中學英語教學法Unit

10

Teaching

Reading主講教師：陳道明（華南師范大學外文學院）Unit

10

Teaching

ReadingTopics

for

discussion:How

do

peopleread?What

do

peopleread?What

are

the

skills

involved

inreading?Principles

for

teaching

readingCommontypesofactivitiesinteachingreading10.1

How

do

we

read?Some

assumptions

about

reading:

See

thetableon

page

112.For

the

responses

of

the

author

of

the

book,

please

see

pp.

185-6The

nature

ofreadingReadingaloudSilent

readingMannerUtterance

of

every

wordSilentSpeedUsually

slowUsually

fastPurposeUsually

to

shareinformationUsually

to

getinformationSkillsinvolvedPronunciation

andintonationSkimming,

scanning,

predicting;Guessing

unknown

words;Understanding

details;Understanding

relations

betweensentences

and

betweenparagraphs;Understanding

references;Understanding

inferencesActivitytypeCollective

activityIndividual

activityManagementin

theclassroomEasy

to

manage

as

itcan

be

observed

andheardDifficult

to

manage

as

teacherscannot

see

what

is

going

on

in

thestudents’

mindsWhat

do

effective

readers

do?Effective

readers:have

a

clear

purpose

in

reading;read

silently;read

phrase

by

phrase,

rather

than

word

by

word;concentrate

on

the

important

bits,

skim

the

rest,

and

skipthe

insignificant

parts;use

different

speeds

and

strategies

for

different

readingtasks;perceive

the

information

in

the

target

language

ratherthan

mentally

translate;guess

the

meaning

of

new

words

from

the

context,

orignore

them;have

and

use

background

information

to

help

understandthe

text.10.2

What

do

we

read?We

believe

ESL/EFL

reading

textbooksshould

have

a

great

variety

of

authenticmaterials,

as

much

as

the

coverage

allows.Of

course,

textbooks

should

always

besupplemented

by

extra

materials.A

list

of

things

we

read

in

daily

life

(p.115):CalendarsClothes

size

labelsMagazinesAddressesGraffiti

on

wallsRadio/TV

guidesPhone

booksChildren’s

scribblingAdvertisementsName

cardsInforma1

lettersPostersBank

statementsBusiness

lettersTravel

guidesCredit

cardsRules

and

regulationsCookbooksMapsElectronic

mailRepair

manualsAnecdotesTelegramsMemosWeather

forecastFax

messagesTimeschedulesPamphletsJunk

mailStreet

signsProduct

labelsPostcardsSyllabiWashing

instructionsCredit

cardsJournal

articlesShort

storiesComic

booksSong

lyricsNovelsNewspapersFilm

subtitlesPlaysDiplomasDiagramsPoemsApplication

formsFlowchartsHandbooksStorecataloguesName

tags(adapted

from

Gebhard

1996:189)It

is

important

for

ESL/EFL

teachers

tobear

in

mind

what

we

read

in

real

life,so

that

when

we

select

readingmaterials

for

our

ESL/EFL

classroom,wenotonlyhaveagreater

varietybutalsomeetthe

needs

of

differentstudents.Besidesauthentic

texts,

ESL/EFL

textbooksalso

employ

a

lot

of

non-authentic

texts,

i.e.simulated

text.

Simulated

texts

are

aimedfor

beginner

students

who

are

probably

notabletohandlegenuine

authentictext.It

isbelieved

that

the

reading

of

such

texts

willhelp

studentsto

acquirethenecessaryreceptive

skills

they

will

need

when

theyeventually

cometo

tackleauthenticmaterials

(Harmer,

1983).10.3

Skills

involved

in

readingcomprehensionTwo

broad

levels

in

reading:Visual

signal

from

the

eyesA

cognitive

task

of

interpreting

the

visualinformation,

relating

the

receivedinformation

with

the

reader’s

own

general

knowledge,

and

reconstructing

themeaning

that

the

writer

had

meant

toconvey.Writer’smeaningVisualsignalReader’sknowledgeReader’sreconstructionVisualinformationSkills

