TEACHING

READING

By tae ueta Kochi ozu High school

English for International Students Unit

University of Birmingham March 2005

Acknowledgement I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the staff of the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology, and all the staff of the Kochi Board of Education, especially my

supervisor, Mr. Masahiro Nagasaki, who always gave me thoughtful advice. I would also like to thank the Principal and my colleagues at Kochi Ozu High School who supported me a lot. I am, of course indebted to my supervisors, Mr. Dan Malt and all our lecturers and EISU staff . and Mr. Philip King

Introduction Nowadays, the Japanese Ministry of Education emphasises the importance of students communication ability in English. However, it seems that the meaning of the word communication is misunderstood by many teachers and textbook writers and

they tend to focus on speaking and listening activities only. Actually, it is widely believed that Japanese university students reading and writing abilities have been declining drastically these days. It is true that acquiring speaking and listening skills are important to keep pace with this era of globalization. In reality, however, in Japanese senior high schools, where time spent learning English is limited, development of reading ability should be given priority. To improve students reading ability seems most crucial and urgent for many high school students. To enter universities, they require considerable skills of reading. Moreover, in universities or their workplaces, they might have many opportunities to read English articles. If they can read articles about their content area of their study, it should broaden their view and offer them educational or professional advantages. Kanatani ( 2004 ) points out that the most problematic aspect in English education in Japan is that students do not read enough. For example, the amount of passages in the textbooks used over three years in junior high school is only equivalent to twenty pages of one paperback. Hence, in junior high school, students have few opportunities to read English passages. On the other hand, English passages in university entrance examinations have been getting longer and longer for the last decade. Therefore, it is obvious that gradual and systematic training for reading from the first year of senior high school is indispensable. In this project, I would like to clarify what reading skill is by investigating the mechanisms of reading, and find out the unique problems of teaching reading skills to EFL students. Furthermore, I would like to study several reading materials we could use and suggest some effective and appropriate activities to improve students reading ability. In Chapter 1, I will investigate the mechanism of reading, especially for EFL students. In Chapter2, I will describe several types of reading according to purpose, such as skimming, scanning, and careful reading. In Chapter 3, I will discuss intensive reading and extensive reading. In Chapter 4, I will discuss the reading materials which we should use in school. In Chapter5, I will suggest some activities which might enhance students reading ability. Chapter 1 : MECHANISMS OF READING 1.1. Definition of reading We should know what reading is. However, it is difficult to explain it briefly and correctly. Here we have two examples of definitions of reading.

Urquhart & Weir ( 1988:22 ) define reading as follows:

Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print.

Anderson ( 1999:1 ) states:

Reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading materials in building meaning. Meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the reader.

However, these two definitions seem too abstract. This is because reading includes intricate processes and skills which differ according to tasks, purposes and language abilities. Without knowing theses elements independently, the concept of reading remains unclear. Therefore, in order to get a more profound understanding of reading mechanisms, reading processes, skills, strategies and purposes ( or different kinds of reading ) should be discussed in this chapter.

1.2. Processes of reading Although reading comprehension abilities are complicated, there is a set of common underlying processes that are activated when we read. Grabe and Stoller ( 2002:20 ) show us a list of them.

Lower-level processes *Lexical access *Syntactic parsing *Semantic proposition formation *Working memory activation
1

Higher-level processes *Text model of comprehension *Situation model of reader interpretation *Background inferencing *Executive control process knowledge use and

Figure 1.1 Reading processes ( Grabe and Stoller, 2002 ) Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 :20 ) state:
The lower-level processes represent the more automatic linguistic processes and are typically viewed as more skills orientated. The higherlevel processes generally represent comprehension processes that make much more use of readers background knowledge and inferencing skills.

Brown( 2001 )claims that processing time of reading need not to be emphasized too much because most reading contexts allow readers to read at their own rate. However, because of the existence of working memory, the speed processing is indispensable. Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) highlight the important role of working memory because the information fades from memory quickly, which makes the reading process inefficient. To sum up, Reading involves various types and levels of cognitive and meta-cognitive processes which are intertwined complicatedly. Therefore, all of these processing should be taken into consideration in developing students reading skills.

