MAJORSHIP
Area: ENGLISH
Focus: Teaching Reading
and Writing
LET Competencies:
1.
Demonstrate
understanding of the nature of reading and writing and the theoretical bases,
principles, methods, and strategies in teaching these components
2.
Apply
skills and strategies gained from reading and writing instruction principles
and techniques
The
Teaching of Reading
What is reading?
Reading
is a process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the
reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language,
and the context of reading situation.
What are the factors
that influence reading in a
second/foreign language?
1.
Cognitive
development and learning style orientation at the time of beginning
second/foreign language study
2.
First
language proficiency
3.
First
language metalinguistic knowledge
4.
Second/foreign
language proficiency
5.
First
language and a second/foreign language degree of differences
6.
Cultural
orientations
(-from Farrell, T.S.C., 2002)
What are the concerns
of teaching reading?
- Schema
Activation
to make sense of new information in light of what they already know, and
to make the necessary connection between the two. Some basic pre-reading
techniques are
- Brainstorming
ideas that a topic bring to mind;
- Previewing a passage,
noting headings and bold print;
- Constructing a
graphic organizer, web, or outline from passage headings for use in note
taking
- Vocabulary Development is an important
factor contributing to reading comprehension. Studies conducted on the
importance of vocabulary instruction demonstrate that it plays a major
role in improving comprehension. This instruction can be done through
- Wide reading
approach
- Direct
instruction
- Superficial
instruction
(- from
Devine, T., 1986)
What are
the principles of vocabulary instruction?
1.
Be
enthusiastic about content area language.
2.
Relate
new vocabulary words to experiences and concepts that students know.
3.
Limit
the number of words taught in each unit; concentrate on key concepts.
4.
Help
students to see clearly the associations among related concepts.
5.
Use
mental imagery and symbolic representation techniques to help students think
about new words.
6.
Model
how to use graphic organizers.
7.
Allow
students enough practice in working with strategies and graphic organizers so
that their use becomes a habit.
8.
Use
dictionaries and glossaries appropriately.
9.
Repeatedly
model how to determine a word’s meaning in text materials.
(- from Gunning, T. G., 2003)
What is
the basis for choosing words for vocabulary development?
- high frequency words
- academic words/
content area words
- technical words
- literary words
- low frequency
words
(-from Nation, P., 2002)
- Comprehension Development is the main
purpose of reading instruction. For comprehension to improve, the
interaction among all three factors (reader, text, and context) must be
taken into consideration.
- Understanding text Organization helps students to
have a blueprint for constructing a situational model of a story or
informational piece. Students need to learn the following in relation to text
organization:
- Text type
(narrative or expository)
- genre
- Hierarchy of
ideas in exposition
- Significant
details in narrative and expository texts
- Use of graphic
organizers
- Application is the part of
the lesson that helps readers see the relevance of learning in their own
life, or appreciate the nature of their environment and understand the
significance of knowing about the lessons discussed in the classroom. This
provides a ground for making students remember and value insights learned
in the class. Reading instruction
can end by:
- Valuing
- Appreciating
- Relating lessons
to own life
- Linking lesson to
explain real-life contexts
- Responding
creatively using multiple intelligence
What is
the format of a language lesson?
A language lesson has five parts or phases:
- The perspective or opening phase
where the teacher gives a preview of the new reading lesson that he/she
will teach.
- The simulation phase where the teacher
poses a question (or questions) to get the student thinking about the
coming activity. This is used as a lead into the main activity.
- The instruction/participation phase introduces the
main activity of the reading lesson.
- The closure phase is where the teacher
attempts to get the students’ input regarding what they have learned in
the lesson that was just presented.
- The follow-up and the final phase has
the teacher using other activities to reinforce the same concepts and
introduce new ones.
What are the
general instructional objectives for a second/foreign language reading program?
- To develop an awareness
of reading strategies necessary for successful reading comprehension.
- To expand
vocabulary and develop techniques for continued increase of vocabulary.
