Having a Go at the Teaching of Reading
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Christopher Stern
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This paper
illustrates the possibility of using a carefully selected text in the classroom
in order to generate interest, to develop students’ reading skills, and as a
resource for both language input and communicative activities. It will be organized in three parts: the reading lesson, discussion, and summary.
I.
The Reading Lesson
Student profile:
The following reading lesson is intended for
intermediate or upper-intermediate level students. While it could be taught in a general English
program, ideally it is intended for ESP students – doctors, nurses, or medical
faculty lecturers. This lesson is
designed for a 90 minute class period, but could be easily expanded for a two
hour lesson.
(Text is available in Appendix A, students’
activities in Appendix B)
Pre-reading activities:
Discuss with a partner or in small
groups
1. What do you know about plastic surgery? Do you know, or know of anyone who has had
plastic surgery? What are some common
operations? What are potential
problems? In what situations do you
think plastic surgery is appropriate or inappropriate? Are there any regulations regarding plastic
surgery in your country?
2. What does
it mean to ‘have a go’? Is there
anything you would like to ‘have a go’ at?
Learning objectives: activating schemata,
creating interest in the text.
Teacher’s note: Board the structure of the lesson and outline
it briefly so that students will have an idea of the shape of the lesson. Introduce the topics, but allow the
conversations to belong to the students.
Now is the time to listen to students to assess their knowledge. If no students have a correct understanding
of ‘have a go,’ try demonstrating its usage in a few contexts to allow students
to get the meaning, as this is a rather crucial phrase for understanding the
text.
Time: 5 minutes. 5 minutes
Reading activities:
First reading: The title of the text is ‘Cosmetic surgery industry in UK has key weaknesses.'
1. Make some predictions regarding possible ‘ key weaknesses.’ Then read (skim) the text quickly (2 minutes). Do you think Britain is a good place to have plastic surgery? Why or why not?
Learning objective: skimming.
Teacher’s note: Hand out reading face down. Board the title of the text and direct students’ attention to it. Direct students’ attention to question 1 and let them know you will allow only two minutes for reading. Enforce 2 minute time limit for the reading.
Time: 4 minutes 9 minutes
2. Discuss your opinion with your partner / group: do you have the same ideas?
Learning objective: joint interpretation of text.
Teacher’s note: Again, allow this discussion to belong to students. Then sum up by asking students if they were able to read every word in two minutes. Did they need to? What kind of generalizations were they able to make from 2 minutes reading?
Time: 6 minutes 15 minutes
Second reading:
Read the text again.
1. What types of plastic surgery operations are mentioned in the text?
2. What ‘key weaknesses’ are mentioned?
Learning objective: intensive reading and scanning.
Teacher’s note: Allow roughly 10 minutes for this reading. Encourage students individually to make notes or underline to answer the questions.
Time: 10 minutes 25 minutes
3. Check with your partner / group: do you have the same ideas?
Learning objective: joint interpretation of text.
Teacher’s note: Allow groups a few minutes to discuss their ideas, and then follow with class feedback.
Time: 15 minutes 40 minutes
Post reading activities:
1. Look through the text carefully and find words or phrases in italics. Using the context (surrounding words), make a guess at their meaning. You may write down two or more possible meanings if you wish. Compare your ideas with your partner / group. Which meanings seem to make the most sense?
Learning objective: guessing meaning for context, and joint interpretation of text.
Teacher’s note: Allow students control of this activity, while circulating to provide hints where needed. Sum up with class discussion to ascertain students’ strategies in guessing word meanings, pointing towards strategy improvement and correct interpretation.
Time: 15 minutes 55 minutes
2. Discussion: Would you ever consider having plastic surgery? Do you think it would be preferable to have it done in Britain, or in your own country? Why? Do you have any ideas on how the situation presented could be improved? What do you think attitudes towards plastic surgery are like in Britain? Are attitudes towards plastic surgery in your country different, or similar?
Learning objective: review and discussion of newly gained knowledge, problem solving.
Teacher’s note: Again, allow this discussion to belong to students. Allow students to make summary comments in class discussion.