1.3. Bottom-up , top-down and interactive processing models We often hear about bottom-up, top-down and interactive models of reading. Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) call these kinds of models metaphorical models of reading. Bottom-up processing or data-driven processing is a process where readers recognize

The term working memory , so-called short-term memory, refers to the memory

where activated information about words , sentences, texts is stored for a short time while it is analyzed or interpreted.

and analyse perceived linguistic information like words and sentences and understand what a text means piece by piece with little interference of background knowledge. On the other hand, top-down or conceptually-driven processing is a process in which readers who have expectation about text information and infer it by means of making use of their previous knowledge or experience in understanding a text. According to Brown ( 2001 ), recent research on teaching reading has shown that a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing, so-called interactive reading, is almost always a primary ingredient in successful teaching methodology because both processes are important. Nowadays, interactive reading models or modified interactive models seem to satisfy a majority of researchers and teachers ( see, for example Brown, 2001; Anderson, 1999; Grabe and Stoller, 2002 ). The purposes of reading will define to what extent bottom-up or top-down processing is used. For example, in skimming a text, we are likely to depend more on top-down processing, because we do not have to translate detailed information in the text. Therefore, focusing on the purposes or several kinds of reading is necessary in the next chapter. 1.4. Reading skills Reading skills can be described roughly as a cognitive ability which a person is able to use when interacting with written text ( Urquhart and Weir, 1998:88 ). However, since there are a number of skills taxonomies, it can be difficult to grasp the whole picture of reading skills ( see, Urquhart and Weir, 1998:90-91; Brown, 2001:307 ). I would like to adopt the Grabes taxonomy shown below because he uses general categories and these skills and knowledge are obviously important to teach reading in the Japanese educational context.

1.Automatic recognition skills 2.Vocabulary and structural knowledge 3.Formal discourse structure knowledge 4.Content/ world background knowledge

5.Synthesis and evaluation skills / strategies 6. Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring. Figure 1.2 Grabes taxonomy of reading skills, 1991 I would like to focus on four basic main skills, which ,I believe, are indispensable in the Japanese secondary school context. Skimming or scanning , which is included in reading skills in many cases, will be discussed later as different kinds of reading in Chapter 2. 1. Automatic recognition skill Since Japanese does not use alphabetic scripts, students should get accustomed to discriminating among the orthographic patterns of English, recognizing words or chunks as fast as possible, because working memory plays a significant role in the reading process. As a result of current L2 vocabulary studies, Koda ( 1997 ) concludes that the failure to use context for lexical inference is often attributable to word misidentification and many identification errors result from insufficient information derived from orthographic processing. Thus, inefficient orthographic processing, obviously hinders reading comprehension. Recognition skills should be improved through certain kinds of activities. We will look at them later in Chapter 5. 2. Vocabulary and structural ( grammar )knowledge Laufer ( 1997 ) emphasises that reading comprehension is strongly related to vocabulary knowledge, more strongly than to the other components of reading and points out that even if students have a good metacognitive strategies or background knowledge of the world, these will not be of much help in L2 before a solid language base has been reached. Structural knowledge is also important. Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) highlight the importance of grammar in L2 reading context, especially through hours of exposure to print in order to develop automaticity in using information from grammatical structures to facilitate reading. In the Japanese secondary educational context, explicit grammar instructions are essential for successful reading because of time constraints. On the other hand, teachers should provide students with more opportunities to encounter English passages to enhance the automaticity of their reading.

3. Knowledge of discourse structure It is important for students to notice some basic text conventions in English texts. To see how ideas are typically arranged can help students to read a text more easily. According to Geva( 1983 )and Carell( 1984a,b ), there is empirical evidence that readers background knowledge of text structure and discourse cues significantly affects their reading in a second or foreign language. To make students more aware of discourse structure, explicit teaching of discourse markers and several basic discourse structures are necessary. This knowledge is useful not only in skimming, scanning but also in careful reading. Besides, students should be exposed to a wide variety of text genres. From using these knowledge students can read texts more correctly. 4. Activation of background knowledge. Background knowledge includes all the experience that a reader brings to a text. Background knowledge is also referred to as schema in reading literature. Anderson ( 1999 ) points out that activation of prior knowledge facilitates comprehension. If part of the goal in reading class is to have students become independent readers, it is necessary to teach students how to activate their background knowledge. In Chapter 5, I would like to suggest possible classroom activities which might facilitate this.