needed

in

readingRecognising

thescriptof

a

language;Understanding

the

explicitly

statedinformation;Understanding

conceptualmeaning;Understanding

thecommunicativevalue(function)

of

sentences;Deducing

the

meaning

ofunfamiliarlexicalitems;-Understanding

relationswithinsentences;Understanding

references;Recognising

indicators

in

discourse;Recognising

the

organization

of

thetext;Making

inferences.Strategic

skills

needed

in

readingDistinguishing

the

main

ideafromsupporting

details;Skimming:readingforthegistormainidea;Scanning:reading

to

look

for

specificinformation;Predicting:

guessingwhatis

comingnext;10.4

Principles

and

models

forteaching

readingPrinciples

for

teaching

reading:The

texts

and

tasks

should

be

accessible

to

the

students.Tasks

should

be

clearly

given

in

advance.Tasks

should

be

designed

to

encourage

reading

for

themain

meaning

rather

than

test

the

students’understanding

of

trivial

details.Tasks

should

help

develop

students’

reading

skills

andstrategies

rather

than

test

their

readingcomprehension.Teachers

should

help

the

students

to

read

on

their

own,so

that

they

eventually e

independent

readers.Models

for

teaching

readingThe

Bottom-up

ModelThe

Top-downModelThe

Interactive

ModelThe

Bottom-up

ModelThismodelofteachingreadingisbasedonthetheoryinwhichreading(and

listening,too)is

regardedasaprocess

of“decoding”,

whichmovesfromthebottomtothetopofthesystemoflanguage.DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhonemesLinguistic

knowledgeis

used.The

Bottom-up

ModelInthe

Bottom-up

Model,

theteacherteaches

reading

by

introducingvocabularyandnewwordsfirst

andthengoingoverthetextsentencebysentence.

This

is

followed

bysomequestions

and

answers

and

readingaloud

practice.The

Top-down

ModelThis

model

of

teaching

reading

is

based

onthetheory

in

which

readingis

regarded

as

aprediction-check

process,

“apsycholinguistic

guessing

game”(Goodman,

1970).In

theTop-down

Model,

not

onlylinguisticknowledge

but

also

backgroundknowledge

is

involved

in

reading.DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhonemesLinguistic

Knowledge&BackgroundKnowledgeThe

Top-down

ModelThe

Top-down

ModelTherefore,

it

is

believed

that

inteachingreading,

the

teacher

should

teach

thebackgroundknowledgefirst,sothat

students

equipped

with

such

knowledge

willbe

able

toguess

meaningfrom

theprintedpage.The

Interactive

ModelThismodelofteachingreadingisbasedonthetheoryinwhichreadingisviewed

as

aninteractive

process.According

to

theInteractive

Model

ofreading

(also

calledas“the

SchemaTheory

Model”),

when

one

is

reading,

thebrain

receivesvisualinformation,andatthesame

time,

interprets

or

reconstructs

themeaning

that

the

writer

had

in

mind

whenhe

wrote

the

text.

This

process

doesnotonly

involve

the

printedpage

but

alsothereader’s

knowledge

of

the

language

ingeneral,

of

the

world,

and

of

the

text

types.DiscoursesSentences/PhrasesWordsMorphemesPhonemesSchemata

to

be

activatedthe

schema

of

language;the

schema

of

content;the

schema

of

formsThe

Interactive

ModelThe

Interactive

ModelBasedonsuchunderstanding,teachingreadinginthe

classroom

dividesreading

activities

into

basicallythreestages,

in

whichbottom-up

and

top-down

techniques

are

integrated

to

helpstudents

in

their

readingcomprehensionandinincreasingtheirlanguage

efficiency

in

general.The

three

stages

are

pre-reading,while-reading,

and

post-reading.10.5

Pre-reading

activitiesThe

purpose

of

pre-reading

(alsocalled

Lead-in)

is

to

facilitate

while-reading

activities.predicting,setting

the

scene,skimming,

andscanningPredictingPredicting

will

get

the

reader’smindclosertothe

theme

ofthe

text.Ways

of

predicting:predictingbasedonthetitle,predicting

basedonvocabulary,predictingbasedonthe

T/Fquestions.Predicting

based

on

the

titleA

Nationof

Pet-LoversSave

the

Jungle:

Save

the

WorldPolice

Hunt

for

ChildIf

the

students

are

not

good

at

predicting,

theteacher

can

help

them

by

asking

certainquestions.Text

1:

What

is

a

pet?