- To develop an
awareness of linguistics and rhetorical structures found in reading texts.
- To increase
reading speed and fluency.
- To promote an
interest in different types of reading materials.
- To provide
individual feedback on progress in improving reading skills.
- To provide
practice in extensive reading skills.
What are
the principles for designing effective and interesting reading lessons?
- The reading
materials are interesting for the students.
- The major activity
of the reading lesson is students reading texts.
- Activities and
exercises reflect the purposeful, task-based interactive nature of real reading
(predicting, hypothesizing, and revising ideas about what was read).
- Activities and
tasks allow the learners to bring their knowledge and experiences to the
reading passage.
- Instructional
activities have a TEACHING rather than a testing focus.
- A variety of
different reading activities are used during each lesson ( to maintain
interest, motivation, and pace)
- Lessons should be
divided into pre-reading, during reading and post-reading phases.
(- from Farrell, T.S.C., 2002)
What is Content-Based
Instruction?
- Content-based instruction (CBI) is “…the integration of particular content with language teaching
aims.” It is based on the common underlying principle that successful
language learning occurs when students are presented with target language
material in a meaningful, contextualized form, with the primary focus on
acquiring information and knowledge.
- Content can refer to academic content or content in terms of
cultural themes.
- One of the reasons for the
increasing interest among educators in developing content-based language
instruction is the theory that language acquisition is based on input that
is meaningful and comprehensible to the learner (Krashen 1981, 1982).
- Content becomes the organizing principle; and language structures,
vocabulary, and functions are selected by the teacher that are both
necessary for the content and that are compatible with it. This contextualizes language learning
for students and focuses the learner’s attention primarily on meaning.
- CBI approaches “… view the target
language as the vehicle through which subject matter content is learned
rather than as the immediate object of study.” (Brinton et al., 1989,
p. 5).
- “When the
learner’s second language is both the object and medium of instruction,
the content of each lesson must be taught simultaneously with the
linguistic skills necessary for understanding it “ (Cantoni-Harvey, 1987, p. 22).
- Input must be comprehensible to the learner and be offered in such a
way as to allow multiple opportunities to understand and use the
language. If comprehensible input
is provided and the student feels little anxiety, then acquisition will
take place.
- In other words, Krashen suggests that a second language is most
successfully acquired when the conditions are similar to those present in
the first language acquisition; that is, when the focus of instruction is
on meaning rather than on form; when the language input is at or just
above the proficiency of the learner; and when there is sufficient
opportunity to engage in meaningful use of that language in a relatively
anxiety-free environment.
- The importance of meaningful
context in language teaching is also the underlying principle behind the
Whole Language Approach, commonly referred to as Natural Approach. It is a developmental language model
based on the premise that youngsters acquire language (speaking, reading,
and writing) as naturally as they learn to walk and talk, when they are
invited to engage in self-motivating activities that are stimulating,
interesting, social, meaning-based, purposeful, interactive, and most of
all enjoyable. This approach is based on current research in language
acquisition.
What are some
strategies in teaching reading?
For
Vocabulary Development:
A.
Structural
Analysis. It is the process of breaking up word parts into its meaningful
components: the root words, affixes and suffixes. In short, it is a process of
decoding unfamiliar words by visually examining the words to discover component
parts, which may lead to pronunciation and meaning. A person who uses structural analysis must be
able to recognize the root word or base word; inflectional endings (-s, -ed,
-ing), affixes (prefixes and suffixes), and compound words.
For example, the word biology can be analyzed
by looking at the part bio (which means life) and logos (which means the study of).
Taken together, one could know that biology, in its simplest meaning, is
a study of life.
