spend more time reading aloud. However, in both cases certain errors consistently occur. All students have a tendency to read words as isolated entities rather than in phrases and breath groups. The teacher should emphasize that words are not produced one at a time but in a stream. Many students, whether they have drilled orally or not, mispronounce words that are not spelled phonetically. With the French, German, and Spanish word for general (general, General, and general), for example, the students are likely to mispronounce the g sound until they learn that the pronunciation of that letter varies depending upon the following vowel. Often, audio-lingual students are simply amazed at the appearance of words, and it is not unusual for the word to be so different that they do not recognize it unless they see it in exactly the same context. Even then, the mere sight of it may cause them to mispronounce it. Most students are not able to overcome the effects of first-language habits in a few hours of repetition practice. Once they see the word, there is a tendency to revert to their old habits and give a first-language interpretation to the letter or combination of letters. This tendency is especially strong in the
case of cognates. For example, students seeing the word continent in French, German, or Spanish ( continent , Kontinent, and continente) for the first time usually give the first vowel the ah sound that it has in English. When they do, contrasting the pronunciation of the English and foreign word in a minimal- pair drill helps them hear the difference.
In teaching the students to read aloud, the teacher provides a model. First, he may read the whole dialog or passage while the students look at their books. Then, he breaks the lines into sense groups for the students to repeat chorally as they look at the words and attempt to make a connection in their minds between the sounds and their written forms. Since he is the model, the teacher should read as he would have the students read, i.e., in phrases and breath groups with expression in his voice and stressing proper pronunciation and intonation. His model will be much improved if he listens to the tape prior to modeling for the students and if he marks the phrase groups and elisions in his own text. Also, he should be careful to divide the lines into phrases that are not too long. Otherwise, the choral repetition disintegrates into a chaotic jumble of sounds, and he is unable to judge the students' response. The students should imitate the model immediately. Too often, the teacher reads an entire paragraph before asking the students to read. In the beginning stages, their auditory memory is not sufficiently developed to remember how to pronounce the words. While the students are repeating, he should be alert to catch pronunciation or intonation errors. Any sounds which are being mispronounced should be isolated and drilled before asking individuals to read.
The procedure for reading aloud first chorally and then individually is quite similar to the audio-lingual techniques employed in dialog memorization and pattern practice. However, there are two basic differences. First, the audio-lingual practice of repeating the latter portion of the sentence first is not necessary since the students are not asked to repeat whole lines, only breath and sense groups. Second, since the students are looking at their books, the speed at which they say the lines is likely to deteriorate. Therefore, the teacher should emphasize that they not slow down to the point where the words are not being combined as they would be by a native speaker. At the same time, the teacher should not expect the students to read at the same pace possible in reciting a line of a dialog from memory. If they do proceed rapidly, they are probably not making the association between the sounds and their written representations which they should, and the goal of the activity is being bypassed.
There are various ways in which the teacher can give the students specific feedback as to which sounds they are pronouncing correctly and which sounds are still causing them difficulties. One procedure is to keep a chart indicating their progress. Another is to record errors as they read individually. In this
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activity, the teacher asks them to read aloud out of his book while he indicates their mispronunciations in their books. The manner in which their mistakes are indicated and relayed to them is not so important as the fact that they know exactly those points of pronunciation on which they need to concentrate.
Although reading comprehension is one of the basic skills to be acquired during the language course, it may be the least teachable of the four language skills. By its very nature reading is solitary. The teacher cannot play an active role while the students are practicing reading comprehension. If she does, reading becomes some other related activity. Her responsibility is to select content that appeals to the students and is at a suitable linguistic level. She provides guidelines for reading in general and for each particular lesson, and she plans follow-up activities that encourage the students to read and prepare for class.
In comprehending a written passage, the reader first senses the overall meaning, then segments the passage into smaller units of specific information, and finally reaches a level of knowledge in the second language. Just as in teaching listening, the teacher should stress reading as a communicative skill.
In doing so, classroom activities focusing on grammar or vocabulary as ends rather than means are to be avoided. (See chapter 10, "Listening Comprehension," pages 291-93, 298-302.) Too, it goes without saying that the students must have the necessary linguistic knowledge of phonology, semantics, and syntax before attempting to read for comprehension. Students who progress to the point of reading literature reach a level beyond that of acquiring the content in the language. They are ready to begin to examine and analyze the content of the literary selection for its meaningfulness in their own lives and for its aesthetic qualities.