What

are

pets

for?

Whydo

people

love

pets?

Are

there

any

problemswith

pets?Text

2:

What

is

a

jungle?

Where

can

you

findjungles?

What

do

youthink

has

happened

tothe

jungle?Text

3:

What

happened

to

the

child?

How

doyou

think

the

parents

would

feel?

Whatcould

thepolicedo?Predicting

based

on

vocabularyHaving

made

predictions

based

on

thetitle,students

can

be

asked

to

predict

some

lexicalitems

that

they

think

are

likely

to

occur

in

thetext.

Then

the

students

read

the

text

to

confirmtheir

predictions.A

variation

of

this

prediction

activity

is

that

theteacher

provides

students

with

a

list

ofwords,and

asks

the

students

to

predict

which

of

thewords

are

used

in

thetext,

and

to

read

thetextand

confirm

theirpredictions.Predicting

based

on

the

T/Fquestionse.g.

Reading

“How

tobehave

at

ajobinterview”(p.

120)

(For

the

text

please

see

pp.193-4.)BeforereadingAfterreadingAlways

try

to

please

the

interviewer.Do

not

try

to

dominate

theinterviewer.Never

interrupt

the

interviewer.If

necessary,

disagreewith

theinterviewer.Never

change

your

mind.Always

try

to

please

the

interviewer.Setting

the

sceneSetting

the

scene

means

getting

thestudentsfamiliarwiththeculturalandsocialbackgroundknowledgerelevanttothereadingtext.The

culture-boundaspect

ofthe

textcan

start

at

the

beginning

with

the

title.e.g.:Green

BananasAll

Greek

to

meThe

culture-bound

aspects

of

a

text

areoftenofgreatinteresttostudents,andtheycanbeusedtoprovokeaninteresting

discussion

not

only

aboutthe“other”culture,butalsoaboutthe“home”

culture.

(e.g.

Eskimos,

p.121)ESKIMOSEskimos

love

in

the

polar

areas

between

latitude

66

N

and

the

NorthPole.

There

are

Eskimos

in

Northern

Canada,

Greenland

and

Siberia.This

means

that

they

are

the

only

people

who

have

their

origins

both

inthe

Old

World

(Europe

an

Asia)

and

in

the

newworld(America).It

is

difficult

to

make

an

accurate

estimate

but

there

are

probablyabout

50,000

Eskimos.

Eskimos

are

not

usually

tall

but

they

havepowerful

legs

andshoulders

they

havea

yellowish

skin

andstraightblack

are.

Eskimos

have

acommon

language

and

canunderstandmembers

of

another

group

although

they

may

come

from

manythousands

of

miles

away.

The

most

important

unit

in

Eskimo

societyisthe

family.

Marriage

is

by

mutual

consent:

the

Eskimos

do

not

have

aspecial

marriage

ceremony.In

the

Eskimo

community,

the

m0st

important

people

are

the

olderman.

Theycontrol

the

affairs

of

the

group.

Theeconomic

system

of

theEskimo

communities

works

like

a

commune:

they

sharealmosteverything.

Eskimos

live

byhunting,

fishing

and

trapping.

Whenthey

goto

hunt

seals,

they

sail

in

Kayaks

(light

boats

made

from

skins)

andwhen

they

hunt

animals,

they

travel

across

the

ice

in

sleds

pulled

byteams

of

dogs.

The

Eskimo

snow

house

is

very

well

known,

but,

in

fact,Eskimos

usually

live

in

houses

made

of

wood

and

turf.

When

they

arenot

hunting

and

working,

Eskimos

like

to

carve:

they

use

ivory

and

wood

and

they

often

make

very

beautiful

objects.SkimmingSkimming

means

reading

quickly

to

getthegist,

i.e.

the

main

idea

of

thetext.Some

suggestions:Ask

general

questions.

e.g.