Find out how well you know the meaning of the
following word components:
- anthrop –
_________ 11. inter
-____________
- bi, di
–____________ 12.
intra - ____________
- biblio
–___________ 13.mal -_____________
- chron –___________ 14. mid -_____________
- cosmos -__________ 15. mis -_____________
- ex - _____________ 16. mono- ___________
- ful -
_____________ 17. phile
- ___________
- hydro -___________ 18. phobia- ___________
- ism _____________ 19. phon - ____________
- ist -
_____________ 20.
sym, syn - ________
Use
structural analysis to get the meaning of the following words.
|
WORD
|
CLUE
|
MEANING
|
|
e.g. polygamous
_____ 1. Megalopolis
_____ 2. Heliocentric
_____ 3. Ichthyolatry
_____ 4. Zoomorphic
_____ 5. Androphobe
_____ 6. Endogamy
_____ 7. Heptarchy
_____ 8. Haemostatic
_____ 9. Idiolect
_____10. Anaerobic
_____11.Anthropophagi
_____12. Theocracy
_____13. Mammogram
_____14. Necropolis
|
poly- many
gam- marriage
ous – adj. Forming/
having
|
Having many marriages
A. government or state governed by priest representing a supreme spirit
or god
B. an X-ray photograph of the breast, especially to detect signs of
cancerous growth
C. a cemetery, especially a large and elaborate one belonging to an
ancient city
D. with the sun at the center of the universe
E. the worship of fish
F. a person with a morbid fear or hatred of men
G. marriage restricted to one’s own group or tribe
H. not requiring air or oxygen to survive
I. the unique speech pattern of an individual person
J. acting to stop the flow of blood or bleeding
K. an immense city, an urban complex made up of several closely linked
cities and their surrounding areas
L. government by seven, a state divided into seven self-governing parts
M. using shapes based on animals
N. eaters of human flesh, cannibals
|
B.
Context
Clue. It is an instructional approach that consists of analyzing words
surrounding an unknown word to determine its meaning. Words are not very useful
when they are presented as isolated elements. They are more functional when
they appear in a meaningful context. Some of the common context clues are the
following:
1. Definition Statements
2. Synonym
3. Antonym
4. Summary
5. Examples
6. Simile
7. Apposition
8. Groupings
C.
Intensive/Extensive
Reading. It supplements explicit vocabulary instruction because all the words
encountered in print are impossible to include in teaching. Through this type
of reading, students come to experience words as used in wide array of reading
materials.
D.
Pleasure
Reading. It is another way of making students read, but the materials or
selection that they have brought are for themselves or for sharing with friends
and classmates. Or it may be a selection chosen by the teacher, but for the
purpose of making students develop love for reading.
(-from
Farrell, T.S.C., 2002)
For
Comprehension Development
- Pre-Reading Plan
- Previewing
- Anticipation Guide
- QARs – Question
–Answer Relationships
- ReQuest –
Reciprocal Questioning
For Activating Prior Knowledge
This strategy is
designed to determine what students already know about the topic that is going
to be studied. This will help to create interest prior to reading.
Activating prior
knowledge allows students to feel that they are somehow connected to the topic
being studied, helping to create a more positive learning environment and
helping students feel that they are a part of the learning process.
Procedure
Before beginning a
text, discuss the topic that will be covered. Have the students share what they
already know about the topic. Find ways to relate the knowledge they have with
the material that needs to be covered.
 |
Assessment
Discuss each question
and determine from students’ answers which students need additional information
before beginning a lesson. As the lesson progresses, continue discussion and questions to determine students’
comprehension of the topic.
Anticipation Guide
This strategy allows
students to consider thoughts and opinions they have about various topics in
order to create an interest in the material that is being covered and to
establish a purpose for reading the material.
This strategy works
best with topics such as literature, science, and social studies that require
information in order to develop opinions. Although subjects such as grammar and
mathematics are more skill related, there are instances in which an
Anticipation Guide with modification would be useful
Procedure
Begin by listing three
or more debatable statements about a topic that students are going to study.
Ask the students to identify whether they agree or disagree with the
statements. Explain that the students need to read the text carefully and see
if they can find statements that support their own views. After they read the
text, discuss the original statements to see if the students maintain their
original view or if they have changed their opinion.
