5 Approachesto

reading

Live listening
One activity that hasgrown in populariry in recentyearsis'live listening'.The
basicidea is straightforward:studentsget to listen to real peoplespeakingin class,
ratler than to recordings.Here's a lvay of ftying this:
. When you find that your coursebookhas a fairly dull listeningtext coming up,
insteadofusing the recording,in'ite a colleaguewith a sparefive minutes to
come into your class.
. Make sure the classhas a cleartasku'hile listening,eg to note down the main
points that eachspeakermake'.
. Sit in front ofthe learnersand havea live 'ordinarv' conversationon the same
topic asthe book.
Though there is certainly a lot ofvalue in getting a variety ofvisitors with
different vocal stylesinto your class,you can do live listeningson your own) too:
readingor improvisingconversations
in your own voice)or'acting'a rangeof
charactersyourself.The following activity could be done using a visitor or by
yourself.
Guest stars
Preparenotesfor a short monologuein character(a famouspop staror
celebrity). In class)announcethat a gueststaris coming today,but don't say
who it is. Go out of the room and return'in character'(or invite another
colleaguein). The 'guest' then chats naturally for a minute or two in character,
about her life, a typical da-v,how shefeels,etc.The learnersshouldlistenand
not shout out who they think it is, but instead write down their guess,At the end
ofthe monologue,Iet tlrem comparethet guessesin smallgroups (giving
reasons)and then checkwith -vou.Vhenthey know who the guestis, they could
briefly ask a few more interview questionsto the character.Repeatthe activity
with different'guests'asa regularslot in your lessons.(Maybe studentscould
play the'guest',too.)

Approaches to reading
Readingto oneself(asopposedto readingaloud)is,likelistening,a'recepdve'
skill, and similar teachingprocedurescan be usedto help learners.Thetaskfeedbackcircle works equallywell with readingtexts,and many ofthe guidelines
given in Section2 are alsoeasill'adaptable.
The most obviousdifferencesare to do with the fact that peopleread at different
speedsand in different lvays.ri?hereas
a recording takesa definite length of time to
play through, in a reading activiry individuals can control the speedthey work at
and what thev arelookins at.

263

skills:listeningand reading
Chapter10 Receptive

Difficultieswhenleadinga foreignlanguage

s h e nt r y i n gt o r e a da t e x ti n a l a n g u a gteh a ty o u
W h a ta r ey o u ro w nm a i np r o b l e mw
d o n ' tk n o wv e r yw e l l ?

Maybe:
. I don't know enoughvocabulary.
. I needthe dictionary all the time.
. It's very slov'- it takesagesjust to get through a few sentences.
. I often get to the stagewhere I understandall the individual words, but the
whole thing eludesme completely.
. Becauseit's slow,the pleasureor interestin the subiectmatter is soonlost.
Many learnersapproachreadingtexts expectingto read them thoroughly and
to stop only when they haveunderstoodeveryword. Clearly,thereis valuein
this as a way of improving their vocabulary and their understanding of
grammar,but, aswith listening,this kind of approachdoesnot necessarily
make them into better readers,becausethis plodding, word-by-word
approachis not the way that we most often do our readingin real life. In order
to make studentsbetter readers.we needfirst of all to raisetherr awareness
that it's not alwaysessentialto understandeveryword, and that practising
some different reading techniques in English may be very useful to them.
And iftheir basicstrategyis to read slowlyand ponderously,then a good
first strategycould be to help them learn to read fast;not worrying about
understandingeveryword; not, perhaps,evenunderstandingmost words,
but still achieving a specific and useful goal.
Reading for detail
A lot ofin-class readingwork hastraditionally been'readingfor detail'- or
'intensivereading'ie readingtexts closelyand carefullywith the intention of
gaining an understandingofas much detail aspossible.Often this is so that the
student can answercomprehensionquestions(eg Whlt diclthethreemengo into tlt.
ofzZe?)
This is typically a stop / start kind ofreading, involving going back over
small piecesof the sametext a number of times to find out more and more about
it, making surettrat the words havebeen correcdy interpreted.This is how a
competentlanguageuser might read an instuction manual for a piece offlat-pach
furniture or a leafletwith guidelineson whether they haveto pay income tax or
not. It's not the way shewould typically read a chapterfrom a novel ot a magazine
article,although,in classrooms,it is often how studentsare askedto processsuch
material (with true / falseand other comprehensionquestionsto checkif they car':
pick up specificpoints).
In everydaylife, we tend to do much more extensivereading,ie fluent, faster
reading,often oflonger texts,for pleasure,entertainmentand general
understanding,but without such careful attentionto the details.\(/henwe don t
understandwords or small sections,we usuallyjust keepgoing, maybeonly
coming back when there hasbeena major breakdownin our understanding.
There is certainly a placefor intensivereadingin class,helping studentsto
' uncover and accuratelyunderstand detailsin a text - but this is by no meansthc
261

