Mariia Pukhka

Scientific Advisor –

Candidate of sciences

Solov’yova O. V.

Teaching reading skills in a foreign language

Topicality: The theme of the work consists in the new way of looking at the problem of teaching reading.

Histiriography: scholars working in the emerging field of "book history," taking their inspiration from Robert Darnton's 1986 manifesto "First Steps Toward a History of Reading."

Object: is teaching reading to ESL students.

Aim: is to analyze the existent problems in teaching reading comprehension and find the ways out of this problem by suggesting a series of exercises that can be useful in classroom activities.

Thus, according to the set aim we are to solve the following objectives:

- to determine the aim and nature of teaching reading comprehension;

- to describe the reading skills and teaching technics;

- to describe different approaches to teaching reading;

- to work out new technologies in teaching reading;

Purpose: is to conduct the overview of the main teaching methods of developing reading skills.

Teaching a foreign language is not an easy task. In fact it is rather challenging. The first thing teachers should keep in mind is that children or student can be absolutely different in their physical abilities and levels of general development. They can:

- use a wide range of intonation patterns;

- understand situations quickly;

- be very positive and enthusiastic about learning reading.

The question "Who read what—and how?" is fundamental to intellectual history. No idea can have a history until someone reads it somewhere, and its impact on society will depend on the readings of individual readers. It was inevitable, then, that the historiography of ideas would turn toward the historiography of reading. That trend picked up momentum in the 1980s, when postmodern critics raised provocative theoretical questions about canon formation, the indeterminacy of texts, and the role of the reader in making meaning. Those critics, however, mostly failed to produce empirical studies of actual readers in history. That gap would be filled by scholars working in the emerging field of "book history," taking their inspiration from Robert Darnton's 1986 manifesto "First Steps Toward a History of Reading."

Reading is the language skills which is easiest to keep up. In teaching students to read the teacher must do once best to prevent mistakes. Teachers may however, be certain that in spite of much work done by them, students will make mistakes in reading. The question is who corrects their mistakes, how they should be corrected, when they must be corrected.

The opinion is that the student who has made a mistake must try to correct it himself/herself. If she/he cannot do it, his/her classmates correct his/her mistake. If they cannot do so the teacher corrects the mistake. The following techniques may be suggested:

1. The teacher writes a word (e. g., black) on the black board. She/He underlines ck in it and asks the pupil to say what sound these two letters convey. If the student cannot answer the question, the teacher asks some of his/her classmates. They help the student to correct his/her mistake and s/he reads the word.

2. One of the students asks: What is the English for „чорний"? If the student repeats the mistake, the "corrector" pronounces the word properly and explains the rule the student has forgotten. The student now reads the word correctly.

3. The teacher or one of the students says: Find the word „чорний" and read it. The student finds the word and reads it either without any mistake if his/her first mistake was due to his/her carelessness, or s/he repeats the mistake. The teacher then tells him/her to recollect the rule and read the word correctly.

4. The teacher corrects the mistake himself/herself. The student reads the word correctly. The teacher asks the student to explain to the class how to read ck. The teacher tells the student to write the word black and underline ck. Then she/he says how the word is read.

There are some other ways of correcting students' mistakes. The teacher should use them reasonably and choose the one most suitable for the case.

Another question arises: whether teachers should correct a mistake in the process of reading a passage or after finishing it. Both ways are possible. The mistake should be corrected at once while the student reads the text if s/he has made it in a word which will occur two or more times in the text. If the word does not appear again, it is better to let the student read the paragraph to the end. Then the mistake is corrected. A teacher should always be on the alert for the students' mistakes, allow their reading and mark their mistakes in pencil. [3; 185-186].

I. Phonics (letters used to make sounds)

English spelling is difficult. Children need to learn how to recognise sounds and letters. It is better not to teach the names of letters when starting to teach reading, as some of the letters of the English alphabet don’t match the sound of the language. When you use phonics, you’re teaching how the letter sounds, not the name of the letter. Teach the pupils how the letter is pronounced e.g. a-[æ], c-[k], ph-[f]. Make a chart of the word “families” that pupils learn, e.g. can – tan – fan – man or cat – sat – bat – hat. Display the chart in the room and add new words to it.

But this approach is not desirable for those pupils who are learning to read using phonics in their own language. This could lead to great confusion in pronunciation.

Activities to help children connect sounds with letters:

initial letter game (children recognize the first letters of different words);

feel the letter (kids close their eyes and touch a cutout sandpaper letter on a card, the picture and its name on the card, e.g. tiger);

make the alphabet frieze with card spaces underneath for lots of extra words that children can recognize and read.

II. Look and say

This approach is based on words and phrases and makes a lot of use of flashcards – words written on cards like this:

BOOK

BLACKBOARD

We usually start by teaching everyday words which are already familiar to the children. The teacher shows children the word and pronounces it while pointing at the object. The kids repeat the word. This happens several times with each word. The introduction of the words takes only a short time and goes quite quickly, so the teacher may spend five minutes of a 30 min. lesson on four new words. There are a lot of word recognition games:

Matching words and pictures;

Pointing at the object on the card;

Guessing which card Teddy has picked out of the hat;

Game “Clever Parrot” (Teacher shows a card with the word on it, without seeing it, telling several words (one is that word), pupils are to name the word correctly).

Let several pupils take turns being “a leader”.

Can you find your …?

Who can find their …?

Name the card on the table.

Name your favourite colour/food/drink.

III. Whole sentence reading

Here the teacher shows the kids how to recognise whole phrases which have meaning in themselves. The words are not presented in isolation, but as whole phrases or sentences.