1.5. Reading for EFL students What are the differences between L2 reading and L1 reading? Obviously, L2 reading is more complicated because two different cognitive resources and language processing are involved. Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) list these three major types of differences

which are linguistic and processing differences, individual and experiential differences, and socio-cultural and institutional differences. In terms of the monolingual Japanese educational context, the differences I see as significant are listed below. 1. Differing amounts of lexical, grammatical and discourse knowledge at initial stages of L1 and L2 reading 2. Differing amounts of exposure to L2 reading 3. Varying linguistic differences across any two languages 4. Varying L2 proficiencies as a foundation for L2 reading 5. Interacting influence of working with two languages 6. Differing motivations for reading in the L2 7. Differing learners expectations and anxieties for L2 reading 8. Differing kinds of texts in L2 contexts 9. Differing ways of organizing discourse and texts Figure 1.3 Difference between L1 and L2 reading, after Grabe & Stoller, 2002 The one thing I added, which Grabe and Stoller do not point out is difference of learners expectations and anxieties for L2 reading. It may be strongly linked with learners motivation. Teachers should know the students attitude and emotions for English reading by means of simple research method, like action research. ( see, for example Grabe and Stoller, 2002 ; Richards, 1998 ) Taking these notions into account, these listed below are what should be given priority to promote L2 reading ability in our context. 1) To enhance vocabulary, grammar, discourse knowledge in English 2) To promote fluency and automaticity 3) To increase the amount of exposure for L2 reading 4) To relieve students anxieties and enhance students motivation

Chapter 2 : DIFFERENT KINDS OF READING 2.1. Purposes of reading As I said in Chapter 1, reading processes differ in numerous ways depending on different purposes of reading. Students do not have to read all the passage when they

scan for some information. If students read to learn something, they may often reflect and analyze what the text says. When students are given opportunities to enjoy browsing English magazines or newspapers, they do not have to look up all the unfamiliar words. However, in reality, since English education in Japan has a long history of adopting only grammar-translation methods in every English subject, even now, a lot of students seem to tend to interpret English passages word by word in any case. In the Japanese educational context, teachers should provide a clear purpose for reading and have students practice several kinds of reading. MacDonough and Shaw s ( 1993:105 ) idea that good readers can read the text using appropriate strategies according to purpose would indicate the necessity of different kinds of reading. Below I discuss several kinds of reading. 2.2. Types of reading (a) Skimming Skimming refers to the way of reading in which readers quickly run their eyes across a whole text for its gist. One of the effective series of procedures for approaching a reading text, so-called SQ3R technique ( see, for example Nuttall, 1996; Brown, 2001 ) starts with skimming the text for an overview of main ideas and then readers embark on more focused reading. It is also common part of many reading tasks. When introducing new lessons in the textbook, I believe it is more desirable to start with skimming, rather than interpret the text word by word or sentence by sentence, in terms of enhancing reading skills. (b) Scanning Scanning or searching reading is also a common reading activity when readers extract necessary pieces of information from a text without reading through the whole text. It is also useful skills especially in daily life, for example in searching through a telephone directory, reading a timetable or advertisements for getting information. The spread of the Internet may well accelerate the need for this type of reading.

(c) Careful reading Urquhart and Weir ( 1998 ) point out that careful reading is associated with reading to learn. The reader attempts to handle detailed information in the text. Thus, reading rate seems to be rather slower than other types of reading because in this type of

reading, readers often require rereading and inferencing to connect information with background knowledge. Reflective reading using science texts shown later in Chapter 4 might be often included in this type of reading. (d) Browsing Browsing is the sort of reading where readers do not have any particular goals for reading and parts of a text may be skipped fairly randomly and there is little need to integrate the information. We often browse magazines or newspapers just for fun. In the classroom, normally with limited English resources, students have few opportunities to browse English articles. It might be desirable for teachers to store supplementary English materials for browsing and provide some opportunities to browse them. (e) Reading for general comprehension Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) point out this is the most basic purpose of reading though it is actually more complex than commonly assumed. Because reading for general comprehension requires rapid and automatic processing of words, strong skills in informing a general meaning representation of main ideas, and efficient coordination of many processes under very limited time constraints ( p.14 ). I think this is the type of reading most often required in the Japanese educational context, especially in university entrance examinations. Therefore, every reading skill shown in Chapter 1 should be developed mainly to cope with this type of reading.

Chapter 3 : INTENSIVE READING AND EXTENSIVE READING 3.1. Intensive reading Intensive reading is the approach most often adopted in the reading classes in Japan. This type of reading, which seeks to grasp the whole message, including both

