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New ways in teaching reading
System, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 28.%294, 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain 0346-251X/97 $17.00 + 0.00
Pergamon
REVIEWS Scholars who would like to publish in this section of System are requested to contact the Review Editor before submitting a paper. As a rule, all contributions should be made in English. French and German will, however, be considered. The Review Editor may be contacted at the following address: Professor David G. Little Centre for Language and Communication Studies Trinity College Dublin 2 Ireland
DAY, R I C H A R D R. (Ed.), New Ways in Teaching Reading. Illinois: TESOL, 1993, 282 pp. For many teachers, the effective teaching of reading poses many problems, not least of which are how to teach rather than test and how to find different ways of teaching reading which will involve and stimulate learners. New Ways in Teaching Reading sets out to provide the teacher of E F L with a wide range of reading activities which can be adapted to almost any context - - the book has a truly international flavour and most parts of the world are represented by the contributors. One of the problems of "recipe books" for teachers is that it is often very difficult to internalise someone else's idea and make it your own. This book avoids this problem by following a very clear structure. Each activity gives detailed information concerning aims, level, preparation time and resources. In addition, there is a brief introduction and a detailed teaching procedure as well as suggested alternative uses and ways in which the material can be more fully exploited. Many resource books on reading contain examples of actual texts. The problem with this approach is that texts do date and consequently become unusable. New Ways in Teaching Reading overcomes this problem by simply omitting original texts. Instead, it gives a detailed description of the type of text most likely to succeed with each activity - - a highly pragmatic and sensible course of action. The book is organised into three sections: extensive reading, intensive reading, and, interestingly, a section on oral reading. 285
286
REVIEWS
Part 1, extensive reading, includes 13 activities designed to help your learners get the most out of the books they are reading. In addition to the well-established practices of writing book reports, gleaning information from the cover, and sharing opinions, there are activities designed to integrate reading with other skills in an attempt, presumably, to make the reading process more interactive. The extended reading activities could be used in almost any teaching situation, especially, in the opinion of the reviewers, where young learners are involved, since they are the ones most likely to benefit from an attempt to establish an active reading habit from an early age. Part 2, intensive reading, is by far the longest section with over 100 activities. This is further divided into specific reading skills: pre-reading, skimming and scanning, comprehension, etc. Again, many of the procedures will be familiar, at least to the more experienced practitioner, but they are set out in a logical and coherent way which makes for easy access. This is vital for the teacher who may have an inkling of an idea which needs to be fleshed out quickly before it is lost for ever! This section succeeds where other reading materials fail - - in its simplicity and ease of use. In this section, there is clear evidence of a movement toward making reading more interactive and more involving for the learners. Of particular value is the emphasis on doing something with what has been read - - clearly a successful attempt to mirror what we, as native speakers, do when we read something. Equally apparent is the emphasis on the learner and on a desire to increase learner autonomy. So often, resource books try to be original, "clever" or sophisticated and the learner is neglected. Part 2 gives the learner plenty of freedom and allows for him or her to have some input into the activities instead of remaining a somewhat passive user. Part 3, oral reading, is certainly a surprising addition to the previous sections. Many teachers would argue that reading aloud in class, by students, serves no pedagogic purpose unless it is part of the syllabus of an adult literacy course; others would question the aims of such an exercise and the fact that it does not allow for whole-class participation. M a r c Helgesen has attempted here to show how oral reading can become an integral part of the reading skills class while providing students with tasks that make oral reading interactive. At the same time, the students can help in the creation of the tasks, thus involving the individual at a personal level and making the activities motivating. Although it is the shortest section, the tasks and activities suggested leave plenty of scope for modification to suit a particular group or level. At beginner and elementary level, students often fail to recognise "chunks" of spoken language and instead try to catch every individual word they hear. Their reading aloud often mirrors this preoccupation, and oral reading can thus sound disconnected and monotone. New Ways in Teaching Reading aims to prevent this through activities such as "Catching the Chunks", which encourages the student to listen to and identify phrases and meaning units in a text. The supra-segmental features of spoken English are included in the activities "Getting the Rhythm" and "Stress/Stand-up", where learners again become actively involved and learn through "doing" an action at a given cue. Included in Part 3 are activities which aim to encourage expression and feeling in oral reading. Each student chooses a "feeling" (e.g., happy, bored, nervous, tired) and reads a selected paragraph to the rest of the class or a partner. The class or partner then decides
REVIEWS
287
which feeling is being conveyed through the reading. Again, as with Parts 1 and 2, the teacher selects his/her own materials to use with these activities, which enables the same task to be used at different levels and with different age groups or special focus groups. Overall, New Ways in Teaching Reading has introduced some novel ideas into the reading skills lesson. It is an attempt to move away from the more traditional passive approaches to reading by encouraging students to take an active part through a variety of activities which foster interaction and a degree of personalisation. If there is a criticism, it is that there is no "at a glance" overview which simply lists the essential features of each activity such as level, focus, class time, skills practised, etc. This would make the task of selection even easier for teachers. Perhaps, too, the fact that the activities all look so familiar might put some practitioners off using them - - the "I've already done that; I'm looking for something different" syndrome. We, the reviewers, took some comfort in the knowledge that so many other teachers are using practices which are similar to our own! Steve Walsh and Cathy Gannon University College Cork Language Centre Cork Ireland
HOOD, SUSAN, SOLOMON, NICKY and BURNS, ANNE, Focus on Reading. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, new edition, 1996, 134 pp.