Obviously, students cannot jump from reading aloud to total reading comprehension. They must progress through a series of increasingly difficult levels of reading material. On the first level, they read materials in their own texts. The purpose of these readings is to give them an opportunity to encounter in context the structures and vocabulary they have been studying. Most students do not have a great deal of difficulty with reading and understanding at this level even though they may be unable to discuss the content in the second language.
Some texts now have accompanying reading materials that provide additional practice in reading. If these are not available, the teacher can acquire
graded readers. Although the vocabulary may be new, these readers are very carefully graded to include only certain language structures. By examining the preface and the table of contents, the teacher can choose texts that are within the range of his students' language ability. To some students, readers of this type are a welcome relief from the normal classroom routine in which they are concentrating on the materials in their own text.
At a more advanced level, the students should be exposed to unstructured material. The implication here is not that they should be expected to read linguistically complicated books, but that they be given the opportunity to read material in which any structure is likely to occur. Unless students are assigned unstructured reading, they are not likely to do so on their own, or to be able to do so. The result is that the goal of reading comprehension is not attained at all and that, consequently, few students in later life ever have the ability or the interest to read in the foreign language.
In the development of the reading skill, the danger that must be avoided is the almost universal practice of requiring students to read material that is linguistically too complicated for their level of language ability. Reading assignments that degenerate into "thumbing" exercises serve no purpose except to convince the students of the impossibility of what they are being asked to do. Students who must look up twenty to thirty words per page in order to understand the content of the story cannot possibly absorb all this material, and the enjoyment of such an assignment is rather unlikely. Reading can be so much more. Who knows? If it were enjoyable, the students might even be motivated to read in the languge after they officially terminate their language study, a most uncommon practice at present.
The first thing teachers must do to develop reading comprehension is to determine their own goals. The assumption is being made here that their goals are for the students to (1) read with enjoyment; (2) read for the message, not the code; and (3) appreciate what they read, //"these are the goals, teachers will not insist upon translations during the discussions of the material read. The only discussion of structure will be to clarify those points absolutely necessary for comprehension of meaning.
Once the teachers have decided exactly what their goals are and the most effective activities for achieving these goals, they are prepared to initiate assignments geared toward a reading comprehension objective. (This is different from reading designed primarily as a reinforcement of vocabulary and structure included in the chapter.) As a preliminary to introducing specific techniques for reading while focusing on the content, teachers should explain these goals and activities to their students. Students should be aware
that they are to read for appreciation and enjoyment of the content. They should also be aware that the purpose is not to decipher the code as they concentrate on what the author is saying. Told what is expected of them, the students are able to prepare more completely, and the ensuing classroom activities are much more rewarding and beneficial to them and much more satisfactory to the teacher.
Even if the students understand the goals of reading for comprehension, pleasure, and appreciation, they may still not have a definite idea of how to proceed to accomplish these goals. One of the most difficult tasks facing them as they begin a new activity is the development of a learning strategy. They must formulate some method of attack if their efforts are to be efficient and successful. Undoubtedly, many fail to arrive at a working system and thereby do poorly in the course. Therefore, the teacher should give them some hints as to the "how" as well as an explanation of the "what" and "why." Before they read any outside materials (and perhaps also in reading textual materials as well), students should be given some hints for improving their approach to reading for comprehension.
Specific suggestions The teacher should suggest that before they look up any words, the students read the entire paragraph two or three times in order to get some idea of the total meaning. Too often students turn to the bilingual dictionary at the back of the book at the first sight of an unfamiliar word. Much of this dependence on the dictionary is unnecessary, and the students should be encouraged to do as little thumbing as possible. At this level they must begin to be attentive to larger units, i.e., the sentence and the paragraph, if they are to begin to enjoy and appreciate reading. Looking up each word robs them of this overall picture and leaves them instead with an overwhelming and disconnected mass of information that is both uninteresting and impossible to absorb.
The teacher should also encourage the students to make every effort to eliminate the first language from their minds while they are reading. In the beginning, thinking directly in the second language is difficult and frustrating. The tendency is to slip into the practice of attempting to convert all elements in the reading into equivalent forms in the first language. Persistence does pay off, however. Those students who continue in their efforts to read directly in the language soon find that the barrier is not so difficult to surmount as they had imagined, and they are pleased at how much more quickly their assignments can be completed. Reading directly in the language also has two other advantages. First, it enables the students to begin to grasp the totality of meaning. Second, it improves their capability to discuss the reading in the second language. Occasional reminders in class stimulate continued efforts toward attaining this necessary plateau in reading.