arguments and supporting details, encourages careful, literal processing of text. Teachers should provide students with some opportunities to engage in intensive reading depending on the purpose of reading by the careful selection of texts. Anderson ( 1999 ), while highlighting the superiority of extensive reading, still emphasises the importance of intensive reading through which readers can develop strategies and skills which they can transfer to extensive reading contexts. Nutall ( 1996 ) also states the importance of teaching how meaning is produced through intensive reading which is intended to train readers to cope with the texts. Teaching complicated grammatical forms, discourse markers and other structure details should be done in the class because most students have difficulty in understanding them by themselves. Teachers instruction should facilitate students reading. However, teachers should be careful not to put too much emphasis on intensive reading, so that students will not think it the only way of reading. 3.2. Extensive reading Quite a few ESL or EFL experts emphasise the importance of extensive reading and many teachers realize it. However, in reality, extensive reading is not promoted in many schools in Japan. Grabe and Stoller ( 2001:198 ) point out several reasons why extensive reading is not promoted in L2 reading courses.
*Teachers sometimes do not feel that they are teaching when students are reading silently in class; they think that extensive reading is something that should be done at home. *Sometimes there are limited resources for good class or school libraries. *In some cases, schools have resources but they do not include books that interest students or they do not allow students to check out books to be read at home. *There are cases in which teachers do not believe that reading large amounts of level-appropriate text is an appropriate goal for academic-reading development. *Some teachers would like to involve their students in extensive reading but do not know how to incorporate it into their lessons.

Almost all the reasons above are true in the senior high school context in Japan. Especially, in many schools, availability of a wide variety of English books is very low. One of the ways to solve this problem would be the use of the Internet. I will discuss this later on. I would like to point out a few more reasons.

*Students do not seem to be interested in reading itself even in Japanese. *Students are too busy to read extra reading materials. I myself think it is difficult to make students involved in extensive reading in normal class because the curriculum is very crowded. However, if students do not know the pleasure of reading, it is necessary to give them some passages which are interesting and provide some extra reading time to read them in class. The teacher can also provide some interesting articles and passages as homework. Nutall ( 1996:128 ) points out that speed, enjoyment and comprehension are closely linked with one another, and with the amount of practice a reader gets. Since enjoyment is a key to success, teachers must consider what kind of materials we should use carefully. If reading gives them pleasure, students will manage to find time to read even if they are busy. Therefore the use of content area reading materials which students find interesting might increase students motivation and create real purpose for improving their reading skills. In the next chapter, I would like to discuss the reading materials.

Chapter 4 : READING MATERIALS It is important for EFL teachers at high school level to select appropriate reading materials, considering not only university entrance examinations but also students needs interests and abilities. In other words, successful selection of materials may be a

key to enhancing students reading ability. Nuttall ( 1996 ) highlights three criteria in evaluating reading texts : suitability of context, exploitability, and readability. For suitability of the context, she recommends that teachers should find students interests and select texts for classroom study. Next, with respect to exploitability, she indicates that it is necessary for us to think about the purpose of the reading lesson, integrating reading skills, and simulating real-life purposes. She also suggests that reading teachers assess the students level and consider lexical, structural and passage difficulty of the text and then calculate the readability level of the material. It seems to me that these suggestions are reasonable and teachers should bear these kinds of criteria in mind when they choose reading materials. Anderson ( 1999 ) cites four levels of reading outlined by E.A. Betts ( 1957 ) : basal level, instructional level, frustration level and capacity level. The basal reading level is the level at which the students should be able to read with a very high ( Betts says 90% ) level of comprehension and without teacher help. The instructional level is what Betts call the teaching level (Betts says 75 %) . The frustration level is the level at which it is too difficult for readers to read ( Betts says less than listening level to material read aloud by the teacher. Validity of the percentages which Betts provides leaves me some questions. However, it might be helpful to think about the general concepts of his reading levels, especially, the basal reading level and the instructional level in choosing reading texts for Japanese senior high school students. Anderson ( 1999 ) points out reading materials for the basal reading might be useful for rate improvement activities and extensive reading. I also believe these kinds of materials are also appropriate for bridging materials. As I mentioned before, in Japan junior high school students read a small amount of texts. Therefore it is widely said that we should think about taking some measures to bridge the gap between junior high school textbooks and senior high school ones. Through using easy texts, students will be motivated, have a lot of successful reading experience, be confident and enjoy reading, so that they can be more fluent readers. Reading materials for the instructional levels might be useful for improving reading micro-skills and strategies like inferring, scanning, skimming, vocabulary building, enhancing knowledge of grammar and discourse. I believe that main textbooks used in classrooms should be this level. 50% comprehension level )and frustrate them. The capacity level that Betts suggests is the learners

There might be a bare possibility that frustration level materials would encourage highly-motivated students. However, since they are too difficult for the students, they mostly would discourage students to read. As for the capacity level, I suppose teachers have an important thing to consider. Recently, especially after introducing the new course of study, I observed instances of students having difficulty in recognizing orthographical patterns of English. I have seen some students who can understand the word by listening but not by reading. I presume some junior high schools put too much emphasis on oral activities, neglecting written texts. For such students, I think it a good idea to give them this capacity level materials individually for their practice at an early stage. In the following sections, I would like to focus on several reading materials. 4.1. Textbooks In Japan, teachers have to use textbooks screened by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Teachers can select textbook according to several criteria as Nuttall suggests in the light of their own situation. Since a textbook is the main reading material used in class, it seems desirable to choose the one which contains various kinds of content in order to meet a wide range of students demands and needs. I also think that textbooks should include several text types to make students aware of text structure and discourse organization. Grabe and Stoller ( 2001:194 ) state :
It is important that L2 students do not become confused by organization of the texts (e.g., comparison-contrast, problem-solution, narrative

sequences, and classification) and features of different genres ( e.g., newspaper stories, letters to the editor, howto procedures ). A consistent effort to guide to students to see the ways texts are structured will help them build stronger comprehension skills.