Focus on Reading asks the reader to think about the place that reading has in teaching in general and, more specifically, to consider what role it might have to play in his/her teaching. It does this by asking the teacher not only to reflect on what and how he teaches, and how this might be related to any theoretical considerations underpinning the teaching that is done, but also by asking the teacher to think about how he/she approaches reading as a "normal consumer" rather than as a teacher. The book is divided up into eight short, easily digested chapters, the first being Understanding reading. Here the reader is encouraged to think about the position of reading in the world outside the classroom, about the ways in which people use their reading skills, and the possible relationships between the author, the written message and the audience. The difference between written and spoken language and the implications of this are also discussed. Chapter 2 discusses Reading theory, moving relatively rapidly from the grammar-translation method through the "bottom-up" approach to "social and communicative aspects" and on to psycholinguistic and social theories of reading. The next chapter looks at the needs of different language students. Here, as elsewhere in the book, the reader becomes aware of the importance of the teaching of English as a
Pergamon
REVIEWS Scholars who would like to publish in this section of System are requested to contact the Review Editor before submitting a paper. As a rule, all contributions should be made in English. French and German will, however, be considered. The Review Editor may be contacted at the following address: Professor David G. Little Centre for Language and Communication Studies Trinity College Dublin 2 Ireland
DAY, R I C H A R D R. (Ed.), New Ways in Teaching Reading. Illinois: TESOL, 1993, 282 pp. For many teachers, the effective teaching of reading poses many problems, not least of which are how to teach rather than test and how to find different ways of teaching reading which will involve and stimulate learners. New Ways in Teaching Reading sets out to provide the teacher of E F L with a wide range of reading activities which can be adapted to almost any context - - the book has a truly international flavour and most parts of the world are represented by the contributors. One of the problems of "recipe books" for teachers is that it is often very difficult to internalise someone else's idea and make it your own. This book avoids this problem by following a very clear structure. Each activity gives detailed information concerning aims, level, preparation time and resources. In addition, there is a brief introduction and a detailed teaching procedure as well as suggested alternative uses and ways in which the material can be more fully exploited. Many resource books on reading contain examples of actual texts. The problem with this approach is that texts do date and consequently become unusable. New Ways in Teaching Reading overcomes this problem by simply omitting original texts. Instead, it gives a detailed description of the type of text most likely to succeed with each activity - - a highly pragmatic and sensible course of action. The book is organised into three sections: extensive reading, intensive reading, and, interestingly, a section on oral reading. 285
286
REVIEWS
Part 1, extensive reading, includes 13 activities designed to help your learners get the most out of the books they are reading. In addition to the well-established practices of writing book reports, gleaning information from the cover, and sharing opinions, there are activities designed to integrate reading with other skills in an attempt, presumably, to make the reading process more interactive. The extended reading activities could be used in almost any teaching situation, especially, in the opinion of the reviewers, where young learners are involved, since they are the ones most likely to benefit from an attempt to establish an active reading habit from an early age. Part 2, intensive reading, is by far the longest section with over 100 activities. This is further divided into specific reading skills: pre-reading, skimming and scanning, comprehension, etc. Again, many of the procedures will be familiar, at least to the more experienced practitioner, but they are set out in a logical and coherent way which makes for easy access. This is vital for the teacher who may have an inkling of an idea which needs to be fleshed out quickly before it is lost for ever! This section succeeds where other reading materials fail - - in its simplicity and ease of use. In this section, there is clear evidence of a movement toward making reading more interactive and more involving for the learners. Of particular value is the emphasis on doing something with what has been read - - clearly a successful attempt to mirror what we, as native speakers, do