Information collection & exchange

 Making the transition to longer texts 
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proficiency. Likewise, reading tasks connected to everyday purposes will be motivating to students at any 
level of the language curriculum. However, in most instances you will probably be teaching students whose 
reading needs are not satisfied by these relatively limited types of text. They will want and need to read more 
extended texts: short stories, novels, plays, school textboo
h
What problems do your students face when they try to read extended stretches of text? Unfamiliar 
vocabulary, of course. Probably also grammatical features which they have not studied or which they have 
not thoroughly mastered. But even if a particular reading selection does not present vocabulary or grammar 
difficulties, your students may still have trouble comprehending it. This is because there are two further 
aspects of written discourse which may cause problems for the language learner: the content (what the 
reading selection is about) and

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Experts in the teaching of reading emphasize that when you begin to read a text, usually you already know 
something about the content. The title of a short story or the headline of a newspaper article calls to mind a 
ertain area of previous experience. Thus even before you read the first sentence, you have some 
exp
un
mation is lacking in any way, 
comprehension of the text becomes more difficult. This type of comprehension problem is not unexpected 
wh
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"Na
rport is located virtually in the heart of the 
ashington metropolitan area, there is a long history of conflict over the noise created by the heavy traffic of 
r had added the word "Airport" to the headline. In that case, many more people would be 
ble to predict something about the content of the article. Washington's National Airport is not unique in the 
roblems of noise which it creates. But if you have never lived in the vicinity of a busy airport, you may be 
sures must be taken to control airport noise. 
ou may well ask yourself what the fuss is about. Isn't it worth a little noise to have an airport nearby? 
aware of this pattern of organization, you might become confused as you proceeded 
rough the article and found that the writer seemed to circle back to the "same" facts one or more times. 
u can use to compensate for your students' deficiencies in 
ackground information and lack of familiarity with conventions for organizing various types of discourse. 
On
fam
an
ular texts and provide them 
with the information which they will need for better comprehension of the texts. It is best to use a 
com
 Na
It is very common to use narrative and expressive types of text for initial teaching of extended reading. Such 
tex
dis
seq
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bridge the gap is to use texts which the students construct themselves, as is done in the Language 
Experience Approach (LEA) to the teaching of reading. Because the students generate the reading selection 
in 
mu
language activities. You will find a lot of use for the LEA in beginning level classes. 
Sample Lesson Plan for Transition to Longer Texts 
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ectation of what the story or article will contain. You have background information which will help you to 
derstand what you are about to read. However, if that background infor
en you try to read a text from a specialized field for which you have no training, but you may not expect to 
ve such problems when reading texts of a less technical nature. 
illustrate how a lack of background information may hamper the reader, consider the following headline: 
The Noise from National Isn't Getting Any Better 
es that mean anything to you? Probably not, unless you have lived in Washington, DC and you know that 
tional" refers to National Airport. Because National Ai
W
aircraft which use it. Anyone living in the Washington area for a while soon learns of this problem, and the 
two words "National" and "noise” would call it instantly to mind. 
Suppose the write
a
p
puzzled by the underlying assumption of the article: that mea
Y
Reading comprehension is hindered not only by a lack of background information on content but also by lack 
of familiarity with the pattern by which the text is organized. You know, for example, that a newspaper article 
is organized in a kind of inverted pyramid fashion. The important facts are presented early in the article, with 
the most important facts of all coming in the first paragraph and the least important details at the end of the 
article. If you were not 
th
You might not notice that the writer was simply filling in less important details as the article progressed. 
There are two general procedures which yo
b
e procedure involves controlling the texts-using reading selections whose content and organization are 
iliar to the learners. The other procedure is to provide various kinds of support to the learners-trying to 
ticipate gaps in their knowledge about the content and organization of partic
bination of the two approaches which suits the needs of your students.