5 Approaches
to reading
only strategythat a good readerneeds.Bcing ableto read fast and fluently is also
ver"vlmportant.
Skimrning and scanning
Many activitiesdesignedto increasereadingspeedsarc variationson the
following two ideas:
. Skimming : Read quickly to get the gist of a passage(eg to discoverkel' topics,
main ideas,overalltheme,basic structure,etc). A t_vpicalskimming task would
be a generalquestionfrom the teacher,such as1sl/zlsp assage
abotttJill\
weruoriesoJurmmeror uinter? or Is this stor! setin q schoolor a resteurqnt?The
learnerswould attempt to find the ansr.ver
quickll', rl,ithout readingevery word
ofthe passage,by 'speed-reading'through someportions of the text.
. Scanning: l'4ove e1'esquickly over the tcxt to locatea specihcpieceof
information (eg a name,address,fact, price, number, date etc) ."vithoutreading
the $'holetext or unpacking any subtletiesof meaning.A common scanmng
activity is searchingfor information in a leatletor directorl,,and a typical
scanningtaskwouldbe Vhat timedoestheBiruirlghdn trqin leaae?orWhat does
Cath! takewith her to Lhemeeting?
Skimming and scanningare both 'top-down' skills (seeSection3 earlierin this
chapter).Although scanningis invoh"'edr.vithfinding individual points fiom the
text without reading carefullythrough everv rvord of the text) the way that a reader
Itnds that information involvessomedegreeofprocessingof the overallshapeand
structure of the text, moving her eyesquickly over the rvholepage,searchingfor
key words or cluesfrom the textual layout and the content that rvill enableher to
focus in on smallersectionsoftext that sheis likelv to eet answersfrom.

setectinganappropriate
readingtask

l m a g i n et h a t y o u h a v eg i v e ns t u d e n t sa c o p yo f a t o u r i s t l e a f l e tp u bl i c i s i n ga n e a r b y
t o w n a n d a d v e r t j s i n gl o c a la t t r a c t i o n sm
, u s e u m s ,s p e c i a le v e n t sa n d w t t h
i n f o r m a t i o no n p r i c e s ,o p e n n g t i m e s , e t c . W h a tw o u l db e a s u i t a b l et a s k t o g e t
s t u d e n t st o r e a dt h i s q u i c k l y( r a t h e rt h a n r e a d e v e r yw o r d ) ?

You probably want tasksthat encouragestudentsto searchfor specificsmall

sectionsoftext which they then read more carefullyto find a required pieceof
information. Thesemight be factual,information questionssuch as,When does
the Military Museum close?"Can I take my dog into Chapultepecpark?,,What is
a good souvenirto takeback from this region?''Ho,"vmuch would it cost for a
family of four to go swimming?''What are the newestanimalsin the zoo?,
Studentsdoing this will be readingthe material in a similar wav to how people
might read it in everydaylife.

choosingusefulreadingactivities

W h i c ho f t h e f o l l o w i n gs e e m t o b e u s e f u lr e a d i n ga c t i v i t j e sa n d w h r c hn o t ? W h y ?
Brieflywork out an alternativeproceclurefor the less satisfactoryones.
1 T h e c l a s s r e a d sa w h o l ep a g eo f c l a s s i f i e da d v e r t i s e m e n t sr n t h e n e w s p a p e r .
u s i n gt h e i r d i c t i o n a n e st o l o o k u p a l l u n k n o w nw o r c l s .

Chapter10 Receptive
skilis:listenrng
and reading
S t u d e n t sa r e e a c h l o o k i n ga t a n o n l i n ep a g ef r o m a n e w s p a p e rA. s k t h e m t o f i n d
t h e w o r d o y e r s o m e w h e r eo n t h e f r o n t p a g e .
P l a c ea p i l e o f l o c a lt o u r i s t l e a f l e t so n t h e t a b l e a n d e x p l a i nt h a t s t u d e n t s ,i n
g r o u p so f f o u r ,c a n p l a n a d a y o u t t o m o r r o w .
S t u d e n t sr e a d a s h o r t e x t r a c tf r o m a n o v e la n d a n s w e rf i v e m u l t i p l e - c h o i c e
c o m p r e h e n s i oq
n u e s t i o n sa b o u t f i n e p o i n t so f d e t a i l .

