1. UNIT 10 Teaching Reading

2. Aims of the unit In this unit,We are going to discuss how to teach reading. We will focus on the following: 1.How do people read? 2.What do people read? 3.What are the skills involved in reading? 4.What are the principles and models for teaching reading? 5.What are the common types of activities in teaching reading?

3. 11.1 How do people read? We believe effective readers do the following: 1. Have a clear purpose in reading 2. Read silently 3. Read phrase by phrase ， rather than word by word 4. Concentrate on the important bits ， skim the rest ， and skip the insignificant parts.

4. 5. Use different speeds and strategies for different reading tasks. 6. Perceive the information in the target language rather than mentally translate. 7. Guess the meaning of new words from the context, or ignore them. 8. Have and use background information to help understand the text.

5. 11.2 What do people read? Think about your experience of learning English. what kind of texts did you read? Short Stories? Tales? Diaries? Plays and poems? Biographies? It seems there is a great variety. But what do we read in reality.There are more.

6. 11.3 Skill involved in reading comprehension Reading comprehension means extracting the required information from the text as efficiently as possible. Reading is a silent and individual activity since the writer’s intention was that the text should be read not heard. Reading comprehension means extracting the required information from the text as efficiently as possible. Reading is a silent and individual activity since the writer’s intention was that the text should be read not heard.

7. There are two broad levels in reading : i) visual signals from the eyes; ii) a cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating the received information with the reader ’ s own general knowledge, and reconstructing the meaning that the writer had meant to convey.

8. In order to achieve these two levels of reading, the reader needs the following skills: Recognising the script of a language Recognising the script of a language Understanding the explicitly stated information Understanding the explicitly stated information Understanding conceptual meaning Understanding conceptual meaning Understanding the communicative value of sentences Understanding the communicative value of sentences

9. Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items Understanding relations within sentences Understanding relations within sentences Understanding relations between sentences Understanding relations between sentences Understanding references Understanding references Recognising indicators in discourse Recognising indicators in discourse Making inferences Making inferences

10. In order to make reading more efficient, the students also need following strategic skills: Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details. Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details. Skimming :reading for the gist or main idea. Skimming :reading for the gist or main idea. Scanning: reading to look for specific information. Scanning: reading to look for specific information. predicting: guessing what is coming next predicting: guessing what is coming next

11. 11.4principles and models for teaching reading When teaching reading, great care should be taken regarding materials selection, the purpose of reading, the design of reading tasks and the skills involved. Below are some principles for teaching reading.

12. 1.The selected texts and attached tasks should be accessible to the students. Inaccessible texts and tasks do not help improve students ’ reading skills but cause frustration. 2.Tasks should be clearly given in advance. Preferably, tasks should motivate students.

13. 3.Tasks should be designed to encourage selective and intelligent reading for the main meaning rather than test the students’ understanding of trivial details. 4.teachers should help to students to read on their own. We should aim at gradually withdrawing our guidance as our students progress so that they eventually become independent readers.

14. 5.teacher should help the students not merely to cope with one particular text in front of them but with their reading strategies and reading ability in general.We should encourage hem to use reading strategies which will enable them to tackle any further texts

15. Model Bottom-up model Interactive model Top-down model

16. 11.5 Pre-reading activities 1. Predicting 2. Setting the scene 3. Skimming 4. scanning

17. Prediciting is a an important reading skills. The reader’s predictions, whether right or wrong, will get his mind closer to the theme of the text to be read. Then the real reading may either confirm or reject the predictions. Reading with predictions can make reading more intriguing and purposeful and therefore is likely to result in better comprehension compared with the situation where the learner starts reading with a blank mind.predictions can be done many different ways Prediciting is a an important reading skills. The reader’s predictions, whether right or wrong, will get his mind closer to the theme of the text to be read. Then the real reading may either confirm or reject the predictions. Reading with predictions can make reading more intriguing and purposeful and therefore is likely to result in better comprehension compared with the situation where the learner starts reading with a blank mind.predictions can be done many different ways

18. Predicting Based on the Title vocabulary T/F questions

19. Setting the scene The second type of re-reading activity is setting the scene, which means getting the students familiarised with the cultural and social background knowledge relevant to the reading text. The second type of re-reading activity is setting the scene, which means getting the students familiarised with the cultural and social background knowledge relevant to the reading text.

20. Skimming The third type of pre-reading activity is skimming, which means reading quickly to get the gist, i.e. the main idea of the text. There are many situations where we do skimming. The third type of pre-reading activity is skimming, which means reading quickly to get the gist, i.e. the main idea of the text. There are many situations where we do skimming.

21. Scanning The fourth type of pre-reading activity is scanning, which means to read to locate specific information. The key point in scanning is that the reader has something in his mind and he should ignore the irrelevant parts when reading. On a day-to-day basis, we scan figures, train schedules, time-tables, phone numbers, new headlines, dictionaries, etc. so it is useful to use these materials for practice in the classroom. The fourth type of pre-reading activity is scanning, which means to read to locate specific information. The key point in scanning is that the reader has something in his mind and he should ignore the irrelevant parts when reading. On a day-to-day basis, we scan figures, train schedules, time-tables, phone numbers, new headlines, dictionaries, etc. so it is useful to use these materials for practice in the classroom.

22. 11.6 While-reading activities Different texts offer opportunities for different kinds of exploitation. Yet a reading passage in a traditional reading comprehension book has generally been exploited by means of asking multiple choice questions, T/F questions, open questions, paraphrase, and translation. In this section, we will look at different ways of exploiting different texts focusing on the process of understanding rather than the results of reading.

23. Information transfer activities SOPHISTICATED INPUT(SI) TRANSITION DEVICE(TD) OUTPUT (OP)

24. 11.6Post-reading activities Discussion questions Discussion questions Reproducing the text Reproducing the text Role play Role play Gap-filling Gap-filling discussion ’ discussion ’