R E A D I N G

Making the
most of it
R
Peter Watkins says eading and writing are this can help distinguish the differences
fascinating. The idea that between helping learners to develop the
there is a lot more to spoken language can be ability to understand written messages (a
represented by a series of process) and testing the understanding
teaching reading than arbitrary squiggles so that the message of one particular text (a product).
can be understood at some future point
just testing reading. in time is one of pure genius. Reading is Dealing with the unknown
also mysterious. You can watch There are lots of ways in which teachers
someone else read and have no idea can support comprehension, and many
what images, thoughts and judgements of these will be familiar to teachers
are passing through their minds. And throughout the world. For example,
reading gives independence – once we pre-teaching vocabulary is a widely-used
have learnt to read, we can find out strategy which allows the teacher to
about almost anything we want to. adjust the difficulty of a text. In theory,
In terms of language learning, the more words that are pre-taught, the
reading is a way of providing engagement easier comprehension becomes. As a
with the language. It is a rich and varied result of the teaching, words can be
source of language input, and the recognised and understood easily when
benefits of extensive reading programmes
are well-documented (for example by
Patricia Carrell and William Grabe). It You can watch
seems that to a very large extent we
learn to read by reading. Of course,
someone else read
reading takes place in classroom-based and have no idea what
learning contexts, too, and by using
texts inside the classroom teachers send images, thoughts and
the message that reading is important judgements are passing
and encourage engagement with
extensive reading outside the classroom. through their minds
But do we always exploit reading texts
to the best possible effect? This article
will look at some of the things teachers they are encountered in the text and
do with reading texts in a classroom therefore reading speeds can be
situation and why they do them. maintained. In this way, learners can
retain the thread of what they have read
in working memory, without the
Process not product distraction of looking up a lot of words
It seems axiomatic that a communicative in a dictionary. But of course, there are
approach to language teaching would downsides to pre-teaching words, too.
emphasise understanding the message(s) Firstly, it takes away from the
of a text. However, thinking through the authenticity of the task. In real life,
strategies that teachers use to support texts do not come preceded by

