Category Archives: Reading

Reading

SOLVING READING DIFFICULTIES

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When there are problems with reading comprehension the key to solve the promlems is to identify the causes for the difficulties: lack of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge or skill in translation, or dyslexia, for example. The next step is to find the remedies.

The foundation for reading comprehension is laid in the elementary school or in the basic lessons. I have discussed these ideas under the last horizontal main heading ‘The structure of a text-book based lesson’ THE STRUCTURE OF A TEXTBOOK-BASED LESSON and expand the ideas at the end of this article.

  • the most important piece of homework: students study or translate the next chapter in the textbook in advance at home
  • if the students come to the lesson and understand, say, 80 % of the text, a lot of time is saved and a proper foundation for the lesson is laid
  • however we must remember that understanding a text is a much more profound process than word by word translation
  • we can teach reading only indirectly by giving tips on the process of reading but we have no idea what is really going on in the heads of the students when they are reading a text
  • becoming a good reader is a long process in the mother tongue and even longer in a foreign language; time, patience and guidance are needed
  • we can help students if we can identify what causes the problems in understanding: lack of vocabulary, unknown grammar, translation skills or reading strategies are inadequate

Those suffering from dyslexia are not lazy or stupid. They can’t help it but they can be helped by experts. On average every class has 2 – 3 students who need help either in reading or writing or both.

  • if the reason for reading difficulties is some form of dyslexia, a specialist’s help is neeeded, up to 10 % of students suffer from it and the issue was acknowledged by school authorities only 20 years ago and many teachers pay little attention to it
  • the symptoms of dyslexia can be manyfold: slow or erratic reading, weak short-term memory, mixing or ignoring letters, problems in concentration, often the same problems in writing
  • identifying dyslexia is vital since often these students carry a stigma of being lazy or stupid even if they are trying their best and it unnecessarily breaks their self-confidence

What I mean by reading here is reading comprehension as opposed to reading aloud in class, which was discussed under heading ‘Pronunciation’. Reading is sometimes taken for granted with a false assumption that everyone understands a sentence or a text in the same way if they master the basics of reading. This is wrong since the process of understanding a text is an individual process and there are many things that can prevent proper understanding.

A short individual discussion with a student about a text the students do not understand will reveal to an experienced teacher where the problem probably lies. Most likely it is one of the reasons below.

Common reasons for reading difficulties

  1. First of all the student’s vocabulary has to be wide enough to understand a text. If the student stumbles too often with unknown words, understanding the text turns out to be impossible. In the vocabulary section we already pointed out that there are many things the students must master in order to ‘know’ a word. In reading ‘the recognition of the written form’ is vital and so is knowing the ‘meaning’ of the word. Sometimes the context reveals the meaning but this ‘guessing game’, which is perfectly acceptable, is a skill of its own and has to be taught to students as well.
  2. Secondly, I also noted that in some simple situations it may be enough to know the words to understand the sentences or ideas. However, in most cases the students have to have some idea about the grammar of the new language; i.e. he/she has to know how to combine words, how they are arranged in a sentence. Knowledge of grammar helps us to guess the meanings of words. If the student is not able to translate a particular sentence or explain the meaning in his/her own words, the source of not understanding the sentence can usually be easily found by the teacher. But the trick is to let the student get stuck and pinpoint the difficult point him-/herself – and then you can find the remedy together.
  3. Thirdly, when I discussed the model for a text-based lesson, I strongly recommended that the students always study/translate the text for the next lesson in advance at home. I also discussed the reasons for it: saving time in the lessons and preventing frustration in class due to not understanding the text. The benefits of this kind of flipped learning are undeniable: The students come to school and understand most of the content of the new text. True learning can start!
  4. Fourthly, we teachers have to teach our students what to do at home when they study / translate the text at home. I discussed the ideas already in the model lesson. Everything becomes so much easier if the students have prepared themselves for the lesson. I think this preparation is by far the most important piece of homework, much more important than exercises (which are often mechanical).
  5. Fifth, every time I get a new class in junior high (aged 12) I check that they know how to translate a text since far too many students have no clue how it is done; how to use bilingual wordlists or a dictionary, for example. These student float somewhere in mid-air understanding only fragments of what they need to grasp.
  6. Sixth,as for translation at home I give my students three options: a) the text is fully translated in the mother tongue in their notebook, b) new words are translated with pencil in between the lines in the textbook, c) the translation is done immediately if I snap my finger in class, no need to write down anything.
  7. Seventh, there are many other things as for reading that we can teach our students. Linguists call them reading strategies but in simple terms they are just tips how to become a better reader. I will discuss these reading tips / strategies in another article.