when we read something. Equally apparent is the emphasis on the learner and on a desire to increase learner autonomy. So often, resource books try to be original, "clever" or sophisticated and the learner is neglected. Part 2 gives the learner plenty of freedom and allows for him or her to have some input into the activities instead of remaining a somewhat passive user. Part 3, oral reading, is certainly a surprising addition to the previous sections. Many teachers would argue that reading aloud in class, by students, serves no pedagogic purpose unless it is part of the syllabus of an adult literacy course; others would question the aims of such an exercise and the fact that it does not allow for whole-class participation. M a r c Helgesen has attempted here to show how oral reading can become an integral part of the reading skills class while providing students with tasks that make oral reading interactive. At the same time, the students can help in the creation of the tasks, thus involving the individual at a personal level and making the activities motivating. Although it is the shortest section, the tasks and activities suggested leave plenty of scope for modification to suit a particular group or level. At beginner and elementary level, students often fail to recognise "chunks" of spoken language and instead try to catch every individual word they hear. Their reading aloud often mirrors this preoccupation, and oral reading can thus sound disconnected and monotone. New Ways in Teaching Reading aims to prevent this through activities such as "Catching the Chunks", which encourages the student to listen to and identify phrases and meaning units in a text. The supra-segmental features of spoken English are included in the activities "Getting the Rhythm" and "Stress/Stand-up", where learners again become actively involved and learn through "doing" an action at a given cue. Included in Part 3 are activities which aim to encourage expression and feeling in oral reading. Each student chooses a "feeling" (e.g., happy, bored, nervous, tired) and reads a selected paragraph to the rest of the class or a partner. The class or partner then decides
REVIEWS
287
which feeling is being conveyed through the reading. Again, as with Parts 1 and 2, the teacher selects his/her own materials to use with these activities, which enables the same task to be used at different levels and with different age groups or special focus groups. Overall, New Ways in Teaching Reading has introduced some novel ideas into the reading skills lesson. It is an attempt to move away from the more traditional passive approaches to reading by encouraging students to take an active part through a variety of activities which foster interaction and a degree of personalisation. If there is a criticism, it is that there is no "at a glance" overview which simply lists the essential features of each activity such as level, focus, class time, skills practised, etc. This would make the task of selection even easier for teachers. Perhaps, too, the fact that the activities all look so familiar might put some practitioners off using them - - the "I've already done that; I'm looking for something different" syndrome. We, the reviewers, took some comfort in the knowledge that so many other teachers are using practices which are similar to our own! Steve Walsh and Cathy Gannon University College Cork Language Centre Cork Ireland
HOOD, SUSAN, SOLOMON, NICKY and BURNS, ANNE, Focus on Reading. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, new edition, 1996, 134 pp.
Focus on Reading asks the reader to think about the place that reading has in teaching in general and, more specifically, to consider what role it might have to play in his/her teaching. It does this by asking the teacher not only to reflect on what and how he teaches, and how this might be related to any theoretical considerations underpinning the teaching that is done, but also by asking the teacher to think about how he/she approaches reading as a "normal consumer" rather than as a teacher. The book is divided up into eight short, easily digested chapters, the first being Understanding reading. Here the reader is encouraged to think about the position of reading in the world outside the classroom, about the ways in which people use their reading skills, and the possible relationships between the author, the written message and the audience. The difference between written and spoken language and the implications of this are also discussed. Chapter 2 discusses Reading theory, moving relatively rapidly from the grammar-translation method through the "bottom-up" approach to "social and communicative aspects" and on to psycholinguistic and social theories of reading. The next chapter looks at the needs of different language students. Here, as elsewhere in the book, the reader becomes aware of the importance of the teaching of English as a