“Why

did

thewriter

write

the

article?”Ask

the

students

to

choose

a

statementfrom

3-4

statements.Ask

the

students

to

put

subtitles

fordifferent

parts

of

the

text

into

the

rightorder.

e.g.:Headings:

Where

can

we

put

it?Confirming

ActionGreetingsInterrupting

without

insultClosing

the

callGetting

to

the

pointTextTop

tips

for

telephone

EnglishIf

you're

looking

for

a

challengingsituation

to

practice

your

English,

just

pickup

the

telephone.

Not

being

able

to

see

theperson

you're

talking

to

and

the

bodylanguage

they're

using

can

make

chattingon

the

phone

one

of

the

most

difficultformsof

communication.

Never

fear,

though!We've

compiled

some

tips

to

guide

youthrough

an

average

telephone

conversationinEnglish.

(Whichheadingshouldbehere?)Every

phone

call

should

begin

witha

polite

greeting

such

as,

Hi,how'veyou

been?

or

Nice

to

hear

from

you.Even

if

you're

calling

a

businesscontact

for

a

specificpurpose,

it'dberude

to

jump

right

intobusinesswithout

alittle

smalltalk

atthebeginning.(Which

heading

should

be

here?)There

always

comes

the

point,

however,where

you

want

to

move

on

from

friendlybanter

and

get

down

to

business.

For

thissituation,

use

the

phrase

I'm

just

calling

to

...to

transition

to

the

topic

at

hand.

Forexample,

I'm

just

calling

to

seeif

you'd

like

to

set

up

a

meeting.

If

the

situationisreversed,

however,

and

you

are

waiting

tofind

out

why

someone

called

you,

you

canguide

the

conversation

by

saying,

So

whatcan

I

do

for

you?(Which

heading

should

be

here?)If

you

happen

to

be

speaking

with

a

verytalkativeperson,

it

may

be

difficult

to

get

a

word

in

edgewiseor

contribute

to

the

conversation.

If

someone

isgoing

on

and

on,

and

you'd

like

to

interrupt,

be

sureto

do

it

politely.

For

example,

begin

with

I

would

like

to

say

something

here,

if

I

may

or

Allow

me

tomake

a

point.

Or,

you

could

just

ask:

May

I

interruptyou

fora

second?If

you're

making

planson

the

phone,

be

sure

toconfirm

the

detailstoward

theend

of

thecall.Beginwith

phrases

likePlease

let

me

confirm...

and

So,

letme

make

sure

I've

got

things

straight...

and

followupwiththedetailsasyou

understandthem.(Which

heading

should

be

here?)Sometimes

this

can

be

the

trickiest

part

of

theconversation!

It

may

be

the

time

to

offersomegoodwishes,

such

as

good

luck

on

that

interviewor

hope

you

feel

better

soon

if

it's

appropriate.Additionally,

you

may

want

to

confirm

any

plansyou've

made:

I'll

see

you

on

Friday,

then.Sometimes

it's

easiestto

justsay

youenjoyedspeaking

to

theother

person.

Also,keep

inmindthat

strategically

saying

the

word

well

at

thebeginning

of

asentence

can

indicatethat

youareready

to

end

the

conversation:

Well

John,

it's

beena

pleasure

talking

to

you.ScanningScanning

means

to

read

to

locatespecific

information.Thekeypointinscanningisthatthereader

has

somethinginhis

mindandheorsheshouldignoretheirrelevantparts

when

reading.Questions

for

a

scanning

activity

are

oftenabout

specific

information.We

can

also

ask

students

to

scan

forvocabulary.–

We

can

pre-teach

some

words

within

thesemantic

area

of

the

theme.