In short, the students need to be encouraged to read for the content of the material as they do in their own language. Meaningful reading requires concentration upon the important elements conveying the message. Constant attention to each word presents such an overwhelming amount of information that the mind cannot process it all, even in the native language. Just as in listening comprehension, the students must learn to focus their attention on message-carrying, manageable units of language in order to avoid being bogged down in a mass of detail. An analogy with boating may better describe the point being made here. As the boat leaves the dock, it must get up on top of the water in order to acquire any speed. Similarly, the students must rise to the point in reading where they are above the drag of all but the necessary information if they are to achieve any speed and enjoyment in reading.
Even after reading the entire paragraph two or three times while attempting to think in the language, the students still may not be sure of certain parts, some of which may contain ideas that are crucial to the total comprehension of the paragraph. Therefore, they often cannot avoid a more careful examination of some difficult phrases, but they should not resort to the dictionary until all other possibilities have been tried. The secret is to get them to exhaust all their own devices before "turning" for help. Often they fail to realize that the typical dependence upon the dictionary not only prevents them from really learning to read but also slows their reading. They need to be convinced that any kind of speed at all is impossible while they are dictionary-dependent "cripples." At the same time, they should be encouraged to read using the shortcuts that they commonly practice in their own language.
Reading shortcuts One shortcut that they can carry over from their native language is the practice of guessing the meaning of words. Reading in their own language, they have acquired the almost unconscious habit of making a logical inference as to the meaning of words based on the context. Twaddell (1963) gives the following example to illustrate this point: "The clouds parted momentarily, and the snow on the mountain-top coruscated in the rays of the rising sun." All English-speaking students who understand the remainder of the sentence would automatically classify coruscated as being a synonym for sparkledshone , glistened , etc. and proceed with their reading without even considering the use of a dictionary. The students should be encouraged to carry this shortcut into second-language study, and the teacher should make it a point each day to include a few examples from the assigned reading of vocabulary words easily understood by means of sensible guessing.
As well as applying their knowledge of the world around them to infer contextual meanings of words, the students' knowledge of language structure can also be exploited to simplify their task in reading comprehension. Some parts of speech are necessarily more important in grasping total meaning than
others. Since students know their own language, they should have little difficulty in deciding which are the most important elements in any given sentence in the second language. Twaddell (1963) uses this sentence from Carroll's Jabberwocky, "Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe," to illustrate students' grammatical awareness. Even if they do not know the meanings, the students still should recognize that brillig , toves , and wabe are nouns, that gyre and gimble are verbs, and that slithy is an adjective. Knowing the function of the word in the sentences helps the students to guess meaning. Even if this knowledge does not provide them with any illuminating clues, they still have an advantage in that they know which words to look up in the dictionary. The fact that they can concentrate on nouns and verbs makes the task more realistic and decreases the amount of time spent in consulting the dictionary. In short, it is important that they realize that a dictionary definition is not necessary for each word in the reading, and that normally nouns and verbs are the key words in the process of unlocking the meaning of difficult passages.
It is appropriate here to point out that students may not be aware of this ability to guess the meaning of seemingly incomprehensible sections of assigned reading based on their knowledge of native-language grammar and the world around them. Therefore, it is up to the teacher to assist them in fully developing these abilities in the second language. He should first of all give them examples similar to those given here during the introduction to reading for comprehension. Later, he should not forget to give examples of these skills in each of the reading lessons. For some time, he might point out a few before the students read the lesson and afterwards ask them for additional examples. Thus, he can teach them to be aware of and to practice this shortcut.
Other clues There are other clues that may be used as an aid in guessing meaning, and most students do not automatically practice them without some initial encouragement from the teacher.
1. The teacher should, for example, point out the fact that certain classes of endings in the second language are similar to words with a corresponding set of endings in English. For example, nouns in German ending in heitand keit correspond generally to nouns ending in ness in English; French nouns ending in e are similar to many English nouns ending in the letters ty; and Spanish nouns ending in tad or dad usually end in ty in English.
2. Cognates should always be mentioned until the students learn to look for them on their own.
3. The students should be made aware of word roots and how the roots of words and their meanings may be related. For example, if a student studying Spanish is stumped by the word carne ("meat"), the teacher can ask her to consider the meaning of the English words carnivorous and
carnal. Another example is the Spanish word sonar (to sound), which can be related to the English term meaning "sound" in such expressions as a sonar system or a sonic boom.
