Workshop 1 ENGELSK – Mellemtrin/Udskoling READING and READING TASKS

Reading development Beginner stage:  Decoding: lettering, sounding, Semantic linking  Early syntactic structuring: forming questions and/or negatives, based on declaratives  ‘In text’ strategies: use illustrations, text clues, repetition of key vocabulary

Reading development Intermediate stage:  Consolidating decoding, early discourse understanding  Increased reading speed  Involve ‘out of text’ strategies + Start conscious learning of strategies  More abstract coding - Semantic web building

Reading development Advanced stage:  Whole text reading  Reading fluency  Being able to choose appropriate strategies for tasks; Involve strategies actively  Discourse building – link semantics, pragmatics and discourse; genre awareness

What is reading in a foreign language? Reading is reading: reading in FL does not by nature differ from reading in L1. The competences and strategies involved are almost identical: BUT FL reading involves ‘recoding’ rather than decoding: finding out how letters, syllables and other linguistic units operate in the new langauge. This can cause confusion, but often does not. Reaching FL reading fluency is often a problem, motivation must be maintained and reading material can be hard to find.

Reading speed Reading speed is one variable out of many in reading development. You can’t measure reading development only from reading speed. Reading speed without reading comprehension is useless; it’s the combination of sufficient speed and comprehension that gives Reading Fluency In further education, some people estimate that a reading speed of app. 250 wpm (words per minute) + a comprehension rate of min. 85% is required for effective studying

Reading strategies visualizing Imagine characters, scenery, conflict situations, etc. in your mind. previewing Based on headline, illustration or other textual clues, the reader starts guessing the content. One of several guessing strategies. contextualizing Inferring meaning from the communicative situation: who’s communicating with who through what medium? summarizingPhrasing the main communicative content; the focus of this strategy may be guided by text questions

Reading strategies sequencing Breaking the text into smaller parts, sometimes paragraphs; helps map information. Comparing/contrasting Relating to similar texts, or texts with similar content. Similar to ‘infering’, but the reader is aware of a specific source of information. Synthesizing Mapping the main point, argument or message in a text. InferingDrawing on previous knowledge about genre, and about the world in general, the reader starts guessing the content (discourse)

Reading strategies Narrative analogies Transforming a point or theme from the text into a story or anecdote with similar point. (“..that reminds of the time when…”) Strategies that are also techniques: skimming Reading for the gist of information of content. Often involves speed reading; avoiding to get stuck in details or decoding issues scanningReading for specific information: often required for answering questions or doing task

Reading Strategies - Are involved in all reading activities. They are in use whether you think about it or not – but strategy use can be trained and optimized - Can overlap – and readers can jump from one to the other at fast pace Good readers have many reading strategies – and they develop their command of reading strategies constantly