Time: 15 minutes 70 minutes
3. Role-play: In groups of two or three prepare and enact the following role-play:
A - You are a teenager, 17, nearly 18 years old, and have been saving up secretly to have a plastic surgery operation. You are convinced it will change the quality of your life for the better, and now is the time for you to discuss this with your parent/s, as you want to convince them of your reasons and gain their approval.
B (and C) - You are the parent/s of A. Try to convince your child of the reasons NOT to have plastic surgery. First, as a group, decide who will take each role, and what kind of plastic surgery operation A will aim to have. Then, each student should spend five minutes preparing their position and reasons. Rehearse the role-play and perform for the class.
Learning objective: extrapolation and application of newly gained knowledge through communicative negotiation.
Teachers’ note: Depending on class size, this activity may require more than 20 minutes. Circulate, guiding students where needed. If time permits, summarize the lesson, eliciting from students the key points regarding strategies, knowledge and language content.
Time: 20 minutes 90 minutes
II. Discussion of the Reading Lesson – Text,
Tasks, and Methodological Considerations
Text:
I first
chose this text about two years ago for use with a class of medical faculty lecturers
and professors at Udayana University in Denpasar, Bali, in order to focus
specifically on word formation. I have
selected it again for this exercise for a number of reasons: high interest level, appropriate difficulty
level for intermediate or advanced students, manageable length, and its ability
to lend itself to the development of reading skills, language input and
discussion. Additionally, the text meets
all the requirements of authenticity.
Not only does it come from an authentic news source (BBC online), but it
also exhibits “the characteristics of true discourse: having something to say, being coherent and
clearly organized.” (Nuttall, 1996: 177)
Initially I had formatted the text in a
single column, 12 point Arial font, 1.5 spacing, for greater ease of
readability and line referencing.
However, in the interest of making it appear more authentic, I have reformatted
it in a standard newspaper style, with three columns and a Times New Roman
font. As Nuttall comments “The intention
of this ‘authentic’ presentation is to make the function of the text clearer by
establishing a context in which it might appear.” (Nuttall, 1996: 178) In regards to language development, this text
especially lends itself to developing students’ ability to guess meanings from
context, as there is sufficient repetition and embedded meaning to allow
students to glean meanings of both individual items of vocabulary and
collocations. Finally, in line with
Nuttall’s three criteria in choosing
texts – “suitability of content, exploitability, [and] readability” (Nuttall,
1996: 170), this text is of intrinsic interest to students, especially but not
solely ESL (medical field) students, as plastic surgery is a sometimes
controversial subject, both available and within the scope of students’
consideration in perhaps every modern society.
Furthermore, the text provides new information which may be somewhat
shocking, and will certainly require consideration and generate discussion.
In Teaching Reading Strategies to ELLs
(Farrell, 2009: 34), it is noted that
According
to Papalia (1987) more fluent readers use the following strategies:
¨ Read things of interest
¨Have knowledge about the topic
¨Predict meaning
¨Draw inferences from the title
¨Skip words they do not know
¨Guess the meaning of unknown words
from the context
¨Reread to check for comprehension
¨Ask someone what a word means
As will
become apparent in my discussion on tasks, the text and accompanying tasks
encourage or instruct readers in all of the above strategies. The first two points have already been
discussed above. Furthermore, the lesson
plan follows the KWL strategy (Ogle, 1989, in Farrell, 2009: 75). To outline this briefly, the pre-reading
activities ask students to discuss what they know, first reading activity asks students to consider what they want to know, and second and post
reading activities ask students to discover, discuss and utilize what they have
learned.
To begin
with pre-reading activities, students are encouraged to activate their schemata
by discussing what they already know about the topic. It is
preferable to begin by using such a top-down approach because grasping the
basic picture prepares students to both predict content and to deal with
potential misreadings. (Nuttall, 1996:
151) These initial questions regarding
plastic surgery and ‘having a go’ not only activate schemata; they also serve
to pique students’ interest, relate the text to their own experience or
knowledge, and involve the students actively in discussion. Moreover, the pre-reading activities do not
provide them any information they can get from the text. While this section could be a bit shorter, it
otherwise meets all of Nuttall’s criteria for a good introduction. (Nuttall,
1996: 157)
The
following reading activities section is divided into first and second reading
activities, in order to encourage different reading strategies. “A critical
component for comprehension is the ability to use appropriate reading
strategies and to know when to use them and in what combinations, depending on
different reading purposes and tasks.”