One test for useful reading (or listeningrvork) might be to checkhow far tasks
reflect real-lifeusesof the sametext. If a text is usedin classin r,vavsthat are
reasonablysimilar ro reallife, it is likely that the rask\aill be effcctive.
Procedure 1 seemsunsatisfactorybecauseit is an unrealisticuse of the
advertisements;in real life, no one would read them in such a u'ay.A more realistic
task would require tiem to scantlte adsfor specificitems (aswe do when we wanr.
say)to buy a second-handTV). So 'What is the bestTv I could bu1'?'would be a
far more realistictask.
Procedure2 is similarly strange.Thisis a scanningexercise,but an entirely
unrealisticone.!7emight well scana newspaperlooking for namesofpeople or
countriesthat we wanted to read about or headingsthat directedus to informatior
we needed(such asr.veather),
but it seemsunlikely that we rvould searchfor a
singleu'ord like oaer(though asa game,it could be fun). For a more useful
scanningtask,studentscould be askedto find where specificarticlesare or hnd
certain factual information. Skimming taskswould alsobe useful,to get the gist (,:
an article for example.
Procedure3, although it perhapsappearsa little strangeinitially, is in fact a verr.
interestingreadingactivity.The studentswill be using the leafletsfor preciselyth,:
purpose for which they rvereu'ritten, and u'ill be readingthem in order to obtain
"
r.vholerange ofappropriate ideasand information; seeingwhat's available,
checkingopening times,prices,etc.As a bonus,therewill be a lot ofspeaking as
well asreading.
Procedure4 describesan exercisecommonly found in exams.It is clearly
useful asa demandingway of testingcomprehension,and is usefulfor studri:.
the fine shadesof meaninga rvriter conve1,s.
It is, however,important to ensu:.
that this kind of activityis not the onlv readingwork done,partly becauseit
seemsto be confirming to studentsthat this is the normal (or onl-v)$,ayto rcJ-:
a novel.Studentsalsoneedto be shorvnapproachesto a novelthat allow therto read fluentlyj at speed,\\'ithoutworrying about catchingeverynuance.
Real-lifepurposesare not the only way of measurir.rg
the usefulnessofclassroo;:.
readingwork. Often we might want to train studentsin specificreading
techniquesor strategies,things that will help their future reading,evenif the
immediate classroomr.vorkdoesn'titselfreflect a real-life nuroose.
Top-down reading
As with listeninglessons,many readinglessonsmove from 'big' to 'small,,ie .tL.:..
dor.vn'- from overviewto details.Using the task-feedbackcircle asa starting
point,we canplan a routemap for a basicreadinglesson(Figure10.5).
266

5 Approaches
to reading

Pre-text

Text

Post-text

I n t r o d u c t i oann dI e a d - i ne,gg e tt h e l e a r n e r isn t e r e s t eidn t h e

t o p i c ,i n i t i adl i s c u s s i oonf k e yt h e m e s m
, a k ea n e x p l i c ilti n k
b e t w e e tnh et o p i co f t h e t e x ta n ds t u d e n t so' w nl j v e sa n d
e x p e r i e n c efso,c u so n i m p o r t a nl ta n g u a gteh a tw i l lc o m ei n
the text

Firsttask (pre-reading),
eg predictfrom someextracted
i n f o r m a t i o(ni l l u s t r a t i o kne, yw o r d s h
, e a d l t n e sr)e, a d
q u e s t i o nas b o u t h et e x t ,s t u d e n t sc o m p o s teh e i ro w n
questions

T a s k st o f o c u s o n f a s t r e a d i n gf o r g i s t ( s k i m m i n g )e, g c h e c k
t e x t a g a i n s tp r e d i c t i o n sm a d e b e f o r e h a n dg, u e s st h e t i t l e
f r o m a c h o i c eo f t h r e e o p t i o n s ,p u t e v e n t s( o r i l l u s t r a t i o n si)n
t h e c o r r e c to r d e r

Tasksto focus on fast readingto locate specific information

(scanning)

T a s k st o f o c u s o n m e a n i n g( g e n e r a p
l o i n t s ) ,e g a n s w e r
q u e s t i o n sa b o u tm e a n i n g ,m a k e u s e o f i n f o r m a t i o ni n t h e
t e x t t o d o s o m e t h i n g( m a k ea s k e t c h ,f i l l o u t a f o r m , f i n d o u t
w h i c hp i c t u r ei s b e i n gd e s c r i b e d e
, t c J .d i s c u s si s s u e s ,
s um m a r i s ea r g u m e n t s c, o m p a r ev i e w p o i n t s