4. Word families require special and constant attention. Demonstrating to the students an awareness of similarities among words in the second language can assist them greatly in increasing their vocabulary. For example, point out the similarities among such words as baigner, baigneur, and baignoire in French; essen, das Essen, and das Esszimmer in German; and comer, comida, and comedor in Spanish.
5. At times, pronouncing the word aloud may give a clue to the meaning of the word. It is not uncommon for the sound to be closer to the English word than its appearance.
6. As a final test before resorting to the dictionary, the students should ask themselves if their version makes sense. If it does not, then the time has arrived to seek precise meanings of the key words, i.e., nouns and verbs.
Students also need to be given suggestions with regard to looking up words. The most common, and most harmful, practice is for the students to look up the meaning of the unknown word in a bilingual dictionary and immediately write the first-language equivalent of the second-language word directly above it in the text. The problem with this whole process is that the next time the material is read, the foreign-language word fails to register. The eyes, taking the path of least resistance, glide jerkily in a roller coaster fashion along the known track, thereby unintentionally avoiding the problem of learning new words in the foreign language. Some students even go to the point of writing complete translations above the line. These copies, especially those of the better students, have been known to command premium prices in the marketplace.
Obviously, new vocabulary cannot be learned by avoiding the issue. A much superior method is to ask the students to make footnotes. They should place a number above the word they do not know and write the definition of the word beside that number at the bottom of that same page in the book. Thus, the meaning is there for ready reference, but not in a place that will prevent the students from first thinking about the meaning before seeking the precise definition. Another plan is to refrain from writing the meanings anywhere on the page. In this system, the students place a dot by the word in the dictionary each time they look up the word. Those words with several dots are then studied more carefully.
At a slightly more advanced level, the teacher should initiate a change from a bilingual to a monolingual dictionary. Definitions can be handled in a
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manner similar to that described above. The switch to a monolingual dictionary encourages the students to define the words in the language rather than depending upon the nearest native-language equivalents. At the same time, the students have much less difficulty thinking entirely in the second language if they eliminate the first-language clarifications of words. Thus, keeping both the classroom discussion and the reading process itself entirely in the second language is much easier than translating into the first language.
Teachers have three principal responsibilities as they introduce a reading assignment. First, they should try to interest the students in the material they are to read. Second, they should anticipate and clarify any new vocabulary and structures that may present undue difficulties. Third, they should facilitate their reading with comprehension by giving them guiding questions that help them to read with a purpose. Too often the teacher ignores all three of these responsibilities. The typical approach to a reading assignment is to ask that the students read certain pages and write the answers to the questions in the book. Such an assignment, often without the benefit of an overall introduction to reading comprehension, leaves the students bewildered and confused. Except in the case of superior students, there is little chance of gaining any appreciable pleasure or benefit from the reading.
Motivating interest in the reading assignment boils down to the fact that the teacher must express enthusiasm for the material to be read. If she is not able to generate some excitement with regard to the assignment, the students are unlikely to look forward to the material. Obviously, she cannot tell them the content without spoiling the fun of reading, but she can outline the general topic and tell them what they should learn.
In addition to enthusiasm, another important component of motivation is confidence. The students need to know what the task is and to feel that they can do it. One of the best methods of indicating what they are to do is to ask them to look for the answers to questions that the teacher has prepared beforehand. These answers should summarize the important facts of the reading assignment. The teacher can give them confidence in tackling the reading by anticipating difficulties in vocabulary and structure. She should provide the students with necessary meanings through audio-visual aids, definitions in the language, synonyms or antonyms, contextual clues, word families, cognates, etc., or as a last resort, first-language translations.
In actuality, what the students do in preparation for the next day's class activities over the assigned reading depends largely on their past experience, which in turn is an important factor in determining the students' class attitude. If teachers do not require that students be prepared to participate in class
activities dealing with the reading, or if they do the reading for them after they get to class, the majority will do nothing. If they are asked to translate the reading or sections of it, or if they are expected to know everything about the reading down to the minutest detail, they will spend their time looking up words. In neither case will they be learning to read in any true sense of the word. The teacher's attitude and selected classroom activities are the key to what the students expect and what they do.
