REINFORCING STUDENTS' KNOWLEDGE OF BASIC VOCABULARY OR FUNCTIONS

Teaching students to associate new words in English with the concept represented by the word and not with the word equivalent in their own language can be very challenging. An example of teaching about the family offers one possible approach to this situation. By drawing a stick figure family tree, the teacher can introduce students to both the descending family relationships (e.g., son, granddaughter) and ascending family relationships (e.g., mother, grandfather) using down and up arrows on both sides of the family tree. When students assert that they are all standing in the correct order of relationships for their family tree, the teacher shows them the correct family tree. To check the relationships, the teacher can then ask the students to describe their relationship to individual family members.

Skimming, scanning, intensive reading, extensive reading. Give the definitions of the terms and choose typical reading activities for each type

Skimming is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text esp. when they is lots of material to read in a limited amount of time.

Strategies: read the first and last paragraphs using headings, summarize and other organizers as they move down the page or screen; read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Consider reading the first sentence of each paragraph. This technique is useful when you're seeking specific information rather than reading for comprehension. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places. It might be used to review graphs, tables, and charts.

Activities

Students must locate facts that are expressed in sentences, not single words.

Set a time limit to the activity, skimming should not be done competitively. Students should be encouraged individually to better themselves.

To improve skimming, readers should read more and more rapidly, to form appropriate questions and predictions and then read quickly

Pugh (1978) suggests that to assess skimming, after the students have read and completed the assigned questions, further questions may be asked, " beyond the scope of the purpose originally set" (p.70). If students can answer these questions correctly, it indicates they have read the text too closely.

Scanning is a technique you often use when looking up a word in the telephone book or dictionary. You search for key words or ideas concentrating on finding a particular answer and seeking specific words and phrases. Scanning is also used when you first find a resource to determine whether it will answer your questions. Once you've scanned the document, you might go back and skim it.

 

When scanning, look for the author's use of organizers such as numbers, letters, steps, or the words, first, second, or next. Look for words that are bold faced, italics, or in a different font size, style, or color. Sometimes the author will put key ideas in the margin.

Activities

Exercises in which students scan for a single word or specific text.

Competition exercises

Students use skills of prediction and anticipation. ( make predictions and guesses; use titles and tables: answer some questions or performing a quiz; anticipate what they want to learn about the top; use titles, pictures, and prior knowledge to anticipate the contents of the text; use key words, that may have been given to them by the teacher, that do not appear in the text, that allude to the main idea

It is an accepted view today that efficient readers are not passive. They react with a text by having expectations and ideas about the purposes of the text as well as possible outcomes. They reflect on expectations as they read, anticipate what will come next. In other words, they " interact with the text".

Intensive Reading

Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading " calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like." He draws an analogy to intensive reading as a " zoom lens" strategy.

Long and Richards (1987) say it is a " detailed in-class" analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary and grammar points, in a short passage."

Intensive Reading, sometimes called " Narrow Reading", may involve students reading selections by the same author or several texts about the same topic. When this occurs, content and grammatical structures repeat themselves and students get many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text. The success of " Narrow Reading" on improving reading comprehension is based on the premise that the more familiar the reader is with the text, either due to the subject matter or having read other works by the same author, the more comprehension is promoted.

Activities:

looking at main ideas versus details; understanding what is implied versus stated; making inferences; looking at the order of information and how it effects the message; identifying words that connect one idea to another; identifying words that indicate change from one section to another

Extensive Reading

Brown (1989) explains that extensive reading is carried out " to achieve a general understanding of a text."

Long and Richards (1971, p.216) identify extensive reading as " occurring when students read large amounts of high interest material, usually out of class, concentrating on meaning, " reading for gist" and skipping unknown words."

Aim: to build reader confidence and enjoyment; done for the comprehension of main ideas, not for specific details.

Activities:

may be combined with a speaking component( they may interview each other about their reading); Reading may be combined with a writing component ( after reading the newspaper, students may be asked to write a newspaper report ); Class time may be included for book exchange, if there is an in-class library.

