Information collection & exchange

 
 
CHAPTER 5 
 
Teaching reading 
This chapter first examines the variety of roles played by reading in the learning and use of a language. 
Next a number of sample exercises show how the underlying microskil
les of reading in the learning and use of language 
ur definition of "reading in a foreign language" probably depends on your
minently among the typical activities. As part of each lesson, the teacher probably assigned a number of 
s or pages of text for you to prepare for the next class meeting
eting the teacher would call on the students one by one to read the assigned text aloud in the 
nglish (the students' native language). The reading and 
nslation might be followed by a discussion of some of the features of the text: noteworthy grammatica
c
On the other hand, if your teacher was using the Audiolingual Method, it is very likely that reading was 
minimized in favor of listening to and speaking the language. Reading materials in beginning Audiolingua
c
allowed to see these in printed form and read them after they have been practiced orally. The second type 
includes short conversations and narratives which are constructed to parallel closely, but not to duplicate, 
the oral drill materials. Thus, in reading the second type of materials, students learn to process partially 
unfamiliar texts. 
The Audiolingual Method was rarely extended beyond the elementary level of language learning, and 
techniques for teaching more advanced reading skills were never fully developed
their language study beyond the elementary level might find themselves in courses using pre-Audiolingual 
techniques for the teaching of reading. That is, reading lessons might consist of the read aloud-translate-
discuss procedure employed in the Grammar Translation Method. Or they might involve the kind of literary 
analysis commonly found in literature courses taught through the medium of the students' native language. 
In recent years, language teaching methodologists have gained a greater appreciation of the nature of the 
reading skill. They have come to understand that in fact it is not a single monolithic skill. Rather it is a 
behavior which is made up of a large number of component skills, sometimes referred to as microskills. 
These range from such foundational skills as the ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet and to match 
spoken words and sentences with their written representation, to quite sophisticated skills such as skimming 
a piece of writing to gain a general idea of its content, or evaluating a text for its general tone or bias. When 
language learners read in their second language, some of the microskills which th
th
Methodologists have also come to be
re
also for daily living. You read not just novels, essays, and poetry, but also newspapers, instruction manuals, 
and the labels on the products you buy in the supermarket. Thinking of this variety of reading tasks, you can 
see that different tasks require different approaches. For maximum efficiency, students must be taught to 
vary their approach to suit the purpose of their reading. 
 S

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Before looking at specific techniques and materials which you can use for teaching different types of reading 
tasks, you need a long-range overview of how reading proficiency may be developed, beginning with the 
lowest level of reading proficiency and proceeding to the most advanced. The part of this progression where 
your own students appear to fit will of course he the most interesting to you. However, you will be better able 
to help your students if you can see the whole sequence of development of reading proficiency. 
It is helpful to view each of the three main phases of the sequence in terms of reading proficiency level, skills 
Skills and features of English to learn 
Associate spoken forms with their written representation 
Use reading for everyday tasks 
Basic literacy materials 
Proficiency level 
Pick out main ideas 
Pick out main ideas 
Understand logical relationships between parts of a text 
Extract information relevant to a specific purpose 
terials 
Journal articles and professional publications 
Technical reports 
and features of the language to he learned, and materials which are appropriate for that phase.