However, in reality, there seems to be few textbooks which deal with a lot of genres of written texts. This aspect of reading passages should be considered more by the Ministry of Education and textbook writers. Considering the style of future textbooks, a texts-selling and buying system through the Internet ( Kanatani 2004 ) might be ideal if it is feasible. In this system, on the premise that each textbook publishing company has a computer database, teachers can select and adopt the texts they want to use lesson by lesson and download them from

the Internet. The cost would be paid according to the number of texts adopted. This system is not available at the moment. However it would create the possibility for the teacher to choose the texts from the wide range which differs in length of passages, levels, topics, text types. 4.2. Other materials There is no doubt that flexibility in selecting and using supplemental materials should be guaranteed. It is teachers that should know the students abilities, interests and needs. Graded readers are widely known as useful reading materials. However, since I have been teaching students in science and mathematics, I would like to show some examples of materials related to these subjects which might be appropriate for them. (a) Science books for children There are a wide variety of authentic science books or encyclopedias for children written in English. Luckily, these books can be bought through the Internet these days. In some cases contents may be too easy for senior high school students who have an interest in science. However, from the view point of English level, we can find a lot of basal level passages which seem to be suitable for their extensive reading both inside and outside of class. A good example of such a reference book is Davies and Greenes Reading for Learning

in the Sciences ( 1984 ).

This book is addressed to teachers of science who are

interested in promoting effective learning from the written word. In this book, they distinguish between receptive reading and reflective reading and state that in reflective reading, the reader breaks the flow of his or her own progress through the text and reflect on what s/he is reading about. They also emphasize importance of reflective reading in science and recommend some practical reconstruction activities and analysis activities. Presented below is table of directed activities related to text ( see more details in Davies and Greene, 1984:48 ).

Reconstruction activities ( using text modified by teacher ) Pupil task: pupils complete text or diagram, reconstructing meaning.

Analysis activities ( using straight text ) Pupil task: pupils locate and categorise text information by making and labellig.

Use marked text as basis for summary (diagrammatic or note form). 1.Text completion ( word/ phrase/ sentence ) 2.Sequencing 3.Prediction 4.Table completion 5.Diagram completion 1.Text marking 2. Labelling 3.Segmenting 4.Table construction 5.Diagram construction 6.Pupil-generated questions 7.Summary Figure 4.1 Activities related to text, after Davies & Greene , 1984 Although this book focuses on reading science texts, many of the activities and strategies students are supposed to use can be applied to texts in many fields. Reconstruction activities require students actual comprehension of the text. However, even English teachers who do not have detailed knowledge of science can provide simple activities by means of using science books for children. Many passages in this kind of book include not only texts but also diagrams or pictures. Making some tasks for reconstruction activities does not seem too difficult. Through these activities, students can explore basic vocabulary and text types like instruction texts, process texts, mechanism texts in science fields, and build up a basis in academic reading for university. (b) The Internet The Internet is actually a great source of English reading materials. Although it can be difficult for students to find English books in the library, the Internet is always at hand. There are two main benefits to using the Internet. One thing is that it gives students significant opportunities to explore authentic text according to their interests. Another benefit is that students can access the Internet out of class. So teachers can introduce some useful and interesting website to students and make them read some English articles. After that, students will report to the teachers about what they read through their reading logs or portfolios. Here we have two examples. Webelements ( http:// www. webelements.com ) When students access this site, they can find the periodic table of the chemical