T a s k st o f o c u s o n m e a n i n g( f i n e rp o i n t so f d e t a i l ,m o r e
i n t e n s i v ec o m p r e h e n s i v ue n d e r s t a n d i n g )

T a s k st o f o c u s o n i n d i v i d u alla n g u a g ei t e m s ,e g v o c a b u l a r y
o r g r a m m a re x e r c i S e SU, s eo f d i c t i o n a r i e sw, o r k o U t m e a n i n g
of words from context

F o l l o w - otna s k , e g r o l e p l a y ,d e b a t e ,w r i t i n gt a s k ( e g w r i t e a
l e t t e ri n r e p l y ) ,p e r s o n a l i s a t i o(ne g ' H a v ey o u e v e rh a d a n
e x D e r i e n c lei k et h i s o n e ? ' )

C l o s i n ge, g d r a wt h e l e s s o nt o a c o n c l u s i o nt ,i e u p l o o s ee n d s ,
r e v i e ww h a t h a s b e e ns t u d i e da n d w h a t h a s b e e nl e a r n e d

Figure 10.5 Possible

routemapfor a readinglesson
Here are somespecificideasfor readingtasks
. Put theseillustrationsofthe text in the correct order.
. Put thesecut-up paragraphsin the correct order.
. Find words in the text dtat mean the sameasthe words in this lisr.
. Readthe text and find the mistakesin this illustration (or draw your own).
. Readthe text and make a list of particular items (eg jobs that need doing, the
author'sproposals,advantagesand disadvantages,
etc).
. Give a headlineto eachsectionof the article (or match given headlinesr.viththe
.

SeCtronS).
Find appropriate places in the text to reinsert some sentences rhat have
previously been separated from the text.
267

Chapter10 Receptive
skills:listeningand reading

Write a reply.
Look at the title and the illustrations (but not dre text). Predict which ofthe
following list of words you will find in the text.
Solvethe problem.
Discuss (or write) the missinglastparagraphofthe text.
Discussinterpretationsof, reactionsto, feelingsabout the text.
Make notesunder the following headings:...
Before you read this text, make notesabout what you alreadyknow about the
subject.
. Act out the dialogue,story, episode,etc.
. Put this list of eventsin the correct order.
For ideason using readingto help teachgrammar, seeChapter 7.

Extensive reading
There is a greatdeal ofevidence that extensive reading (ie readinglonger texts.
such asa novel,over time) has a powerful impact on languagelearning.The more
someonereads,the more they pick up items of vocabularyand grammar from the
texts,often without realisingit, and this widening languageknowledgeseemsto
increasetheir overalllinguistic conhdence,which then influencesand improves
their skillsin other languageareas,too (though this is probably only true rn cases
where the material they read is self-chosenand is genuinelyrelevantand
interestingto them).
So,the.reare strong argumentsfor activelyencouragingstudentsto read a lot in
the target language,both in and outsidethe classroom.rVecan help by:
. providing a library ofreaders (seebelow), magazines,newspapers,leaflets,etc:
. training learnershow to selectsuitablereadingmaterial and in waysto read itr
. creatinga 'book club' environmentthat encourageslearnersto choosewhat
books to purchase,talk about favourite books,sharethem with eachother, rvrir<
brief recommendationsJetc;
. allowing sectionsof classroomtime purely for studentsto read;someteachers
who havefive or six lessonsa week setasideone ofthese lessonsasquiet
readingtime.
A library doesn'tneedto be large.It can be somethingassimple asa small box oi
books and magazines.However,it's important to include items that are relevanr
and suitablefor your class.Unabridged old copiesofworthy classicsare probablr
not a good choice.Better to havea few recentmagazineson themestiat studenr.
like (eg frlms,pop stars,computer games,etc for a teen class)and a small setof
gradedreaders.
Readers
Thesearebooksofstories (or other content)publishedspecificallyfor learnersr.,
get extendedexposureto English.They often havetheir grammar and vocabularr
'graded'to namedlevels(eg
Elementary)sothat learnersat that levelshould stan; r
reasonablechanceof successfi.r1ly
readingthem.Manl' statethe sizeof vocabular..