In giving the reading assignment, the teacher should specify what the students are to do during the homework preparation and what they should be prepared to do when they come to class the following day. (This statement is not intended to imply that exact behaviors should be specified.) For example, he might say to the class that he wants them to read for meaning the story that he has just introduced and be prepared to answer twenty multiple-choice questions over the content.
One problem facing students is that they have the task of studying a reading or a story in order to answer questions that someone else thinks important. Such a procedure is not conducive to an excited and critical examination of a reading. To help eliminate the negative effects of such procedures, the teacher might say something like the following: "What words do you think are necessary to an understanding of this reading? Learn them. What words do you think you would need and use most if you were to go to the country where the second language is spoken or if you were to continue to read more in the language? Learn them." Vocabulary is a personal matter, and one would suspect that students will learn more words more readily if they are given the opportunity to select the words they think most beneficial and useful to them. The same goes for content of the story. "What did you like and/or dislike about the story? What kind of a person was the main character? Do you know anyone like that?" Allowing the students to approach the reading assignment with some freedom as to what they will learn and what they will contribute to the coming class discussion of the assignment will encourage creativity, interest, efficiency, and personal responsibility if the teacher sees to it that each student does indeed make a contribution.
If the purpose of assigned reading is to develop reading skills, the students should read for who, what, when, where, why, and how in order to get the basic content of the reading. If the purpose of assigned reading is to gain insights into a literary selection, the students should answer the five Ws and an H plus try to gain elementary insights into significant cultural and literary content of the selection. At this level, one step beyond knowledge of the content in the second language, the students should be familiar with setting, characterization, plot, use of symbols, theme, and the reader's personal opinions and conclusion.
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Except for the early stages, the teacher spends very little time reading aloud. The typical assignment geared toward reading comprehension is made after a solid foundation in sound-symbol association has been established. Until that time, the students should, naturally, be given some practice in pronouncing all the words before they are required to read them.
All reading assignments should be treated in class as an important part of the day's activities. Otherwise, the students do not feel the necessity of preparing as they should outside of class. The teacher must choose activities that best reinforce the students for having read the lesson and that will further develop their understanding and appreciation of the content.
The first item of business in undertaking the reading lesson is to clarify all points of difficulty that the students encountered while doing the assignment. These problems of comprehension should be handled quickly and without using the first language except as a last resort.
Early in the course the students should be taught to ask specific questions, like "I do not understand line 10 on page 36." This kind of question aids clarification and indicates exactly where the problem is. As far as possible, questions raised should be answered by other students in order to foster a feeling of group responsibility for classroom activities.
Above all, the teacher should refrain from reading the assignment in its entirety, thus enabling many of the students to get by without diligent preparation. If the students are encouraged to indicate in the margin the passages that they do not fully understand, they will be able to locate them easily when the teacher calls for questions on that particular page. At no time should the teacher even hint that he is surprised or displeased with a question. The students should be given every opportunity to understand all phrases that were incomprehensible to them, even if they should have known the answer. While he is going through the reading lesson with the students, the teacher should make it a continuing practice to point out examples of the reading aids outlined earlier in this chapter. Providing additional examples of these reading shortcuts with each lesson will help the students to incorporate these desirable habits into their own reading skill development.
Since both listening and reading are receptive skills, the same types of exercises are used to check listening and reading comprehension. (See chapter 10, pages 298-302.) The major difference is that in this case the questions are written rather than oral. Obviously, the format of some exercises is such that they can only be completed in written form. One example is a ranking exercise such as the following:
322 Part Two: Practice
En Prison
Vous §tes condamne a cinq ans de prison pour un crime que vous n'avez pas commis. Comment allez-vous occuper votre temps? Dans la liste suivante, choisissez les projets qui vous interessent et mettez-les dans I'ordre de vos preferences. Si vous avez d'autres suggestions, n'hesitez pas a les ajouter a cette liste.
Projets Ordre de Preference
reconstruire mentalement tous _
les evenements importants de votre vie
apprendre une langue moderne -
ecrire vos memoires ou un roman -
contempler le passage des -
saisons
faire le plan de votre maison -
ideale
lire le plus grand nombre -
de livres possible
apprendre la Bible mot a mot _
etc, 2
The purpose of using written exercises is to determine the students' level of reading comprehension. The teacher assumes that if the students fail to answer the written questions correctly, they have not or cannot read the assignment. If comprehension of the assignment is based on questions in any of the other skills, such as an oral discussion of the content, incorrect answers may be due either to an inability to read, to understand the questions, or to formulate the spoken answers. These activities can be used as a classroom exercise or as a short quiz over the content of the reading. Once the students' ability to read the material has been ascertained, subsequent activities can, and should, involve the other three language skills. After the students demonstrate the ability to discuss content in the language, the class can, in the case of literary selections, move on to consider the meaning and significance of the content and to relate it to their own lives.