symbols for elements. Clicking one element, they can get detailed information on the element. One possible activity to use this web site is to ask students to choose one element and summarise it. Another possibility is teachers select several elements, make them read the passage of these elements and give some questions or quizzes Schoolscience ( http://www.schoolscience.co.uk ) The site is originally directed at school science teachers. Therefore it includes plenty of free on-line resources for science articles intended for students. If we click The Teachers Resource Page, we can find some notes for teachers and ready-made students worksheets available for download in pdf format as well as main reading materials. These worksheets are well-designed for reconstruction activities as I mentioned above. Moreover, reading about topics like cloning or gene manipulation can be followed by discussion activities. It might also be good for group reading projects. (c) Bilingual format Reading materials which employ bilingual format are also available. Moreover, teachers themselves make the texts which involve both English and Japanese. Shizuka ( 1996 [ cited in Kanatani, 2004 ] ) compares efficiency between students using bilingual format and using a dictionary when they read. He demonstrates the superiority of bilingual format use in reading efficiency, comprehension of the texts and improving vocabulary. As previously stated, one of the biggest problems of English education in Japan might be the small amount of English which students are exposed to. One way to have students read as many English texts as possible is to create some activities to use bilingual format because students do not have to translate word by word into Japanese in this kind of activity. For example, teachers may change either some parts of English or Japanese passages and make students scan the text so that they can find the parts which have been changed. In this chapter, I highlighted the importance of reading materials and gave some examples which might be useful. I also suggested some activities related to the reading materials. In the next chapter, I would like to offer some more suggested activities in terms of reading skills. Chapter 5 : SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES In Chapters 1and 2, I have already looked at what reading mechanisms are and discussed what should be done to promote L2 reading ability. In this chapter, I would like to suggest activities to enhance students reading skills.

5.1. Rate- building Increasing reading rate is a very important issue for senior high school students. In university entrance examinations, they often fail because of their slowness in reading. Moreover, their motivation for reading will also be enhanced if they can come to read texts faster. However, Carrell and Grabe ( 2002:242 ) state there are few published studies of the relationship between reading rate development or training and foreign or second language reading comprehension. Therefore, it might be worthwhile for EFL teachers to experiment with several activities and study the relationship. The following four activities shown below ( after Anderson, 1999 ) might be worth trying. (a) Timed reading In timed readings, students time themselves while reading a passage from start to finish. Timed readings are usually followed by a set of fairly simple comprehension questions that can be answered and scored quickly. I believe that consistent timed-reading activity using basal level texts may be successful to enhance students reading rate. (b) Rate building reading Students are given sixty seconds to read as much material as they can. They then begin reading again from the beginning of the text and are given an additional sixty seconds. They are to read more material during the second sixty second period than in the first. The drill is repeated a third and a fourth time. The purpose of this activity is to reread old material quickly, gliding into the new. As the eyes move quickly over the old material, students actually learn how to get their eyes moving at a faster reading rate. (c) Repeated reading Students read a short passage over and over again until they achieve criterion levels of reading rate and comprehension. For example, they may try to read a short 100-word paragraph four times in two minutes. Criterion levels may vary from class to class. (d)Paced reading Paced readings work on the same principle as timed readings but oblige students to

read at a specified pace ( e.g., 120 words per minute ) rather than at their own pace. Passages are of a consistent length, with a mark of some sort ( e.g., a check or dot )in the margin to indicate every 100-word segment. Thus, a 400-word text would have three marks. 5.2. Word recognition and chunking Segalowitz and Segalowitz ( 1993 [ cited in Carell and Grabe,2002 ] ) showed that practice on word recognition tasks leads to faster and more stable ( less variable ) responses. The faster and more stable responses indicated that processing had not merely become faster across the board, but that a qualitative change or restructuring of processing had occurred. I believe word recognition activity might work for Japanese students, because of the great orthographic difference between Japanese and English. Word-recognition exercises generally involve a set of about 20 keywords or phrases down the left-hand side of a page, each one followed by a row of four or five words- one of which is identical to the key word, whereas the others are similar in shape or morphological variations of the key word ( see Figure 5.1 ). Students are asked to work as quickly as possible to mark the exact match for each key word. From rapid word recognition, teachers move students into rapid phrase recognition activities. In this type of activity, students are looking for the key phrase in a group of phrases ( see Figure 5.2 ). This activity should be done under time pressure. After students get used to doing this, teachers move to practicing chunking with a short passage. Students often read word by word. Obviously, this prevent them from reading fast. Through chunking practice, students can enhance their fluency. Key word 1. release 2. drown 3. though relieve drawn through relent driven thorough release drone though relate drown thought relearn drew bough

Figure 5.1 Sample Word-Recognition Exercise Format, after Grabe & Stoller, 2001

Key phrase : bring a happy smile

bring a happy time bring a happy smell bring a happy smack bring a smock

bring a happy smile bring a happy result bring a small happiness brought a happy smile