Slide the photos using the arrows. Which groups do you think your students want to be in? Those who enjoy your lessons or those who come there with little hope to learn anything.

The benefits of studying or translating chapters in advance at home

I perfectly understand if some of you wonder why I talk so much in favour of translating the texts into the mother tongue. ‘Translation’ is not a curse word for me and should not be for anyone else. I give up all translation the minute I know there is no need for it in my class. Let me clarify my points in the matter.

  • First of all, I want the students to learn to do translations at home and minimize the time spent on translating the text in class. Besides this is a way for the parents to get involved in their kid learning a new language. At school time is more wisely used in practising using the language than translating the text.
  • Secondly, I see no point in going through a text if it is not understood. It will only lead to restlessness in the class. If I am learning, say, Polish and understand next to nothing of the text, I cannot participate at all and I will find something else to do in class. Talk to my friends, fiddle with my phone or anything just to make the time go by. Too many students face this situation but feel ashamed to admit it or pretend not to care. itself
  • Thirdly, I cannot stand the idea of students sitting in lessons for many years learning just a few words when the learning process could be drastically improved by helping them to do the translation for every lesson. It might take a few lessons or a couple of weeks but in the end the students would thank you for doing it.
  • If some of your students have this problem, have a special lesson for them. If very many students suffer from this problem, ask your star students to teach the others how to do the translation in groups. I’ve bribed them with candy and doughnuts.
  • If lack of translation skill was the problem and my advice helped any of you, I’d like to hear about it. Stop teaching your language for a while and lay the foundation again. You will get the time back manyfold in better results and raise in students’ motivation.
  • N.B. The translation method itself, translating texts from English into the mother tongue and vice versa, is an appalling method and that is why I never learnt English properly at school in the 1970s.

Learning to translate a text is the foundation for understanding a foreign language and it is a massive boost to motivation and self-confidence. However, the final aim is to think in English and skip mental translations altogether.

Model text-based lesson, Reading

HOMEWORK AS FLIPPED LEARNING, and CHECKING HOMEWORK

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‘Flipped learning’ means getting to know the content of the next lesson at home in advance. This is what Finnish student do at home. We have found it an excellent thing for 50 years now.

So, one thing in foreign language teaching in Finland that has never changed even if new methods and ideas such as CLT have been introduced is what the students do at home:

Finnish students have always had to ‘translate’ or ‘study’ the textbook chapter of the next lesson in advance at home. It is a MUST. Much more important than having written exercises done.

The idea above may sound old-fashioned but the benefits are undeniable. There is no point in such a thing as working on a new chapter understanding half or even less of the content.

I have always first taught my students, especially if they are young, how the translation must take place in their minds . It is certainly worth a lesson or two. Usually there are always some students among 12 – 13-year-olds who learn this skill in groups for the first time in their lives. A good student is an ideal the ‘teacher’ in the group showing the others how the translation is done.

On some occasions doing a partial translation of the text into mother tongue can reveal massive gaps in the students’ reading comprehension. Even in some senior high classes some students have no idea how to translate the text. Remedial teaching for two weeks and they will get a hang of it. And then the foundation for learning is established. The final aim is to skip translation part at school altogether.

Reasons why advance home study / translations are vital

  1. First, there is no point in spending much time in the lesson checking the understanding of a text by translation into one’s mother tongue. Nevertheless, in the early stages of learning a new language translating the texts into the mother tongue is a must.
  2. Secondly, when we insist on the students doing the translation at home in peace and quiet at their own pace, precious time in lessons is saved for oral practices.
  3. Thirdly, as for the translation itself, the skill itself must not be taken for granted. It has to be taught separately since some students do not know how it should take place.
  4. To get started with translating a text the students have to know the meanings of the words in the chapter. In Finland we have always been lucky to have Finnish – English vocabulary lists for every chapter in the students’ workbooks. New words are introduced there and a lot of time is saved compared to using a dictionary every time a new word emerges in the text.
  5. What if the word is not in the word list or there is no such list available? We advise the students to consult a dictionary, a free one in the internet is the best option these days. The use of Google translator is an option too but it requires very little thought from the student’s part and deep-level learning suffers. Some modern electronic textbooks have an inbuilt dictionary as a quick tool.
  6. The best part in forcing the students to consult the wordlists is that by the time they have finished the ‘translation’ homework they will have done something with the new words half a dozen times learning them subconsciously. At least from English into their mother tongue.
  7. For the teacher it should not matter whether the translation is written in the notebook, translation of new words on top of the text lines or the student has the translation only in his/her head. As long as the student can promply give the translation in lesson, using a source or not, everything is ok.
  8. Once the translation skill has been learnt and the habit established less and less time in the lesson is spent on checking the understanding this way. It is taken for granted that the students have studied/translated the new chapter at home before the lesson.
  9. When the students come to class having studied the new text at home, they feel safe and confident. It is a long and boring lesson if they understand nothing of what is going on.