In covering the reading lesson, teachers must be constantly alert to the danger of invalidating all their careful preparation for developing reading comprehension by including insignificant details and facts of minor consequence in the follow-up exercises. Once they begin to expect total translation
2 From Connattre et se Connaftre: A Basic French Reader , Gilbert Jarvis, Ther^se Bonin, Donald Corbin, Diane Birckbichler. Copyright© 1976, Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
of all the vocabulary, their stated objectives lose their significance entirely. Almost immediately, the students become frustrated, and the goal of reading for content, pleasure, and appreciation is forgotten. The questions in the textbook itself often contribute to the students' dilemma by asking questions over unimportant details. It is not uncommon for the teacher to have to reread certain sections in order to answer these questions. A more suitable approach is to ask the students to answer only those questions in the book that the teacher can answer after one reading. If additional questions are needed to cover all the basic content, the teacher should prepare them or have the students do so.
There are two practical means of getting students to read for meaning without looking up unnecessary words. One way is to give speed readings in class. Students are given short passages to be read in two or three minutes. When the time is up, the content is summarized by the class in the first or second language. In this fashion the class reads the entire passage together in a very short time. Also, the class learns to read for the general meaning of the material without looking up individual words. Once the students have become accustomed to this type of exercise they can be given homework of such length that they do not have sufficient time to read the assignment intensively. (In order to avoid the problem of conscientious students struggling to look up and memorize all the words, teachers should be sure to state the type of preparation they expect and make its purpose unmistakably clear. They must be careful also to include only major points of the reading in the follow-up reading comprehension exercises and activities.)
Supplementary reading materials should be made available to the students.
They should be able to find newspapers, magazines, and books in the language they are studying, both in the classroom and in the library. Since the librarian is probably not familiar with the sources for such materials, the responsibility for ordering them is left to the teacher. Usually, a direct correlation exists between the teacher's enthusiasm and initiative and the library holdings in each particular academic area. Second-language teachers need to see to it that their subject matter is not slighted. The best sources for new books are the MLA Selected List of Materials and its Supplement , advertisements in the pedagogical journals, catalogs from book companies, advanced language classes in college, and conversations with other teachers.
These reading materials should be of various levels of difficulty. The teacher can then assign materials to the students consistent with their language ability. The school should acquire readings on a difficulty level
324 Part Two: Practice
ranging from that of small magazines or papers prepared especially for junior high and high school classes, to graded readers, novels and stories which are at a rather simple level linguistically, to reading material of average difficulty.
With a sufficient store of supplementary reading materials, the teacher can begin to incorporate them into the language-learning sequence. Supplementary reading can serve as the basis for listening comprehension, speaking, and writing activities. Supplementary reading can be used to introduce the students to the foreign culture in greater variety and depth than is possible with the textbook alone.
Supplementary reading can provide a means for diversifying instruction at intermediate, advanced, and even lower levels. The students can read materials in which they are particularly interested at their own speed and at a difficulty level that they feel they can manage. Even if the class is kept together, superior students can choose the books, magazines, or papers that they would like to read as a supplement to the class program. Superior students can normally prepare their lessons more quickly than the other students and should be expected to do some additional reading each grading term or semester. In fact, most bright students are eager to do so if they can find material in which they are interested at a manageable linguistic level. These reading materials can introduce the students to the belles lettres of the language. They can provide a stimulating change of pace from the normal classroom routine. And magazines and newspapers can be a valuable asset in maintaining an attractive, up-to-date bulletin board.
These reading materials should cover all topics of interest to students. Teachers should attempt to acquire all the culture books possible, especially those which describe the everyday activities, customs, opinions, and life styles of the people. Teachers should also search for reading materials related to youth activities in general. The teacher can cut out newspaper and magazine articles and file them for future student use. For the slower students, teachers may suggest books in translation which would be beneficial, if not ideal.
Once the students have passed the elementary levels of language acquisition, the basic means for the second-language student in the classroom of learning more about the language and the people who speak that language is reading. The students should be encouraged to read as much as possible in order to broaden their understanding of the people and to increase their contact with the language.