When constructing an Anticipation Guide, keep the
following in mind:
·
Analyze
the material and determine main ideas.
·
Write
the ideas in short, declarative statements. Avoid abstractions.
·
Put
statements in a format that will encourage anticipation and predictions.
·
Discuss
reader’s predictions and anticipations before reading.
·
Assign
the text. Have students evaluate the statements according to the author’s
intent and purpose.
·
Contrast
the predictions with the author’s intended meaning.
|
ReQuest
This strategy
encourages students to build on previous knowledge and think about what might
be important information in the assigned reading. It also gives them the opportunity to write
questions about things they do not understand. One of the advantages to this
strategy is that it breaks the text into short sections so it will not appear
overwhelming to students.
Procedure
The first step is to
choose the text to be covered. Make sure students are familiar with the entire
selection. Next, have the students read the paragraph or short section and have
them think of questions to ask about the topic as they read. After the read, have
students ask their questions and use the text to answer. Next, ask higher level
questions you have prepared. Continue reading the entire selection and have a
question-answer at the end of each section.
 |
Assessment
Discuss and evaluate teacher’s
and student’s questions and answers. Discussions can be used to determine
students’ level of comprehension by assessing their responses after
reading. Encourage responses from
students who appear off task. Students should correctly respond to 80% if the
questions during a discussion.
K-W-L (Know-Want to Know-Learned)
K-W-L gives students a
purpose for reading and gives them an active role before, during and after
reading. This strategy helps them to think about the information they already
know and to celebrate the learning of new information. It also strengthens
their ability to develop questions in a variety of topics and to assess their
own learning.
Procedure
Before reading, ask
students to brainstorm what is known about a topic. They should categorize what is prior
knowledge, predict or anticipate what the text might be about, and create
questions to be answered. During reading, have the class discuss the
information, write responses to their questions, and organize the information.
This strategy may be
done on a sheet with three columns: Know, Want to Know, Learned. Guide the
instruction the first few times it is used. Modeling is effective for the
initial use.
|
||
|
Mapping
Mapping provides a
visual guide for students to clarify textual information such as characters,
setting, problems, reactions, and outcome. This strategy allows you to visually
determine students’ comprehension, and it provides students with a strategy
that they can use on their own when they are dealing with other topics.
Procedure
Model an example of a
map for students, talking through each step and having students assist in
filling in the different areas. After comprehension of this strategy is
assured, have students complete various maps on their own.
|
||
|
||
|
Assessment
Evaluate students’ maps
to determine level of comprehension by the percentage of correct responses.
PLAN
This is a graphic
organizer in which students create a map to visually organize and better
understand the information that has been covered.
Procedure
There are four steps in
this process:
[P]redict the content/structure by using chapter titles
and subheadings.
[L]ocate known and
unknown information. Students can indicate this by placing a __ by things they
know and a ? by things they do not know.
[A}dd words or phrases to the ? as students locate
information about the topic.
[N]ote new understanding of information and use it in
instruction.
 |
 |
|||
 |
|||
Evaluate
the answers that individual students provide to the questions in their
organizer.
Teaching
Writing
Writing
is among the most complex human activities. It involves the development of an
idea, the capture of mental representations of knowledge, and of experiences with
subjects. It can be viewed as involving a number of thinking processes which
are drawn upon in varied and complex ways as an individual composes,
transcribes, evaluates, and revises (Arndt, 1987; Raimes, 1985 as cited in
White, 1995).
In
first language settings, the ability to write well has a very close
relationship to academic and professional success. Grabowski (1996 as cited in
Weigle, 2002, p.4) notes that:
“Writing,
as compared to speaking, can be seen as a more standardized system which must
be acquired through special instruction. Mastery of this standard system is a
pre-requisite of cultural and educational participation and the maintenance of
one’s rights and duties.”