8 • Issue 74 May 2011 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

vocabulary lists, and learners need to part will compromise the understanding from doing this by curriculum restraints
learn to deal with the difficulty of not of the rest of the text because it will set or because they feel that they don’t have
knowing all the words that may be in a up inappropriate expectations. time to prepare activities to use with a
text. Secondly, too much pre-teaching Such content schemata are not the chosen text. This can be overcome to
may move the focus of the lesson away only influence on reader expectations. some extent by training learners to write
from developing reading skills and We also have expectations based around questions themselves for other learners
towards learning vocabulary. our knowledge of the genre of the text. to answer. For example, one pair of
As well as pre-teaching vocabulary, Therefore, learners can also be usefully students could write a set of questions
teachers can also give support while encouraged to think about what they and then swap them with another pair.
learners are reading by providing them know of a particular discourse type. For Clearly, learners need to engage with the
with glossaries of key terms. This has example, EAP learners might consider text just as fully to write questions as
the benefit of allowing them to tailor the features that they expect to find in they do to answer them. Some teachers
the support they give to meet individual an academic paper before being asked take the need to appeal to the interests
needs by preparing more comprehensive to read it. of the learners a stage further by asking
glossaries for some learners than they the learners themselves to supply the
supply to others. Glossaries also give Using questions and responses texts to be used in class.
the teacher the chance to control how Teachers regularly set questions for Some texts lend themselves more to
many words are supplied, whereas learners to answer as they read. However, subjective responses than to the
learners may overuse dictionaries in not all questions are equally useful. As objective retrieval of information, and
some circumstances. Gillian Brown says, ‘In real life we don’t teachers can exploit this. For example,
process discourse as if it were equally learners could use a simple code, such
Setting up expectations interesting or worthy of being remembered’. as the one below, to indicate their
Teachers also use pre-reading tasks to The significance of this is that useful response to sections of the text, which
support top-down processing of a text. questions – those that support (rather they can later discuss with peers.
Typically, this may involve learners than merely test) comprehension – = I agree with this.
predicting the content of the text in should lead learners to focus on the key x = I don’t agree with this.
advance, or saying what they already areas of the text that contain the central ? = I don’t fully understand this.
know about the topic. Again, teachers ! = This is really surprising/shocking.
can regulate the amount of support lol = This is funny.
they give by the way they choose to Some texts lend
frame pre-reading discussion tasks. The themselves more to Combining skills
more closely the discussion focuses on Of course, there are many ways that
the exact content of the text, the less subjective responses teachers can support and assess
likely it is that the learners will activate comprehension, and the method used
an inappropriate, or only partially
than to the objective will depend on the nature of the text.
appropriate, schema. For example, if a retrieval of information, For example, narratives may lend
text discusses the life of Charles Darwin, themselves to sequencing the events of
then questions such as What do you know and teachers can the story, perhaps using pictures. Texts
about Charles Darwin? and Why is he that are dense with factual information
famous? are likely to give more support
exploit this may be suited to the completion of
than a more general question such as tables and charts. Other texts may lend
What important scientific discoveries can messages, rather than leading them to themselves to making lists or taking
you think of? It is not that one approach look at trivial or insignificant detail. notes. This final point is an example of
is wrong – they just offer a different focus Poorly-chosen questions will misdirect reading combining with another skill,
and, by understanding the difference, learners and make it harder for them to in this case writing. Communicative
teachers can adjust the amount of understand the text. language teaching tends to emphasise the
support that they give to their learners. As well as using questions which preparation of the learner to deal with
Prediction activities do not require learners to retrieve objective real-life situations, and in many cases
necessarily have to be confined to the pre- ‘facts’ from a text, teachers can use people combine reading with other skills.
reading phase of the lesson. Learners can questions to direct learners into We read something and tell someone else
usefully be asked to read a part of a text considering the purpose of the text or about what we’ve read (speaking) or we
and then discuss whether that section the opinions of the author. By read something and write a reply. We
fitted in with their original expectations considering such issues, the readers may hear an account of an event and
– or whether they wish to refine their become more critical and aware of how then read about it, too, thus combining
predictions for the next section of the they may be positioned to accept certain reading and listening because we fit the
text, based on what they have already views or values promoted in the text. information we gain from reading into
read. Reading is about fitting new Many teachers select texts based on our existing knowledge, based on the
information into existing knowledge, their learners’ interests. This is a useful listening episode. Indeed, although many
including knowledge that has been strategy as research indicates that schemes of work label lessons as being
derived from what has been understood motivation to read a text correlates with one skill or another, this is rarely the case
from earlier parts of the text. This means successful comprehension. Some in reality. Nearly all skills work combines
that an inaccurate understanding of one teachers are understandably put off skills in varying proportions. 

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 74 May 2011 • 9

 direction in which the text is moving. To through an article in a dentist’s waiting

Making the give just one obvious example, when a

text has items such as lead to, due to,
room, then guessing or ignoring the
word may be very sensible strategies.