As is true in any learning situation, some students quickly learn to read with few, if any, difficulties. Others need assistance and guidance in order to develop the skills necessary to read and comprehend an article or a story in the second language. The teacher's role is to help these students identify their
Reading 325
problems and to provide exercises and activities to help them overcome their weaknesses. At the same time, she should be providing additional reading materials for those students who are capable of reading more. First, the teacher should talk to the students and try to determine their learning strategies. From their descriptions (and she may even want to let them describe aloud what they are doing as they begin to prepare their homework), she may get some clue as to what they might do to improve their reading ability. If possible, she should try to ascertain whether the problem is in their knowledge of grammar, their knowledge of vocabulary, their pronunciation of the written words, their comprehension of the general meaning of the passage, or their inability to remember in the second language.
Diagnostic tests can provide insights into student problems and needs. Allen (1975) describes two such instruments—the reading miscue inventory and the cloze test procedure—and how they may be used to discover student reading problems. The reading miscue inventory gives information concerning the student's ability to answer questions of three types: factual, interpretative, and vocabulary recognition. The cloze test examines the student's ability to supply every n*h word which has been deleted from a running narrative. Having identified the problem, the teacher and the students can begin a program of specialized exercises to help them advance in reading comprehension. They may have to review the grammar, spend extra time on the vocabulary, read for the general sense of the passage, or practice coding the content in the second language.
Whether the teacher prefers the audio-lingual approach or the cognitive, he should not neglect reading. The point of difference between the two methods lies not in the goal, but in the approach to the goal. Audiolinguists maintain that establishing the oral skills first improves reading ability later. Therefore, students in audio-lingual classes, in general, spend a great deal of time in oral repetition of dialogs in which new vocabulary and new structures are introduced. Later, these same words and forms are recombined into narrative form. This procedure allows the teacher to spend much less time reading aloud when written materials are introduced. Students in cognitive classes, who do not have this background in repetition, require more practice in learning to pronounce the sounds of the language.
The principal problem (comprehension) that audio-lingual students encounter occurs at the point when they begin to read unstructured materials. Cognitive students have their main problem (pronunciation) earlier in the sequence as they are learning to read aloud. Achievement in reading has been one of the strengths of the more cognitively based approach, and most of the
326 Part Two: Practice
studies have found that these students comprehend better than audio-lingual students.
The ability to read for comprehension is a most important component of "knowing" a second language. In the sense that, along with listening, it is the major means of learning more about the language and its people, reading is basic to the improvement of other language skills and the expansion of knowledge. In the sense that the students are unable to control the complexity and difficulty level of reading material that they may encounter, their reading skill should reach a level of proficiency at which they can read unedited materials similar to those read by native speakers. Even though reading is a receptive skill, a definite sequence must be followed in helping the students reach a performance level that will enable them to read comfortably in the language.
DEFINITIONS
1. cloze test, p. 325 4. reading, p. 313
2. fundamental skills method, p. 307 5. reading miscue inventory, p. 325
3. inference, p. 316
DISCUSSION
1. How important is the ability to read aloud with good pronunciation and fluency in second-language learning? Discuss ways to practice.
2. What are the components of reading comprehension?
3. Summarize what you would like for your students to be able to do with regard to reading when they finish your class. What would you do and tell them in class to help them realize this goal? What did your teachers do to help you learn to read for comprehension?
4. Do you think a literary goal is still valid today? If so, why? If not, what types of materials do you think modern-day students should be reading? What do you think they would prefer to read?
5. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of audio-lingual and cognitive students with regard to the reading skill.
6. What were some of the follow-up activities that you found most interesting and most profitable when you were in junior high or high school?
7. What are some interesting activities for relating reading content to the students?
ACTIVITIES
1. For your second language, list the major instances for which there is more than one sound for a written symbol and those instances in which there is
more than one written symbol for a sound. Due to a lack of space and due to the fact that this problem is one to be dealt with in an applied linguistics class, this information has been omitted in this text, but each teacher should be familiar with the lack of fit between the sound system of the language and the written system.
2. Pretend that you are preparing your students for their first introduction to reading. What hints and examples would you give them to help them with their reading assignment?
3. Outline a hierarchical reading sequence in terms of the types of activities that could be used in class to teach each of the components of reading comprehension.