This

does

not

meanthat

we

are

teaching

reading

following

a

Bottom-up

model,

because

the

schema

of

content

isactivated

after

the

students

have

scanned

the

text.We

can

also

ask

students

to

scan

forcertain

structures,

e.g.

tense

forms,discourse

connectors,

particularsentence

structures.Something

to

bear

in

mind

whenconducting

scanningSet

atimelimit.Give

clearinstructions.Wait

until

70%

of

the

students

finish.Make

clear

how

you

are

going

to

getfeedback.Answers

to

the

scanning

questions

shouldbe

scattered

throughout

the

text

rather

thanclustered

at

one

place.10.6

While-reading

activitiesWhile-reading

activities

focus

on

the

processof

understanding

rather

than

the

result

ofreading.Information

transfer

activitiesReading

comprehension

questionsUnderstanding

referencesMaking

inferencesInformation

transfer

activitiesusing

transition

devicesTransition

device:

A

way

to

transferinformation

from

one

form,

e.g.

the

textform,

to

another,

e.g.

a

visual

form.SophisticatedInput

(SI)Transition

Device(TD)Output(OP)Transition

devices

can

be

used

to

make

informationin

text

form

effectively

processed

and

retained.Some

transition

devicesPictures,

drawings,

maps,

tables,

treediagrams,

cyclic

diagrams,

pie

charts,barcharts,

flow

charts,

chronologicalsequence,

subtitles

(providingsubtitles),notes

(takingnotes

whilereading),

etc.Tree

diagram姓名職稱姓名職稱姓名職稱General

MagagerBar

chart9

08

07

06

05

04

03

02

01

00第一季度第二季度第三季度第四季度東部西部北部Pie

chartO

u

t

p

u

t12345678Examples

of

using

transitiondevicesExample

1(p.125)Read

the

following

passage

andcompletethe

table,

which

compares

the

twoearthquakes.At

5:13

on

the

morning

of

April

18th,

1906,

they

city

of

SanFranciscowas

shaken

by

a

terrible

earthquake.

A

great

part

of

the

city

wasdestroyed

and

a

large

number

of

buildings

were

burnt.

The

umberofpeople

who

lost

their

homes

reached

as

many

as

250

000.

About

700people

died

in

the

earthquake

and

thefires.Another

earthquake

shook

San

Francisco

on

October

17th,

1989.

It

wasAmerica’s

second

strongest

earthquake

and

about

100

people

were

killed.It

happened

in

the

evening

as

people

were

travelling

home.

A

wide

andbusy

road,

which

was

built

like

a

bridge

over

another

road,

fell

onto

theone

below.

Many

people

were

killed

in

the

cars,

but

a

few

lucky

oneswerenothurt.Luckily

the

1989

earthquake

did

not

happen

in

the

centre

of

town

butabout

50

kilometres

away.

In

one

part

of

the

town

a

great

may

buildingswere

destroyed.

These

buildings

were

over

50

years

old,

so

they

were

notstrong

enough.

There

were

a

lot

of

fires

all

over

the

city.

The

electricitywas

cut

of

for

several

days

too.TimeDateLocationNumber

ofpeoplekilledDamageEarthquakein

1906Earthquakein

1989It

is

important

that

students

fill

in

thetable

while

they

are

reading

rather

thanafter

they

finish

reading.Then

a

follow-up

output

activity

canbeconductedbasedontheresults.e.g.:The

teacher

can

ask

questions

like“Which

earthquake

caused

more

damageandwhy?”Example

2(p.126)Summary

on

transition

devicesThe

purposes

of

TDs:Focus

on

the

main

meaning.Simplify

sophisticated

input.Allow

students

to

perform

whilereading.Highlight

the

main

structural

organization,and

show

how

the

structure

relates

tomeaning.Involve

all

students.Go

stepbystep.Conduct

follow-up

activities

for

oralandwritten

output.Reading

comprehensionquestionsQuestions

for

literal

comprehension.(Answers

directly

and

explicitly

available

inthe

text)Questions

involving

reorganization

orreinterpretation.

(Require

Ss

to

obtainliteral

information

from

various

parts

of

thetext

andput

ittogether

or

reinterpret

it)Questions

for

inferences.

(what

is

notexplicitly

stated

but

implied)-Questions

for

evaluation

or

appreciation.(making

a

judgement

about

the

text

in

termsof

what

the

writer

is

trying

to

convey)Questions

for

personal

responses.(reader’s

reaction

to

the

content

of

the

text)Understanding

referencesAll

natural

language,

spoken

or

written,

uses

referential

word

such

as

pronounstorefers

to

pe