Bring unhappy smile bring a happy smile bring a happy smirk bring a happy smile

Figure 5.2 Sample Phrase-recognition Exercise Format, after Anderson, 1996 Murtagh ( 1989:102 [ cited in Anderson 1999:63 ] ) stresses that good L2 reading is characterized by fast automatic word processing. In order to make our students into good readers, teachers should do their best to improve their reading fluency. I would like to introduce these activities for warming-up, using some words, expressions, passages in the textbook. 5.3. Vocabulary development It is obvious that vocabulary development is one of the most crucial points in order to enhance reading ability. Importance of this has been discussed in Chapter 1. However, Grabe and Stoller ( 2001 ) point out reading by itself does not provide full support for vocabulary development. Moreover, In a study result, Mondria and Wit-de Boer ( 1991 [ cited in Carell and Grabe 2002:241 ] ) found retention of correctly guessed words sometimes even worse than it was for incorrectly guessed words. I believe, therefore, that systematic vocabulary building is inevitable if students are to become fluent readers. Guessing the meaning of words is important as one of the reading strategies; however at the same time we should teach basic vocabulary explicitly. The techniques shown below are adopted by Nation ( 1990 ). (a)Rote repetition Rote repetition means that some learners make use of continual repetition of a word and its meaning until they feel the word is learned. Students use this strategy to learn lists of words in isolation by themselves outside class. Flashcards and bingo are widely used in Japan for this kind of practice in class. (b)Using context to guess vocabulary words In this technique, teachers have students look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word and guess its part of speech. Students may need to look at adjacent sentences or paragraphs to establish the meaning. Students will guess the meaning of

the word and check that their guess is correct. Through this activity, students might become more sensitive not only to vocabulary, but also to the coherence of the text. This activity seems time-consuming at the early stages of practicing guessing and it interrupts reading. Therefore, Nation ( 1990: 130 ) suggests it is best if this practice is done separately from other reading skill practice (c) Analysis of word structure The skill of word structure analysis encourages the learner to study prefixes, roots, and suffixes and use this knowledge to learn new vocabulary. The game like Stemgo ( Bernbrock, 1980 ) is a good way to get students familiar with the prefixes and stems. Students work in pairs and write three words for each prefix and stem. The teacher announces and explains two words of his/her own that contain the prefix or stem for each square. If one of pair of students has these two words on its sheet, it ticks that square. When a pair has four ticks in a line down, across, or diagonally, it wins. Teachers give the worksheet ( see Figure 5.3 ) beforehand as a homework, and can do this activity as a warming-up sometimes instead of other vocabulary building activities and make students aware of word structure.

anthro 1. 2. 3. bio 1. 2. 3. pater,patri 1. 2. 3. mis 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3.

auto 1. 2. 3. geo 1. 2. 3. pathy 1. 2. 3. pro 1. 2. 3.

cosm 1. 2. 3. homo 1. 2. 3. scrib, script 1. 2. 3. man, manu 1. 2. 3.

dic, dict

medi

epi

dis

Figure 5.3 Stemgo, after Bernbrock, 1980 Nation ( 1990 ) and Grabe and Stoller ( 2002 ) also recommend teachers research students vocabulary level. One of the techniques teachers can do immediately is to ask students to circle the words that they do not know and find out which of these words are in one lesson of the mandatory textbook. The knowledge of students vocabulary level is indispensable for teachers to decide on the way of vocabulary teaching. What is most important thing, I believe, is that teachers should have knowledge of several approaches to cultivating vocabulary, and within the class, sometimes have students pay attention to vocabulary development strategies. Not all students learn vocabulary in the same way, and nor does all lexis lend itself to one method of acquisition. Levine and Reves ( 1990 [cited in Anderson 1999:35] ) support this idea by advising that teacher should not impose any specific method on the learner. Vocabulary should be presented by a variety of techniques : methods should be varied and combined according to the learners individual needs and preferences.

5.4. Understanding text organization and discourse cues Grabe and Stoller demonstrate several ways of understanding text organization and discourse cues in academic context ( see Grabe and Stoller, 2001:194 ). I have chosen some of these activities which I believe would be useful in the Japanese high school context are shown below. 1. Identifying the sentences that covey the main ideas of the text 2. Underlining transition phrases 3. Explaining what a set of pronouns refers to in prior text 4. Reorganizing a scrambled paragraph and discussing textual clues used for decisions 5. Matching the titles or headings with a set of paragraph in the text. In university settings, necessity would need to peruse rather long difficult texts in gathering or learning information. To help students to prepare for this, it is a good idea for teachers to provide activities which make students aware of the basic level of textbook organization and discourse cues like coherence markers and cohesive devices. Below is one sample activity which seeks to achieve this. The World Health Organization says that almost three million people die each year from the effects of smoking tobacco. Most of these people die of lung cancer, heart disease ( 1 ) other cancers. Tobacco use is a main cause of these diseases, doctors say. International health specialists believe health problems linked to smoking will get worse in the years to come. A WHO study shows smoking decreased by one percent in industrialized countries;( 2 ), it increased by about two percent in the rest of the world. 1. Give the meaning of the underlined words. 2. Choose and insert the following words into (1)and (2). therefore, however, and, then

