M a education paper-v methods of teaching english

 
 
 
 

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Unit III: 1. Development of Reading Skills 
At the end of this unit you will be able to: 
a. Specify the nature of reading 
b. Enumerate the guidelines for beginning reading 
c. Describe the characteristics of Fluent reading 
d. Distinguish between silent and loud reading 
e. Compare extensive and intensive forms of reading 
f. Explain the importance of supplementary reading 
 
A. The Mechanics of Reading 
3. A i. Nature of Reading 
In the context of language learning, reading means “reading and understanding”. The general 
assumptions about the nature of reading are: 
1. We need to read and decode individual letters in order to read words particularly at the 
early stages of reading. But if the context is clear, even partially illegible writing can be 
understood. 
2. We do not necessarily need to read every word accurately in order to understand a text. 
We need to read enough words to understand the main meanings of the text, and can skip 
or pay less attention to ones that repeat previous information or are redundant. 
3. If we understand all the words in a text, we are likely to understand the text, but we also 
need to have some previous knowledge of the subject matter and text-type. When reading 
a text, we use information given by the words interacting with our own world knowledge 
in order to access the meaning.
4. The more clearly the words are linked together to make coherent sense-units (phrases, 
sentences) and the more clearly sentences are linked together to make coherent 
paragraphs the easier the text will be to read. 
However, to begin reading the learners of English must be aware of phonemes. Many beginner 
learners of English have to learn a totally new writing system very different from their L1.It is 
therefore useful to work on phonemic awareness. Learners are encouraged to hear and 
differentiate between the different sounds or phonemes of English which they will need to match 
with the letters or letter combinations that represent them. For example, identifying the 
difference between / p / and / b /, or between / i / and / i: /. Various kinds of oral exercises are 
used to enable learners to listen to sounds and do various identification tasks. 

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