Specific learning goals, along with the tasks that help students reach those goals. Choosing suitable texts for a particular group of learners.
WHAT COMPLICATES READING A SECOND LANGUAGE?
The second question is addressed to students who have learned to read their
second language but show slower reading speed and lower comprehension scores in
the second language. MacNamara (1967) documented this in a series of studies with
twelve- and thirteen-year-old English-Irish bilinguals who had received most of their
school instruction in Irish, their second language. He found they read faster in their
first language than in their second and, in addition, they were able to solve
problems written in English more accurately than identical problems written in
Irish, even though tests showed they understood the vocabulary and syntax of the
Reading in a second language calls for fast, automatic word decoding and access to the mental lexicon (dictionary); this means working on building speed and fluency and on learning to recognise at least 10,000 words in the new language. Learners can build speed and fluency by learning vocabulary systematically and by doing lots of easy (‘extensive’) reading. Learners will also read better in their second language if they learn about text characteristics, and if they know how to handle a variety of strategies for getting meaning from texts. Background knowledge about the second-language culture will make comprehension easier as well.