Brown
(1994), as cited in Weigle, 2002, pp.15-16) provides the following list of
characteristics that ordinarily differentiate written language from spoken
language:
·
Permanence: oral
language is transitory and must be processed in real time, while written
language is permanent and can be read and reread as often as one likes;
·
Production
time: writers generally have more time to plan, review, and
revise their words before they are finalized, while speakers must plan,
formulate, and deliver their utterances within a few moments if they are to
maintain a conversation;
·
Distance:
between
the writer and the reader in both time and space, which eliminates much of the
shared context that is present between speaker and listener in ordinary
face-to-face contact and thus necessitates greater explicitness on the part of
the writer;
·
Orthography,
which
carries a limited amount of information compared to the richness of devices
available to speakers to enhance a message (e.g. stress, intonation, pitch,
volume, pausing, etc.);
·
Complexity:
written language tends to be characterized by longer clauses and more
subordinators, while spoken language tends to have shorter clauses connected by
coordinators as well as more redundancy (e.g. repetition of nouns and verbs);
·
Formality:
because of the social and cultural uses to which writing is ordinarily put, writing
tends to be more formal than speaking;
·
Vocabulary:
written
texts tend to contain a wider variety of words, and more lower-frequency words,
than oral texts.
Thus,
in L1 education, learning to write involves learning a specialized
version of a language already known to students. This specialized language
differs from spoken language, both in form and in use, but builds upon
linguistics resources that students already posses. In this sense, one can say
that L1 writing instruction is relatively standardized within a
particular culture.
In
contrast, Weigle (2002) posits that the same cannot be said of L2
writing because of the wide variety of situations in which people learn and use
second languages, both as children and as adults, in schools and in other settings.
She further emphasizes that one cannot write in L2 without knowing
at least something about the grammar and vocabulary of that language.
Thus,
the differences between L1 and L2 writing are
considerable, and in particular the variety is much greater for L2
writers than for L1 writers.
What Writers Need to
Know
Tribble
(1996, p.430) enumerates the range of knowledge that writers need to know in
order to write effectively when undertaking
a specific task:
- Content Knowledge – knowledge of the concepts
involved in the subject area
- Context Knowledge –
knowledge of the context in which the text will be read
- Language System Knowledge
– knowledge of those aspects of the language system necessary for the
completion of the task
- Writing Process Knowledge
– knowledge of the most appropriate way of preparing for a specific
writing task
Writing Theories
·
Writing
as a social and cultural phenomenon
It is important to note that writing is not
solely the product of an individual, but as a social and cultural act.
Hamp-Lyons and Kroll (1997 as cited in Weigle, 2002) claim that writing is an
act that takes place within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose,
and that is appropriately shaped for its intended audience. Expanding in the
social nature of writing, Hayes (1996 as cited in Weigle, 2002, p.19) states
that:
“Contrastive rhetoric, on the other hand,
gained respectability when it became clear to researchers that many aspects of
writing are influenced by culture”.
Leki (1992) and Grabe (1989, as cited in Weigle
2002) point out that variation in writing in different cultures does not
reflect inherent different in thought patterns but rather “cultural preferences
which make greater use of certain options among linguistic possibilities
Cultural expectations can have a consequence
for the coherence of texts – that is, the organization of a text into
meaningful whole. Coherence, as Leki (1992) notes is not an inherent quality of
the text itself, but rather comes from the accuracy of the writer’s assessment
of what the reader will be able to infer from the text.
·
Writing as a Cognitive
Activity
In an attempt to discuss the cognitive aspects
of writing in detail, a number of researchers have looked at the process of
writing, specifically the use of retrospective interviews or think-aloud
protocols.
Models of the Writing
Process
·
Hayes and Flower (1980)
-
Described the writing process in terms of the
task environment, which included the writing assignment and the text produced
so far, the writer’s long-term memory, including knowledge of topic, knowledge
of audience, and stored writing flaws, and a number of cognitive processes,
including planning, translating thought into text, and revising.