Let children play the role of a teacher to revise these sentences and phrase;

Hand out wishes cards and praise cards with short phrases that children bring home and read to their parents, e.g. see you on Monday, well done;

Let children make reading cards (colouring and illustrating them).

IV. Language experience approach

This approach to reading is based on the child’s spoken language. The teacher writes down a sentence for the child to read which is based on what the child has said, e.g. – this is me, my sister is 9.

READING A STORY FROM A BOOK

Read a book so that all kids can see it, pointing at the words as you say them.

Let students ask questions if they want to, but try not to interrupt the flow of the story.

Encourage kids to talk about the story, ask them questions about it.

Leave the book in the book corner. Tell them they can read the book if they want to.

Next week read this story again with pupils’ “help”:

T: This is a …

Pl: cat.

Give all the pupils copies of the text and ask them to point at the words while you are reading them.

Go back to it from time to time and read it with the whole class. Pupils usually don’t get tired of good stories.

Let them read it to each other.

Which method to use?

Not matter which approach to reading you take as the basic one, you should remember that all these approaches are a way into reading and are not an end product in themselves. You will probably want to make use of all the methods described at some stage in the process of learning to read.

Reading aloud

Reading aloud is often thought of as reading around the class one by one, and although many children seem to enjoy it, this type of reading isn’t recommended:

it gives little pleasure to listeners;

it encourages mistakes in tone;

it’s not an effective way to use your lesson time.

But reading aloud is a useful technique when used slightly differently:

reading aloud to the teacher individually or in small groups;

teacher can use it as a means of training and checking rhythm and pronunciation;

reading dialogues in pairs or groups is an effective way of checking words. The pupils can help each other with the words they find difficult to pronounce.

Very the pattern when using this technique as a whole class activity. Choose pupils randomly, not in rows. Let a group read for the other pupils. Be sure that all groups get a chance to read to class.

Silent reading

Silent reading is important, first of all, because it is what remains with most people for the rest of their lives. To encourage silent reading, teacher should make as much use of “the English corner” as possible: have prints everywhere, put up jokes on the notice boards, give your students messages in writing, try to give them some books to read or whatever. Let the students put up messages too. Have blank paper on the wall for their additions.

Different reading materials

Once your pupils are on the road to reading it is important that there is a wide choice of reading materials available to them.

Reading cards.

It’s very simple to make a collection of reading cards which tell a story and can be read quickly. A one-page story still gives a sense of achievement. Some of the reading cards can have nursery rhymes, stories with characters your pupils have invented, or characters from textbooks you use. Let them read to each other, or to pupils in lower grades. It gives validity to their skills.

Home-made books

These may be different verses of songs children are already familiar with. Or they may be class stories written down by you.

Easy readers for foreign language learners

Most of the major publishing companies publish series of easy readers. The age range and the language level are often specified in the publisher’s catalogue.

Picture dictionary

Pupils can just look at the picture dictionary in the same way they look at the pictures. Let them make their own picture dictionaries.

Books with tapes

They are often called “speaking books”. For slow readers it is a very good thing. But we should encourage pupils to try reading without the tape. Some pupils become lazy readers if they listen to too many “speaking books”.

Taping pupils’ stories

When children are comfortable with the words let them tape their own stories. Pupils can read other pupils’ stories while listening to the tape.

Introducing new books

There are different ways to introduce a new book to the pupils. Ideally, you should read all new books to the whole class, but there isn’t usually enough time for this. However, a new book should not just appear. You can:

show the pupils a new book and tell them what it is about;

look at the cover of the book and try to work out with kids what it might be about;

read them an interesting bit from the book;

put the title of the new book on the notice board.

Book reviews – is a good idea to find out what pupils think about the book. This way you develop their critical thinking. Show that you’re concerned about what your pupils read and think.

Encouraging reading

It is surprisingly how many pupils are put off reading altogether or a particular author because of the way this activity was dealt with in the classroom.

Reading should be an enjoyable activity. Do not turn it into a task or exercise. Do not test your pupils on their readers.

If you have the facilities, make a reading corner. This should be a quiet, comfortable place where the children can sit and read. You can accommodate this area with bookshelves and let your students spend some time each week reading alone. This is particularly useful in mixed-ability or mixed-age groups.

Do not set the pace for the children. Let them progress at their own pace.

Monitor them in the following way:

Ask the student if he/she is enjoying the book.

Ask questions for general information, e.g. Is it about England?

Ask the pupils to draw a picture about a particular event in the story or get them to tell you about it.

When they have finished the book, ask them to read a book review. It should be very simple.

The book reviews can be collected in a library file so that pupils can look at each other’s reviews.

So, Teachers should be very reasonable and careful with error correction and choose the most suitable for the case as it may psychologically influence learners. The correction may be made by the teacher or another student during or after reading.

All the things considered, reading is a language activity and ought not to be divorced from other language activities. To read effectively in English students need to learn to think in English. The methods of any teaching reading lesson should be chosen according to the learner's level of skill development. Teaching reading is a job for an expert who has to create conditions whereby learners can learn and develop their reading skills.

The research is only a modest contribution to the issue of teaching reading methodology and thus further investigation into the sphere is highly recommended.

Bibliography

1. Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print, MIT Press, 1990, p. 27.

2. Harrison C. Methods of Teaching Reading: Key Issues in Research and Implications for Practice / C. Harrison // Interchange. - 1996. - №39. - P.1-16.

3. Rogova G. V. Methods of teaching English / G. V. Rogova. - Ленинград: Просвешение, 1975. - 312 р.