From One world English course Lesson 3 Effects of Smoking on Health

Figure 5.4 Activities developing cohesion, after Cook, 1989

5.5. Reading in relation to other skills Brown ( 2001:298 ) emphasizes that reading ability will be developed best in association with writing , listening, and speaking activities. In classes like Englishand , students are expected to develop their well-balanced four skills. I believe reading itself is important and teachers should sometimes deal with it apart from other skills. However, in the end, it is a component of overall English proficiency. There is no doubt that the most important thing for students is to develop their overall English proficiency. Moreover, if reading ability is improved through activities related to other skills as Brown says, it should be desirable to provide students with reading activities related to listening, speaking, and writing activities. Some activities which I think useful are shown below. 1. A pre-reading or a post- reading discussion activity about the topic 2. Listening to series of informative statements or summaries given by a teacher or an assistant language teacher ( ALT ) about the topic of a passage to be read 3. Writing a paraphrase of a section of the reading passage or summarizing the whole 4. Creating an appropriate title or label for each paragraph 5. Making easy comprehension questions 6. Writing down short comments or reactions to readings There are some cases in which it is almost impossible for high school students who are not used to speaking English to discuss the topic without receiving any help with vocabulary or any guidelines. However, I think if they practice the ways of giving opinion or some expressions used in discussion, students can discuss the topic after reading because they already become familiar with the words and phrases they might use in discussion. Moreover, discussion activities nurture their ability to analyse texts and contributes to make students independent reader. Summarising text is also typical activity of this kind. Since summarising cannot be done well without comprehension, it is quite reasonable and effective activity. Grabe and Stoller ( 2001 ) emphasises that this activity can have a good effect on improvement of both reading and writing abilities.

5.6. Background knowledge The importance of the knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and discourse organization have already been mentioned in previous chapters and sections. These are actually some components of background knowledge. Obviously, background knowledge includes all language knowledge and the readers whole knowledge of the world. Therefore, in this section, I would like to focus mainly on activation of knowledge of content. (a) Semantic mapping One of the significant ways to build students background knowledge is through semantic mapping. A key word or concept from the reading material is given to the readers. Then they are asked to generate words and concepts they associated with the key word or concept. The material can be graphically organized on the blackboard. Students can link the ideas and concepts to their own prior knowledge. (b) Pre-reading activities using simplified versions or Japanese translation. If students have little background knowledge to activate, it is too hard for them to understand the text. However, this is mostly not a problem of English proficiency, but a problem of knowledge of the world. In this case, I believe it a good idea to use a simplified version of the text or Japanese translation to save time as a pre-reading. I sometimes use Japanese translation in making students engage in activities using four skills ( see Kanatani, 2004 ). Even if reading activities are focused on, Japanese translation is useful because they can get a picture of the text through reading Japanese and can read an English text more easily. In this way, we will be able to increase the amount of English which students will be exposed to without spending a lot of time translating text.

Conclusion There seems to be no one way to develop students reading abilities. As we have seen, reading involves very complex processes and varies depending on purpose. That is why difficulty in defining reading arises. A wide range of factors should be discussed in examining reading. However, some of the important factors which facilitate students reading ability in Japan have been identified in this project. First, we have to tackle the problem of lack of exposure to English text through extensive reading in class and out of class. To have students engage in reading extensively, selection of reading materials is one of the important task for teachers. Teachers should make an effort to make students realize the pleasure of reading. Second, the rate enhancement issue should be given a higher priority not only because examinations always involve time constraint so a rapid reader can gain more benefit, but because working memory is a key to fluent reading process. Third, vocabulary building is indispensable for high school students to improve their reading ability. Teachers should exploit every opportunity where students can acquire new vocabulary. Fourth, enhancement of different reading strategies ( skills ) depending on the purpose of reading should be emphasised. Teachers should clarify the purpose of reading all the time so that students can use appropriate strategies ( skills ) for reading. I believe that mental translation is very important ( see Grabe and Stoller, 2002 ); however, teaching only using a conventional grammar-translation method seldom leads to improved reading strategies. Finally and most important, teaching of reading should be done in integrated way in relation to other skills. The validity of some of the suggested activities has not been proven yet. Therefore, it requires actual teachers research in their own classrooms.

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