(Grabe, in Richards & Renanda, 2002:
281) The first reading activity
asks students to make predictions and then skim the text and then consider a
global question “Do you think Britain is a good place to have plastic surgery? Why or why not?” Because a time limit is set (2 minutes),
students have no choice but to skim the text.
Students are asked to make predictions, but because the task asks for
non-specific information, it allows them to glean their own understanding of the
text, which may or may not include specific ‘key weaknesses,’ and then discuss those understandings in pairs
or groups. This activity as well as the
following, builds on the idea that “interpretation and response are the core of
a text-based lesson.” (Nuttall, 1996: 150)
The second reading activity requires that students utilize a combination
of strategies - reading the text extensively while scanning for specific
information. Again, students are asked
to check and discuss their understanding in pairs or small groups. In this way “much of the guidance comes from
fellow students. The effort to
understand the text is made jointly.”
(Nuttall, 1996: 162)
Post-reading
activities begin with an activity which encompasses both a reading skill and a
language focus. The first activity asks
students to examine words and phrases in the text to try to decipher their
meaning through contextual clues. While
some of the words here are quite simple, such as ‘picture’ in a distressing picture, and ‘safety’ in safety watchdog, they are included as
part of useful collocations. The
rationale behind this comes from a collocational approach to vocabulary, in
which “we should leave as much language as
possible in the form in which we find it.”
(Lewis, M. 2000: 19) Additionally, some
of the words included, such as ‘treatment’ in shabby treatment, further clue students in towards an understanding
of meaning in context. The second
post-reading activity, discussion, requires students to consider what they have
just read, utilize and voice the new knowledge they have gained, work
cooperatively in problem solving, and further personalize the text. The final exercise is a role-play. This brings the entire lesson, and the
meaning of the text, from the cognitive into the affective realm, as students
now place themselves in a situation where the topic of plastic surgery is
imagined in a much more personal way.
It should be noted at this point that each activity builds upon
previous ones. Pre-reading activities
activate schemata and build interest. First-reading
activities then build global comprehension, while second-reading activities
create more detailed understanding. In
post-reading activities, the language focus not only further builds skills, but
allows students an even more thorough understanding of the text. Finally, there is a culmination and
application of new knowledge in discussion and role-play. This again follows clearly from Nuttall “The way group activities are
sequenced is important: early tasks may
help students to do well on later ones.
This may affect the design of the materials.” (Nuttall, 1996: 165)
Throughout the course of the lesson, the teacher’s role is to guide
students towards appropriate reading strategies and a valid and meaningful
interpretation of the text. The teacher
should not only present the text and accompanying activities, but also take
note of students’ processes, being aware of their interpretations, strengths
and weaknesses, and guide them by ‘leading from behind.’ (Gibbons, from Samuda, 2009: 120). Each activity or task not only builds upon the
previous ones, but also provide students, especially in pair or groupwork, with
very precise instructions. As Samuda has
stated: “To be useful for groupwork, a
task must specify exactly what is to be done, engage every member of the group
and promote vigorous discussion.”
(Nuttall, 1996: 165) Finally, I would like to comment on the use
of pairs or small groups. Depending on the number of students in a
class, there will not always be a complete set of pairs. Nor are the collaborative tasks better
achieved by pairs: they will be equally
effective and engaging enacted between pairs or in groups of three students.
III.