most of it consequently, so, because, therefore, as a

result, and so on, the learners could
look at how they are used to introduce a
It should be remembered that
guessing a word from contextual
information is not the same as retaining
 So, when using reading texts in the cause and effect relationship. that word for future use. The strategy
classroom, teachers can usefully look In order to promote the study of the helps to get over the obstacle of
for opportunities to combine reading generic structure of texts, teachers could incomplete knowledge, rather than aiming
with other skills in the kinds of ways ask learners to discuss the features of to build the learners’ vocabulary range.
that we do outside the classroom. the text that they feel makes it typical of Where learners form a hypothesis,
Reading can be a prompt for discussion, the genre of which it is part. This may either of a particular word meaning or
a cue for communicative writing, a include commenting on the layout and of the overall meaning of a section of a
source for forming an argument – and the organisation of the text, as well as text, they can usefully be encouraged to
a lot more besides. the language and the stylistic choices remember that it was only a guess and
the writer has made. that new information may contradict
Looking at language that hypothesis. They need to stay open
Having looked at the main meanings of Teaching not testing to other interpretations. Where no
a text, teachers can use the text as a interpretation is possible, or they get
As we said earlier, one of the key
source of linguistic input, examining contradictory evidence, then they may
challenges for teachers is to support and
lexis, grammar patterns and text need to go back and re-read, perhaps
help to develop their learners’ reading
structure. The most obvious advantage using more bottom-up processing
abilities, rather than simply assess how
of looking at grammar and lexis in a text (looking at the details of the text) so
well they have understood a particular
is that the language is contextualised. that they get more concrete data with
text. One way in which this can be
Learners can see examples of how an which to work.
achieved is by promoting the use of
item is actually used in conjunction with Crucially, learners need to monitor
reading strategies. One of the most
other language, rather than as an the success of the strategies they use for
common examples cited of this is to
isolated example. Teachers can, of reading so that they can extend the use of
course, still explicitly draw the learners’ successful strategies, while disregarding
attention to certain features. For As well as examining those that are inefficient or unhelpful.
example, in order to build vocabulary,
teachers could ask learners to underline particular words 
words which belong to a particular
lexical field and then focus on how those
or sentence patterns, Teachers need to help learners to make
the transition from reading with support
words are used to build the cohesion of the pattern of the text in the classroom to being maximally
the text (through the use of synonyms,
as a whole can be independent. In order to achieve this,
hyponyms and meronyms, for example).
we need to encourage our learners to
Alternatively, teachers could look at how looked at engage in as much reading as possible.
the selected words collocate with others,
In the classroom we need to select texts
or how the choice of particular words
that the learners will be motivated to
creates a certain stylistic effect. encourage learners to guess the meanings
read and encourage the thoughtful use
Crucially, a text allows a ‘bigger of words from context and morphological
of reading strategies; in other words, we
picture’ of language to emerge. As well structure. However, estimates suggest
need to teach reading rather than just
as examining particular words or that a huge amount (perhaps up to 95
test reading. ETp
sentence patterns, the pattern of the text percent) of the surrounding text needs
as a whole can be looked at. Particular to be understood in order for learners
Brown, G Listening to Spoken English
genres of writing follow particular to have a reasonable chance of guessing
Longman 1990
patterns, and as learners come to – and it is worth emphasising that, even
Carrell, P and Grabe, W ‘Reading’ In
recognise these patterns so texts become then, success is not guaranteed. This Schmitt, N (Ed) An Introduction to
easier to comprehend and the knowledge strategy cannot, therefore, be applied Applied Linguistics Hodder and
feeds into the future top-down indiscriminately. Readers need to make Stoughton 2010
processing of similar texts (see above). choices about when to guess and when to
To help learners see this bigger picture, look words up in a dictionary, or Peter Watkins is a
senior lecturer in ELT
teachers can ask them to note the perhaps they may decide not to do at the University of
purpose of different sections of a text. either and just ignore the new word. Portsmouth, UK. He is
the author of Learning
Or, because some texts lend themselves Clearly, these kinds of decisions will be to Teach English
to being represented diagrammatically, based on the purpose of reading. If the (Delta Publishing) and
is the co-author (with
the learners could complete a flow stakes are high, for example when Scott Thornbury) of
diagram representing the organisation reading instructions on a bottle of The CELTA Course
(CUP).
of the text. In addition, teachers can medicine, then guessing would be a poor
usefully look at the ‘discourse cues’ – the strategy choice. On the other hand, if
[email protected]
words and phrases which signpost the someone is passing the time by skimming

10 • Issue 74 May 2011 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •