Mid-Term Exam Assignment 1 (25 points)
Write about FIVE main points that you have learnt about teaching reading as a
language skill. Briefly give information about each point, discuss it, and share why you
think that point is important in teaching reading.
Name and Surname: Tubanur ARVAS
Number:18267052
ANSWERS
(Please write your answer below and submit this document)
1) Psycholinguistic models of reading proposed by Godman and Smith:
According to this model, reading is a bridge between the written language and
the reader. To read efficiently three factors are required. Which are; ‘Higher level
of conceptual abilities, background knowledge and process strategies.’ In brief,
conceptual abilities refer to intellectual capacity; analyze, synthesize and infer.
Background knowledge involves sociocultural knowledge of the English-speaking
communities. Lastly, process strategies covers the skills to reconstruct the
meaning of the text via sampling based on the knowledge of morphemes and
syntactic information, contextual meaning and cognitive strategies. This model
claims that it is possible to read efficiently if we take these three factors into
consideration in the reading process. This point drew my interest because it
associates the conditions which required to read efficiently with the reasons. As
Smith states, ‘Skill in reading actually depend on using the eyes as little as
possible;… as we become fluent readers we learn to rely more on what we
already know, what is behind the eye-balls, and less on the page in front of us.’
My conclusion about this point is: To be a fluent reader we need to use our
background knowledges and our intellectual capacity as much as possible. We
don’t need to understand the reading passages word by word. Instead of that
through making use of little semantic and syntactic clues in the material and by
using our prior knowledges we can get the given message as a whole.
2) Nothing is interesting’ if you can’t do it: It is a common problem that we came
across often. There are many text topics to discuss in the lesson. However some
of them could be boring or far away from catchy. It is important to find suitable,
interesting topics for the class. If there is no participation from the students it is a
sign that the topic must be changed and find a new topic or material. That’s why
there must be another plan all the times. Finding the right topic depends on the
students ages, genders, interests and their socio-cultural background. For
example; with the young learners the topic must be related to their ages. A
teacher can’t create a lesson plan with a topic about movies. On the contrary, they
may talk about the cartoons or the games that they have played. Likewise, high
school students may find the topics related to family and environment. As we can
see in these examples the teacher should always keep the students
characteristics in mind when creating a lesson plan.
3) Do not ask students to read aloud unseen: Some teachers ask students to
read the new passage aloud before any preparation for the text or pre-reading.
Teachers need to stay away from this exercise since it is not an effective way at
all. On the contrary students may feel uncomfortably and hesitating while reading
the passage. Most probably there will be unknown words by students. So there
will be also the words that students doesn’t know the pronunciation of them. If
they came across with some unknown words, they will feel shame and probably
the next time they will not want to read again. To prevent this happen there are
some methods which teacher can apply in the classes.
Firstly, the teacher can read the text loudly then after him/her the students read
chorally.
Secondly, the teacher may play the tape and students listens the text from the
tape and learn the true pronunciation of the words from there. After listening,
they can read chorally or individually.
Lastly, the students can have a silent reading. Also they can ask the some
unknown or pronunciation of the words to the teacher. This is an alternative way
if there is no enough facility to listen from it. This is also an effective way to learn
individually.
4) Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher: Conducting a lesson requires some
special skills that the whole teachers must have it. It is important because; the
teacher leads in the class and while doing this he/she needs to catch the flow.
Also in reading activities the teacher need to have some abilities.
Here are some features which teacher needs to have:
Prompter: It is a duty of the teacher if the students haven’t come across
the text’s structure or if there are ambiguities the teacher needs to clarify
or remind them again. Moreover as prompters there might be some
certain language items of features that teacher needs to indicate directly.
Organiser: Teacher needs to explain what the purpose of the reading the
text, what is it about and what they will learn exactly. It is important
because when students know what they will learn they may use their
background knowledges and be ready.
Observer: Sometimes teacher need to take observer position in the class
while conducting reading activity individually. Before giving feedback
teacher need to see how much progress they have taken. While doing this
the teacher needs to abstain from interrupting the students. By doing this
they will take their time in understanding the text.
Feedback organizer: After students have done the reading the text and
tasks (activities) related to the text, it is time to give feedback. To correct
the errors and keep high their motivations toward the lesson it is
important. First of all, the students may compare their answers with in
pairs. Then they may share it with the whole class. What important here is
for teacher, to ask them where in the text they have found the answer of
the question. It helps teacher to see if they have any comprehension
problems or not. If they have, the teacher corrects the errors and students
will be more careful for the next time in a similar text.
5) Use short questions during intensive reading: Students can easily get
distracted in reading activities. Especially if it is not interesting. There is a way to
control if they are following the text or not. The teacher can ask simple questions
while reading the text. It doesn’t just keep the students in alert but also prompt
them to follow the reading text. Hereby they will probably need to understand
what they are reading. The questions are doesn’t need to be complicated and
long.
‘He gasped. (what did he do?) The mountain was full of treasures! There was gold and
silver and thousands of jewels. (what there were in the mountains?) They sat in piles,
like piles of seeds, but these treasures were so much better than seeds. The poor man
did not know what to take. (where they sat?)’
As we can see in the example, such short and uncomplicated questions are pretty
suitable.