4. Prepare a minimal-pair drill on a cognate pronunciation problem.
5. Collect some samples of reading materials that you feel would be of interest to students at the age level you expect to teach.
6. Prepare examples of some reading shortcuts: inference, grammatical clues, suffix similarities, root similarities, and word families.
7. Select a reading passage from an elementary text. If time permits, in front of the class (a) present and assign the reading, and (b) conduct follow-up activities over the same passage. Ask your classmates for their reactions and suggestions.
SELECTED REFERENCES
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Allen, E. D., and Valette, R. M. (1972) Modern Language Classroom Techniques. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovan- ovich. Pp. 189-215.
Blayne, T. C. (1945) Building Comprehension in Silent Reading. Modern Language Journal, 29:270-76.
Blayne, T. C. (1946) Results of Developmental Reading Procedures in First-Year Spanish. Modern Language Journal, 30:39-43.
Brisley, L., et al. (1959-61) Good Teaching Practices: A Survey of High-School Foreign-Language Classes. Reports of Surveys and Studies in the Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages. New York: Modern Language Association of America. Pp. 219-43.
Burling, R. (1968) Some Outlandish Pro¬
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Coleman, A. (1931) A New Approach to Practice in Reading a Modern Language. Modern Language Journal, 15:101-18.
Donati, R. (1970) Using Quotations to Encourage Careful Reading. French Review, 43:630-33.
Finstein, M. W., and Thomas, E. (1967) Reading Center Techniques for Second Language Reading Skills. French Review, 41:377-82.
Frechette, E. A. (1975) A Critical Survey of Elementary and Intermediate Level French Readers, 1968-73. Modern Language Journal, 59:3-7.
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Jackson, M. H. (1974) The Play's the Thing. American Foreign Language Teacher, 4:15, 32.
Jarvis, G. A., et al. (1976) Connaftre et se Connaftre: A Basic French Reader. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
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Lado, R. (1972) Evidence for an Expanded Role for Reading in Foreign Language Learning. Foreign Language Annals, 5:451-54.
Mollica, A. (1973) The Reading Program and Oral Practice. Canadian Modern Language Review, 29:14-21, 46-52.
Mueller, T. (1974) Another Look at How to Teach Listening and Reading Comprehension. Modern Language Journal, 58:19-23.
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Politzer, R. L., and Bartley, D. E. (1970) Practice-Centered Teacher Training: Spanish (French). Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development. Pp. 123-30.
Purcell, J. M. (1974) Teaching the Short Story. American Foreign Language Teacher, 4:13-15, 28.
Reichmann, E. (1962) An Active Approach to Second Year Reading. German Quarterly, 35:79-84.
Reichmann, E. (1966) Motivation and Direction of Reading Assignments on the Intermediate Level. Modern Language Journal, 50:256-60.
Rivers, W. M. (1968) Teaching Foreign- Language Skills. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 213-39.
Rivers, W. M. (1973) Reading for Information. American Foreign Language Teacher, 4:7-9, 38.
Rivers, W. M. (1975) A Practical Guide to the Teaching of French. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 171-235.
Scherer, G., et al. (1963) Reading for Meaning. In W. F. Bottiglia (Ed.), Language Learning: The Intermediate Phase. Northeast Conference Reports. Pp. 22-60.
Scherer, G., et al. (1963) Reading for Meaning. In W. F. Bottiglia (Ed.), Language Learning: The Intermediate Phase. Manchester, N.H.: Northeast Conference Report. Pp. 22-60.
Scott, C. T. (1966) The Linguistic Basis for the Development of Reading Skill. Modern Language Journal, 50:535-44.
Seelye, H. N., and Day, J. L. (1971) Penetrating the Mass Media: A Unit to Develop Skill in Reading Spanish Newspaper Headlines. Foreign Language Annals, 5:69-81.
Seibert, L. C. (1945) A Study on the Practice of Guessing Word Meanings from a Context. Modern Language Journal, 29:296-322.
Sparkman, C. F. (1930) Teaching Students to Read a Foreign Language Versus Letting Them Learn How. Modern Language Journal, 15:163-75.
Twaddell, F. (1963) Foreign Language Instruction at the Second Level. Teacher's Manual: Espanol: Hablar y Leer. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Pp. 1-25.
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Young, E. C. (1963) The Effect of Intensive Reading upon Attitude Change. French Review, 36:629-32.
Young, E. C. (1969) Vitalizing the Reading Skill. French Review, 42:578-81.