Summary
The
above lesson has been created bearing a number of significant factors in
mind. It begins with an introduction to
students of the shape and objectives of the lesson. Reading strategy development, student
centered communication activities, language focus, and topical development have
been used to organize the lesson. Almost
all of the class time is used for learning; activities have learning rather
than testing focus, and they are varied so as to maintain students’
interest. Students have opportunities
both to provide and receive feedback regarding strategy development,
performance and topic. Finally, the text
itself is authentic, compelling, and reflects the type of reading students may
(have to) do outside of class time. In
this way, it follows Richards’ principles that “capture the essence of
effective instruction.” (Noonan, 1991: 76)
Sources
¨ Farrell,
TSC. (2009). Teaching Reading to English Language Learners. Corwin Press
¨Grabe,
W. In Richards & Renandya (Eds.)
(2002). Methodology in Language Teaching.
Cambridge: CUP.
¨ Lewis, Michael, Ed. (2000).
Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach. Hove:
Language Teaching Publications.
¨Nuttall,
C. (1996). Teaching Reading Skills In A Foreign Language, 2nd Edition. Heinemann.
¨Nunan,
D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology.
Prentice Hall.
¨ Saluda, Virginia. “Chapter
17. Guiding relationships between form and meaning during task performance: The
role of the teacher”. In Van den Branden, Bygate & Norris (Eds.) (2009). Task-Based
Language Teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
¨ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11303458
Appendix A
Cosmetic surgery industry in UK 'has key weaknesses'
There
are fundamental weaknesses in the way cosmetic surgery is carried out in the
UK, an official review body says.
The
National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death found many centres
were failing to assess and care for patients properly. In particular, the poll of 361 sites found
patients were at risk from a culture
which saw teams "have a go"
at operations they rarely performed.
The
professional body for cosmetic surgeons
accepted there was a problem. The
British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons only has about a third of the
industry as members.
President
Nigel Mercer said: "This presents a
distressing picture, but one which is sadly not surprising. Aesthetic
surgery needs to be recognised
as the multi-million pound specialty it is."
Rising
The
National Confidential Enquiry said closer and tougher regulation was the answer, pointing out that half of the sites
it had contacted had failed to answer its questions - despite rules saying they
should.
The
researchers from the government-funded safety watchdog looked at all sites that offered cosmetic surgery
privately, including some NHS hospitals that have private wings.
There
are now about 100,000 cosmetic operations
carried out each year - a figure which is rising - with breast enlargements by
far the most common.
The
researchers found that psychological evaluation
was carried out only in slightly more than a third of centres they assessed.
The
two-stage consent process, which is recommended to allow patients time to
reflect on the treatment, was not performed at 32% of sites.
More
than half of the operating
theatres were not properly equipped and a fifth had no emergency readmission policy, while monitoring before and after
treatment was not sufficient,
the researchers said.
But
the authors saved some of their strongest criticisms for the inexperience of
some of the teams. They said with the exception of breast enlargement operations, the majority
of sites were not carrying out enough procedures to keep their skills up.
It is accepted
that sites should be carrying out more than 20 operations a year to give them
enough experience. But only one in 10 managed this for
ear-pinning, a fifth for breast reductions and a quarter for facelifts.
Report
author Dr Alex Goodwin said: "Cosmetic surgery is far too dispersed with too many teams prepared
to 'have a go' at procedures
that they rarely perform. And failures in monitoring
patients after surgery are a recipe for disaster."
The
Department of Health said the findings cast
a "long shadow" over the industry and it expected tougher
regulation in the future.
In
October, a new system is being introduced in England which will cover the
cosmetic surgery industry. It will allow the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to
fine and prosecute the worst offenders.
Amanda
Sherlock, CQC's director of operations said: "It is unacceptable that some
cosmetic surgery providers don't have the basic standards of good medical practice in place."
Peter
Walsh, chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, said the "shabby treatment" was putting
lives at risk.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11303458
Appendix B
A.
Pre-reading activities:
Discuss with a partner or in small
groups
1. What do
you know about plastic surgery? Do you
know, or know of anyone who has had plastic surgery? What are some common operations? What are potential problems? In what situations do you think plastic surgery
is appropriate or inappropriate? Are
there any regulations regarding plastic surgery in your country?
2. What
does it mean to ‘have a go’? Is there
anything you would like to ‘have a go’ at?
B.
Reading activities:
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