The foundation of every language lesson is studying or translating the new text beforehand at home (in the flipped learning style). It saves time and the students feel more confident in class.

CHECKING WRITTEN OR ORAL HOMEWORK

“Nothing new under the sun.” Not quite since my favourite, Number 2 Student-oriented checking of homework is very different from what I used at the beginning of my career.

When the lesson starts we tend to check the written and oral tasks that were part of the homework. This checking should not eat up too much of our time since the learning took place while the students were doing the exercises. Still, they need to know if their answers are correct or not and ideally this should also be a learning situation.

There are some ways to speed up the checking process and make it more efficient from the students’ point of view.

1 Teacher-oriented checking: The teacher does not get the answers at all from the students but correct answers are revealed little by little on the screen and the students quietly correct their mistakes. The teacher scrolls the text on the screen or he/she uses Power Point animations to hide the answers. Thus the teacher controls the time spent on each exercise. At the end the students are, of course, allowed to ask questions.

Of course, the old style ‘Checking written homework so that the teacher asks and one student at a time answers’ is also possible but it is more time-consuming.

2 Student-oriented checking: Each pair or group is given the correct answers on paper or on the screen and they do the checking themselves within the time given. What is good about this way of checking is that the students advise each other and checking becomes a learning situation too.

If this style is adapted, the teacher should tell the students why you are doing it and what the responsibilities of the students are. While the checking is going on the teacher has to go around the class to observe if someone’s homework is not done.

3 Checking can also be part of station work: If there are, for example, 5 stations/sets of tables, one can be devoted to checking homework. Station work or Work stations are effective as a special kind of group work. See how you can arrange a lesson like it.

N.B. Some teacher use a Google form where the students mark which of the exercises they have done. It is a public file within the class and the students easily point out if someone is trying to cheat. This file is also a document for the teacher and it can be taken into account when grades are given for the course.

The most important piece of homework: studying/translating the textbook chapter of the next lesson in advance at home.

  • 1 Studying the chapter at home in advance
  • 2 Checkingwritten or oral homework exercises
  • 3 Working orally on the new words of the next chapter
  • 4 Listening to the chapter on a CD, DVD, via the internet or read by the teacher
  • 5 Checking if the content was understood, clarifications
  • 6 Reading the text aloud
  • 7 Questions on the text, or multiple choice, true-false, black holes …
  • 8 Doing oral (and written exercises/underlining the text) in class

Model text-based lesson, Reading

DEEPENING UNDERSTANDING, Part 2 and ADDITIONAL ORAL TASKS

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In the previous article I suggested some alternative ways of making questions about a text. I also gave an example how to use differentiation in ‘question – answer technique’ so that the ambitious CLT principles are applied at least among some of the students.

UNDERLINING WORDS AND PHRASES IN THE TEXT

In the ‘old’ days I used a technique ‘Find me another way of saying’ to hammer in phrases like this:

T: Look at the text and find me another way of saying:”two weeks”.
S: “A fortnight”
T: “And then another ways of saying: “I did not have enough money in my wallet.”
S: “I was short of funds on me.”

This process is very slow and could be replaced by giving the students a ready-made list of para-phrases s that would be worth remembering. These stage I have relaced the whole thing in two ways: 1) The students underline anything they find worth underlining or I give a list like in example 3 below and the students say sentences where they use the phrases.

Now we have a look at some alternative ways to enhance talking in class and check understanding of a text. For the sake of motivation it is advisable to replace ‘question -answers’ with something else every now and then.