268

6 Extenstve
readins
usedand havefootnotesor glossariesofwords outsidetheir statedword limit. The
main aim ofreadersis to provide opportunitiesfor extensivereadingfor pleasure.
For this reason,be carefulaboutintegratingcomprehensionchecks,testsand
exercisesinto your teaching.Asfar aspossible,letstudentsread,enjoyand move on,
ratherthan read and then haveto do lots ofexercisesafterwards.Thereareideasfor
somecreatrveextensivereadingactivitiesat the end of this section.

Reading
roundthe ctass

R e a d e r sc a n b e r e a d o u t s i d ec l a s s o r c a n b e u s e d j n , q u i e tr e a d i n g c' l a s s t i m e .
S o m et e a c h e r su s e t h e m i n c l a s s f o r r e a d i n ga l o u d .w i t h d i f f e r e n ts t u d e n t sr e a d i n g
s h o r t s e c t i o n so n e a f t e rt h e o t h e r .T h i s r e a d i n ga l o u d , r o u n dt h e c l a s s ' t s
s o m e t h i n gm a n yo f u s r e c a l lf r o m o u r s c h o o l d a y sW
. h y m t g h tt h j s p o p u l a rt e c h n i q u e
not be effective?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I read fasterthan he speaks.

It's so boring.
Shemakesmistakes.
I've alreadyread to page 37 myself.
He can't pronounce it and he getsembarrassed.
I'm so nervousabout reading,I miss the story.
I can't follow the story u'ith all thesedifferent people speaking.
I prefer to read to myself.
It's going to be 35 minutes till rrrygo.
It getsin the way of me hearingthe voicesof the characters.
It's not good practicefor speaking- I d nevertalk like that!

Obviously a fluent readeru'ith the ability to inlect life and feeling into the reading
is a wonderful bonus.Most students,however,do not ht this description,and
round-tie-class readingtends to be a slow)tediousturn-offrather than a rouser of
enthusiasm.
Some alternatives to reading aloud round. the class
Here aresomealternarives
to tr1:
. You read;
. You read narrative,but studentsread character
dialosue;
. Y o ur h a v i n g r e a rdh e c h a p r e r y o u r s e l f b e l o r e
c l a s sr e - l l r Jsr et o r l i n l . o u r o w n
words,without notes,in the most spell-bindingu,ayyou canl later,you get
studentsto do the samewith other bits;
. Studentsread to eachother in small groups pairs)
or
stopping,changing,
discussingand helping eachother wheneverthev want toi
. Studentsread silently,then, rvitlout djscussion.
act out. improvrsrnga scene
basedon what happened;
. Studentssilently speed-reada chapter (say
in two minutes) then report back,
discussing,comparing, etc before silentlyreadingit more carefully.

269

Chapter10 Receptive
skills:listeningand reading

Extensive reading activities

The following ideasare someslightly more rmusualactivitiesbasedaround
interpreting and enjoyingreadersin class:
Don't alwaysstart at the beginninglTry jumping in at the middle and reading
one page.Predict whathappenedbefore,who the peopleare,where they are,
etc. Or use a contentspagesimilarly.
Use a key sectionofthe story asa dictation.
Createa situationquite separatefrom the story of the book and allow students
to improvise to seehowthe characterswould behavein a totally different
environmentor time.The ForsyteswatchingTV together?JaneEyre applying
to get a temporary secretarialjob? Not quite assilly asit soulds - this is a very
exciting way to investigate character.
Studentsdraw the picture ofthe scene.\yhenfinished,they compare and
discusstheir different interpretattons.
Interv.iews:one studentis a chat show host or a newspaperreporter and
interviewsanotherstudentin the role ofa character.'Sowhy did you do that?'
'rX/hat you
do
really think aboutJoseph?'etc. Or get all the characterstogether
and interview them. Sim. arly,put the characters'on trial' in a courtroom:
'\X/hosefault
was it?'
Map the story (or one chapter).Draw lines on it to show different characters'
movements.Or map out the relationshipsbetweencharacters.A good
classroomposter?
Keep a character'sdiary.
Reviewthe book for aTV programme.Meet the author. Discuss,argue.Phone
in callerscan askquestions.
Would it make a good film? The students are the board of directors for a film
company.They needto decidewhether the book is f m material or not. Horv
doesthe story needto be changed?How can they make it more exciting?rWho
should direct it?rWhoshould play the parts?Make an advertisementposter fc
the fi1rn.
\7hat did the front pageof the local newspaperlook like on the day when ...?
Choosea pageor paragraphfrom the next chapterin the book and blank our
somewords. Studentsneedto guesswhat is going to happenby trying to find
the missingwords.
Redesignthe cover of the book.rJTritethe blurb on the back cover.

270