S. may set their own goals for their next session; progress from reading graded reading material to authentic text; may complete any of the following:

a reading log (recording number of pages read and at what level)

a reading journal (reflections on the text read)

( date, title of book and author; the category of the book if known by the student; a brief statement on what the book is about; a summary of each part as it is read; student's reactions to each part)
3. a reflection on what they noticed about their own reading
4. a book report or summary - no mor than 20 minutes recommended
5. a retelling of part of the text
6. book project

Work out the list of speaking activities we can use in the classroom

Discussions • The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups.• Whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.

Role Play • Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles.• The teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel.

Simulations • Very similar to role- plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate.• Students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment.

Information Gap • students are supposed to be working in pairs.• One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information.• These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

Brainstorming • On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time.• The good characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.

Storytelling • Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates.• Story telling fosters creative thinking.• It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have.

Interviews • Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized.

Story Completion • For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating.• Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped.

Class Reporting • Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news.• Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class.

Playing Cards • In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance: • Diamonds: Earning money• Hearts: Love and relationships• Spades: An unforgettable memory• Clubs: Best teacher

Picture Sequencing/Narrating • Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric.

Picture Describing • For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture.• Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class.• This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

Find the Difference • For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis.• Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures.

Give some specific ideas for reading tasks that can help students to understand a reading text. Explain the role of teaching grammar for reading Reading is a vital skill required to develop students understanding of the English language. It's really important that you get your students reading as soon as possible because this is a skill that will prove integral to their everyday lives should they ever choose to live in an English speaking environment. For example, if a student is travelling in another country they may need to be able to read a timetable, a road sign or even the instructions for their new bicycle.

Students will need to develop a plethora of skills including understanding the key concepts of a piece of literature and effectively scanning their text (finding appropriate information without in-depth reading).

When choosing practice texts try to choose topics which students are already interested in.

General reading activities:

When teaching students to read English you will still need to ensure that student talk time is high. Activities are a great way to do this and they will help you to work out how much students have understood from the text they have been reading.

Do-it-yourself question - can be done in groups or pairs. Students write comprehension questions for other students to answer.

Come up with a title for a story.

Summarise a story.

Continue the story - students offer suggestions as to what happens next.

Preface to the story - students offer suggestions as to what happened before the story began.

Revision - students are given the pictures from a storyboard of the text and have to put them in order.

Fill in the gap - students are given a text with certain words missing and have to fill them in appropriately.

Correct mistakes - students are given two texts and through asking each other questions they identify and correct any mistakes.

Discussion about themes present in the text.

Additional pre-reading activities:

When reading a text with your class it's usually a good idea to do one or more pre-reading activities to get their attention and raise their interest. This will ensure that your students are interested in the reading exercise and it will also give you the opportunity to introduce them to new vocabulary that will help them understand the text better.

Give the students the title of the text you are going to be looking at and let them suggest ideas as to what will happen in the story.

Rearrange the words in the title of a text for your students to put back into the correct order.

Pre-teach necessary vocabulary, if you are working with new or particularly difficult language, to help students understand the text.

Additional activities to be carried out during the reading of text:

Asking students to simply read the text is often much less effective than working through the text with your students. In some cultures when faced with something they don't know, be it a word or a tense, they will just stop and it's important that you pick up on this as quickly as possible so you don't waste any time. Using activities as you read through the text is a good way of doing this.

Rearrange paragraphs or sentences of the text for students to put back in the correct order.

Give the students pictures of events in the story which students put in order as they read the text.

Give the students a text containing deliberate mistakes for the students to identify.

Omit words in a text, giving the students a list of words with which to fill in the gaps.

Replace certain words with a picture to help students work out what the missing word is.

Additional post-reading activities:

You should always follow up your reading activities with a post-reading activity. This will give students the opportunity to practice their reading and will reiterate what you have taught them in the lesson. Most importantly, however, it will give the exercise a sense of meaning so that your students feel they have achieved something.

Students create tasks such as filling in the gaps, for other students.

Students write a letter from, or a conversation between characters in the text.

Students each assume a role of a character in the text and act out all or part of the text.

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