In short, the examples below demonstrate a way how to combine reading comprehension with speaking freely on the basis of the chapter.

TRUE – FALSE -tasks

The best thing about ‘True – False’ exercises is that it makes the students think and even better if they have to justify their choice in groups orally: argue convincingly why their choice is correct.

Here are some variations for ‘True – False’ -tasks

  1. Make all statements false, one word makes it false
  2. Make all statements false, part of the statement is wrong
  3. More statements are false than true and the students have to identify the false ones and justify why they are false
  4. Add a third choice ‘Not mentioned’, this choice is really demanding, both for the students and for the writer of the statements, this version can actually be considered to be ‘Multiple-choice’

MULTIPLE CHOICE EXERCISES

‘Multiple choice’ is an excellent way to check if a text has been understood properly. It is a very common exam task which gives reliable information of the students’ reading (and listening) skills.

If time allows, just like in ‘True – False’ tasks we can

  • give students individual time to make their choices and
  • then let them discuss the choices in pairs or groups; in English of course
  • This process will teach them a lot and they will learn from each other.
  • The discussion with others is in fact more important than the correct answers.

USING MIND MAPS

Sample 1

From CLT point of view mind maps are excellent because they give hints to the students what to talk about but offer no ready-made sentences to be used. The mind map above is a real communicative task for advanced students after they have studied a chapter with similar content.

Semi-communicative mind map would have additional key words like ‘classical, pop, rock, instrumental; guitar, piano, organ, flute, saxophone; painting, theatre, films, sculpture, poetry’ etc. to get the discussion going more smoothly. The best groups would probably realize how music is used in films to arouse feelings and that song lyrics are often poems.

A mechanical version of the mind map would have both words and guiding questions on the screen. Very often I have the mechanical version visible for everybody and tell the students to ignore my guiding if they feel like it. I call it invisible differentiation since the others do not actually know how much you use the guidance given.

SAMPLE 2

Source: Weilin+Göös, Course 2 Finland

In reality it does not matter how much the students consult the original text. We allow them to do it if they need the support. The main thing is that differentiation takes place unnoticed at the level of their choice.

SAMPLE 3

Source: Weilin+Göös, Course 2 Finland

In nearly all cases where we wish the students to discuss matters in groups it is advisable to have some ideas, pictures or lists or words/phrases that stirs imagination sufficiently. It is only natutal that some students work at a mechanical level and the best ones fully communicatively. Differentiation in action without any stigma on anyone.

USING PLOT PICTURES

Source: SIIE 7 WSOY, Finland

This is an example of how to replace questions made by the teacher with students explaining about the chapter. The topis is hobbies but in my opinion the CLT trick is not to ask the students to memorize and reproduce the content of the chapter, which is what the weakest students do by looking at the text since they are not at the level of making sentences of their own yet.

The trick is to ask the students to make up stories of their own on the basis of the pictures. And the ideas can be completely imaginary and different from the chapter content.

Once the students are allowed to produce stories of their own they really seem to enjoy the freedom and become very motivated to talk in class.

USING PICTURES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING

See my article on ‘Lexical approach to learning languages’. This picture, for example is linked with teaching grammar orally.

It is essential to realize that all language skills are interlinked and variety in classes can be reached by combining the skills.

Source: SIIE 7, WSOY Finland

Assuming the textbook chapter was about New York and Manhattan, the student make up a story of their own on the basis of these pictures.

ADDITIONAL TYPES OF ORAL EXERCISES

Now we have finally reached the last part of our text-based lesson: oral exercises which can be the ones in the study books or modified versions of them or any exercises that the teacher has found in other sources.

The types of tasks below are the juicy bits of our lessons. They bring joy and excitement into the class and are related to real life situations.

Having done with a chapter of two in the textbook these exercises hammer in orally what we were trying to learn. They work even with weak students if we provide them with supportive materials. And you can link them to any of the language skill areas we have in mind.