-
Emphasized that writing is a recursive
and not a linear process: thus, instruction in the writing process may be more
effective than providing models of particular rhetorical forms and asking
students to follow these models in their own writing.
·
Hayes (1996)
-
Viewed
the writing process as consisting of two main parts: the task environment and
the individual. The latter is the focus of the model. Individual aspects of
writing involves interactions among four components:
1.
Working
memory
2.
Motivation and affect
3.
Cognitive processes
4.
Long-term memory
-
Emphasized the importance of reading as a
central process in writing, and discussed three types of reading that are
essential in writing:
1.
Reading
to evaluate
2.
Reading some source texts
3.
Reading instructions
·
Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987)
-
Proposed
a two-model description of writing that addresses an apparent paradox in
writing:
1.
The fact
that virtually everyone in a literate society can learn to write as well as
they can speak
2.
Expertise on writing involves a difficult,
labor-intensive process that only some people master
-
Made a distinction between knowledge telling and knowledge transforming
Knowledge telling - similar to impromptu
speaking which involves very little planning or revision. This is the kind of
writing which is natural and problematic. The writing of most children and
adolescents falls into this category
Knowledge transformation – involves much more
effort and skill, and is not achieved without a great deal of practice
Ferris (1998, pp.7-8) categorized the different
approaches to L2 composition according to the following four foci,
each of which can be linked to a particular school of thought:
1. Focus on
Form and “current-traditional rhetoric”, 1966 -
-
In L2 writing instruction, early
emphasis was on the production of well-formed sentences; a writing task that
typifies this paradigm is the controlled composition, a narrowly focused
paragraph- or essay-length assignment designed principally to give students
practice with particular syntactic patterns (e.g. the past tense in English)
and/or lexical forms (Kroll, 1991; Silva, 1990, as cited in Ferris, 1998).
-
In an extension of this model,
“current-traditional rhetoric” (Berlin & Inkster, 1980; Kaplan, 1967;
Silva, 1990; Young, 1978, as cited in Ferris, 1998), students were also led to
generate connected discourse by combining and arranging sentences into
paragraphs based on prescribed formulae. Representative composing tasks might
involve the imitation of specific rhetorical patterns (e.g. exposition,
illustration, comparison, classification, argumentation, etc.) based on authentic
and/or student-generated models.
2. Focus on the writer: expressionism and
cognitivism, 1976 –
-
Researchers in this paradigm have attempted to
characterize the heuristics and procedures used by writers as they plan, draft,
revise, and edit their texts.
-
Classroom procedure resulting from this
writer-based orientation include practice with invention strategies, the
creation and sharing of multiple drafts, peer collaboration, abundant revision,
and attention to content before grammatical form.
3.
Focus on content and the disciplines, 1986 –
-
Rather
than replacing writing process with the pedagogical material characteristic of
traditional English courses (vis., language, culture, and literature), content
proponents assert that ESL writing courses should feature the specific subject
matter that ESL students must learn in their major and required courses
(Brinton, Snow, & Wesche, 1989, Horowitz, 1990, Shih, 1986; Snow &
Brinton, 1988, as cited in Ferris, 1998).
-
In this model, students in adjunct, multiskill,
and/or English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses are given assistance with
“the language of the thinking processes and the structure or shape of content.
-
The main emphasis “is on the instructor’s
determination of what academic content
is most appropriate, in order to build whole courses or modules of reading and
writing tasks around that content” (Raimes, 1991, p.411 as cited in Ferris,
1998).
4.
Focus
on the reader: social constructionism, 1986 –
-
A
reader-focused composition pedagogy is instead founded on the social
constructionist premise that ESL writers need to be apprenticed into one or
more academic discourse communities and that writing instruction should
therefore prepare students to anticipate and satisfy the demands of academic
readers.
-
Clearly, the reader-focused approach is highly
compatible with the content-0based approach both philosophically and
methodologically.
The table below presents the distinct features
of the various approaches to teaching writing: