Principles for teaching reading
1. Exploit the reader’s background knowledge.
A reader’s background knowledge can influence reading comprehension
(Carrell, 1983, Carrell and Connor, 1991). Background knowledge includes
all of the experiences that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational
experiences, knowledge of how texts can be organized rhetorically,
knowledge of how one’s first language works, knowledge of how the second
language works, and cultural background and knowledge. Reading comprehension
can be significantly enhanced if background knowledge can be
activated by setting goals, asking questions, making predictions, teaching text
structure, and so on. If students are reading on an unfamiliar topic, you may
need to begin the reading process by building up background knowledge.
An interesting concept to consider related to the role of background knowledge
is the negative influence it may have. Incorrect background knowledge can
hinder comprehension. For example, some readers may have misconceptions
about how AIDS is contracted. Some may believe that you can get AIDS by
kissing or swimming in a pool. These misconceptions may interfere with a reading
passage on AIDS, and you may have to correct the background knowledge
through a prereading activity before reading comprehension can be achieved.
2. Build a strong vocabulary base.
Recent research emphasized the importance of vocabulary to successful
reading. (See Nation, Chapter 7, this volume.) As I have developed my own
philosophy of the role of vocabulary in reading instruction, I have decided
that basic vocabulary should be explicitly taught and L2 readers should be
taught to use context to effectively guess the meanings of less frequent vocabulary.
I have arrived at my philosophy, in part, by reviewing the research on
vocabulary acquisition. Levine and Reves (1990) have found that “it is easier
for the reader of academic texts to cope with special terminology than with
general vocabulary” (p. 37). They stress the great need for a teaching program
that builds general, basic vocabulary.
I have found my own vocabulary instruction enhanced by asking these
three questions from Nation (1990, p. 4):
1. What vocabulary do my learners need to know?
2. How will they learn this vocabulary?
3. How can I best test to see what they need to know and what they
now know?
3. Teach for comprehension.
In many reading instruction programs, more emphasis and time may be
placed on testing reading comprehension than on teaching readers how to
comprehend. Monitoring comprehension is essential to successful reading.
Part of that monitoring process includes verifying that the predictions being
made are correct and checking that the reader is making the necessary adjustments
when meaning is not obtained.
Cognition can be defined as thinking. Metacognition can be defined as
thinking about our thinking. In order to teach for comprehension, it is my
belief that readers must monitor their comprehension processes and be able
to discuss with the teacher and/or fellow readers what strategies they use to
comprehend. By doing this, the readers use both their cognitive and metacognitive
skills.
Questioning the author, developed by Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, and
Kucan (1997), is an excellent technique for engaging students in meaningful
cognitive and metacognitive interactions with text and for assisting students
in the process of constructing meaning from text. Beck et al. emphasize that
this activity is to be done during the reading process, not after reading. The
approach requires that the teacher model the reading behavior of asking
questions in order to make sense of what is being read. Students learn to
engage with meaning and develop ideas rather than retrieve information
from the text. This particular technique is the kind of activity that teachers of
reading should engage the class in, rather than asking them to read a passage
and then testing reading comprehension of the material. Use of this approach
engages the teacher and readers in queries about the text as the material is
being read. Examples of queries include “What is the author trying to say
here? What is the author’s message? What is the author talking about? What
does the author mean here? Does the author explain this clearly?” (Beck et
al., 1997, pp. 34, 37).
Reading
4. Work on increasing reading rate.
One great difficulty in the second language reading classroom is that even
when language learners can read, much of their reading is not fluent. Often,
in our efforts to assist students in increasing their reading rate, teachers overemphasize
accuracy which impedes fluency. The teacher must work towards
finding a balance between assisting students to improve their reading rate and
developing reading comprehension skills. It is very important to understand
that the focus is not to develop speed readers, but fluent readers. I define a fluent
reader as one who reads at a rate of 200 words-per-minute with at least
70 percent comprehension.
One focus here is to teach readers to reduce their dependence on a dictionary.
Skills such as scanning, skimming, predicting, and identifying main
ideas get students to approach reading in different ways. Readers should
spend more time analyzing and synthesizing the content of the reading, and
not focusing on moving through the passage one word at a time. Part of the
joy of reading is being able to pick up a book and comprehend it, without
having to struggle through the task of reading.
5. Teach reading strategies.
Strategies are “the tools for active, self-directed involvement that is necessary
for developing communicative ability. Strategies are not a single event,
but rather a creative sequence of events that learners actively use” (Oxford,
1996). This definition underscores the active role that readers take in strategic
reading. To achieve the desired results, students need to learn how to use
a range of reading strategies that match their purposes for reading. Teaching
them how to do this should be a prime consideration in the reading classroom
(Anderson, 1991; Chamot and O’Malley, 1994).
Some of the research that I have done indicates that “there is no single set
of processing strategies that significantly contributes to success …” in second
language reading tasks. Strategic reading means not only knowing what strategy
to use, but knowing how to use and integrate a range of strategies
(Anderson, 1991).
A good technique to sensitize students to the strategies they use is to get
them to verbalize (or talk about) their thought processes as they read.
Readers can listen to the verbal report of another reader who has just read
the same material, and it is often revealing to hear what other readers have
done to get meaning from a passage. I use this technique in my reading classes
to get students to become more aware of their reading strategies and to be
able to describe what those strategies are.
76 Chapter
6. Encourage readers to transform strategies into skills.
An important distinction can be made between strategies and skills
(Kawai, Oxford, and Iran-Nejad, 2000). Strategies can be defined as conscious
actions that learners take to achieve desired goals or objectives, while
a skill is a strategy that has become automatic. This characterization underscores
the active role that readers play in strategic reading. As learners consciously
learn and practice specific reading strategies, the strategies move
from conscious to unconscious; from strategy to skill.
For example, guessing the meaning of unknown vocabulary from context
can be listed as both a strategy and a skill in reading texts. When a reader is
first introduced to this concept and is practicing how to use context to guess
the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary he or she is using a strategy. The use
of the strategy is conscious during the learning and practice stages. As the
ability to guess unfamiliar vocabulary from context becomes automatic, the
reader moves from using a conscious strategy to using an unconscious skill.
The use of the skill takes place outside the direct consciousness of the reader.
The goal for explicit strategy instruction is to move readers from conscious
control of reading strategies to unconscious use of reading skills.
6. Encourage readers to transform strategies into skills.
An important distinction can be made between strategies and skills
(Kawai, Oxford, and Iran-Nejad, 2000). Strategies can be defined as conscious
actions that learners take to achieve desired goals or objectives, while
a skill is a strategy that has become automatic. This characterization underscores
the active role that readers play in strategic reading. As learners consciously
learn and practice specific reading strategies, the strategies move
from conscious to unconscious; from strategy to skill.
For example, guessing the meaning of unknown vocabulary from context
can be listed as both a strategy and a skill in reading texts. When a reader is
first introduced to this concept and is practicing how to use context to guess
the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary he or she is using a strategy. The use
of the strategy is conscious during the learning and practice stages. As the
ability to guess unfamiliar vocabulary from context becomes automatic, the
reader moves from using a conscious strategy to using an unconscious skill.
The use of the skill takes place outside the direct consciousness of the reader.
The goal for explicit strategy instruction is to move readers from conscious
control of reading strategies to unconscious use of reading skills.
7. Build assessment and evaluation into your teaching.
Assessing growth and development in reading skills from both a formal
and an informal perspective requires time and training. Both quantitative and
qualitative assessment activities should be included in the reading classroom.
Quantitative assessment will include information from reading comprehension
tests as well a