These exercises can be linked to

  • some new or old grammatical point, such as ‘explaining a process using the present passive voice’, ‘looking at photos and doing comparisons’ or interviewing others (Have you ever …? Has your mum often …?
  • a pre-task for the next lesson, such as ‘Find someone who’ -game where the answer is Yes or No and a certain grammatical point is repeated in a variety of ways
  • functions of language, such as ‘asking for directions’, ‘requesting politely’ or ‘giving a speech’
  • real-life situations, such as ‘at a hotel’, ‘at the airport’, ‘at a restaurant’ or ‘at the doctor’s’
  • a role play, such as ‘reporter – film star’, ‘politicians making a decision’ or ‘travel guide – tourists’
  • co-operative learning, an elaborative group work where the students move on to another group teaching others what they learnt in the previous group
  • work stations – technique, group work where the students move from one table to another and each table has a different task for them
  • task-based and inquiry-based learning, both are student-centered approaches where to focus is directed to finding information or answers to a problematic question, students use the foreign language in a natural way and it does not feel like a language lesson at all

These oral exercise types will be dealt with in other articles.

Model text-based lesson, Reading

DEEP LEVEL READING, returning the marked example test

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Returning an exam or any test at school should be a vital learning situation. Learning from mistakes is best if the students tell each other how they realized what they are doing wrong and what they need to do next.

This article is continuation to the previous article and I strongly recommend a student-centred way of returning the marked reading comprehension tests to the students. There are four reasons for doing it this way:

  • The student will learn how and why they missed the right answer. And they are given the time and a chance to voice their ideas in peace.
  • The students realize how the others solved the problems they faced while doing the test.
  • Many students close their ears when the teacher’s explanations go on and on.
  • The group leaders are finally rewarded for their social skills and it enhances their self-esteem.

My recommendations for the lesson

  1. Divide the class into groups of 3 – 4 and make a good student responsible for the discussion in each group. However, warn these leaders not to lecture about the correct answers but give the answers only if the group cannot find them.
  2. Neither should the leaders show the answer sheet to the others. If they do immature students will simply copy the answers and the whole learning situation is spoilt.
  3. Giving the star students this task will enhance their social skills and they will not get bored and besides, we learn best when we teach others.
  4. Give the students the handout with my tips on the strategies to be used in reading texts. The ones mentioned in the previous article. Let the groups discuss the ideas for a few minutes.
  5. Return the exam papers to the students. Let the group members go through the exam quickly by just looking at their own exams. What went wrong and why? What was the logic like they followed? What did they succeed in? Which strategies would have been useful?
  6. Now the group will go through the whole exam and the leader will make questions, ask for justifications and encourage the others to think aloud why they missed the point. This process of discussion is actually more important than giving the correct answers.
  7. You may consider whether you are going to give the ‘correct’ answers to the group leaders just like they are below or a simplified version of them without the justification lines. A hard-working group may be rewarded with the answers after the whole lesson so that they can study the exam in peace and quiet at home.
  8. If it is absolutely necessary, the discussion may take place in the mother tongue. It makes no sense to go through the answers in English if the proficiency level of the students is not high enough.
  9. Finally answer any questions the students may still have and give feedback of the work of the groups. Praise the groups that worked well and speak in general terms of the problems you observed. The students will know if you are talking about their group.
  10. The very last thing: Ask for feedback, the students’ opinion of the project, the lessons spent on the strategies. Useful or not? What their liked and disliked? What could be done differently and how?

School buses belonging to some schools in Nairobi

Suggested answers for the reading comprehension test

Making a Difference in Tanzania

Up to 113 million children worldwide do not have access to school books. What a waste it is that old school text books are binned or pulped. Books written in Arabic will, of course, be
of no use in most of Africa but
English is an official language in Tanzania, for example. Moreover, all secondary education is done in English there and children are taught following the old British O- and A-Level curricula. Due to the way syllabi in Tanzania mirror the old English system, second-hand course books are perfect to help bridge the gap between rich and poor nations.

Words to be guessed; access = a chance to get, to bin = throw to rubbish bin, to pulp = turn to paper, recycle, curricula/syllabi = official school plans

The title of the article suggests that a problem is being solved. It implies a change.
The topic of the article, the main idea, is given in the very first sentence.
The photograph has a white person in the middle which forebodes him as the person who solved the issue in this primitive-looking school.
The predictions concerning the content of the article are connected to school life.
The thesis statement,(main argument) is given at the end of the 1st paragraph.

1. In Tanzania there are 113 million children without school books. F, because 113 is a worldwide figure

2. In Tanzania all education starting from the first school years is done in English. F, English is used from secondary school onwards

3. The curricula in Tanzania follow the old English model to a great extent. T, British O- and A-level traditions are followed

In Tanzania educational resources are scarce but children have the will to learn. An organisation based in Liverpool is working hard to see that school text books and other equipment are collected and re-distributed. The Tanzanian Book Appeal would be nothing without the help and support of schools, many of which have been involved in fundraising activities as well as donating old books. John, one of the students involved in the project, says that before the fundraising he didn’t really know or even care about Tanzania. Now he understands that Tanzania is the fourth poorest country in the world, and that there may be up to 40 pupils sharing one text book.

Rare words to be ‘guessed’: resources = equipment and money, scare = seldom seen, redistribute = spread out again to people, donate = give out free

The topic sentence of paragraph 2 is the very first sentence.
Why should someone take all the trouble? >>The children do not have enough books to learn new things.
The rest of the text explains what has been done and why.

The 2nd paragraph title could be: School involvement

The last sentence wraps up the idea of the 1st sentence: Tanzania is really poor.

4. In Tanzania there is not a lot of money to organize teaching. T, Tanzania has scare resources = no funds = not much money

5. An organization in Liverpool gathers secondhand school books and forwards them to Tanzania. T, the organization is ‘Tanzanian Book Appeal’ and the students and schools only help them

The whole procedure is planned in detail and even the Tanzanian officials are involved. (This topic sentence is added here to make the text more coherent.) Once the books have been donated they are collected in a truck and taken to a holding warehouse – which was donated by a local business – sorted through and stored. They will be packed up and shipped off to Tanzania in a big container.
The students who have worked on the project will then fly out to meet the books over there. The government in Tanzania have loaned government vehicles to sort out the distribution. The group of English students and teachers will then tour the schools in the Kagera region near Lake Victoria.

The original text has no topic sentence in Paragraph 3.

The whole text is a chronological account of the book handling procedure, explaining how the project was carried out.

Paragraph 3 could be titled as Practical actions taken.

If you get a feeling that the ending is missing you are right. The original text is much longer.

No hard words in this paragraph.

6. The aid organization does not need the help of school children in its work. F, the organization needs the children in fund raising, with donations and even in Tanzania

7. In Tanzania there may be as many as 40 pupils in one classroom. F, the class size is not even mentioned and might even be bigger, 40 refers to the number of students who have to share a book

B  Answer the multiple choice questions

8. What happens to the school books once they leave the donating schools?

  • a) They remain in an old lorry until a storage warehouse is found.
  • b) They are sent to Tanzania in small units with goods from local businesses.
  • c) The books that have been given away are taken into storage and sorted. OK, the books are sorted out before they are placed in a container in Britain

9. What happens to the books when they reach Tanzania?

  • a) A group of students from England will go and distribute the books in Tanzania. OK, they fly over but there are some teachers involved too
  • b) The school have to pay for the transportation of the books.
  • c) The British students travel on the trucks to the schools.

C  1 Why are British secondhand school books ideal for Tanzanian schools? (Give 2 reasons and answer in your own words in a full sentence or two.)

The language of secondary schools is English so they also need English books. The subjects and everything else is pretty much the way it is in Britain.

2 What do you think about the procedures of getting the books to schools after they have arrived in Tanzania? (Mention 2 opinions and why you think so.)

It shows that the project is taken seriously since even the school authorities and the government are involved. They want to secure the safe arrival of the books in their destinations so that they do not end up in the black market, for example.

Reading

READING STRATEGIES, SPOTTING MAIN IDEAS

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Oman versus Finland Move the arrows to see the photos in full!

Logical, well-structured texts often follow generally accepted conventions and if the students are aware of them, they can create expectations that help understanding a text.

  • The use of the word ‘strategy’ implies that there are ways and techniques that will make us better readers; approaches that should be taught and can be learnt in a short period of time.
  • In the previous article I already discussed some of the strategies but this time we focus on finding the key sentences in a text.
  • Discuss the strategies with your students at some point, in advance or afterwards. They will see that you really care!
  • Practise the strategies little by little and let the students pick up the ones that work for them. Many of the ideas will enhance writing as well.

Finding the main ideas in a text, strategies for the students to apply

The very same strategies that work in reading work beautifully also in writing logical, well-structured essays, for instance. Even at university level.

  1. PARAGRAPH 1 See if the main topic is introduced or implied in the first sentence or at the beginning of the text. (This way the reader is supposed to get an idea what the text is about.)
  2. END of PARAGRAPH 1 Then see if the main idea or/and argument of the whole text is at the END of the first paragraph. (This are the standard places to introduce thetopic and the key idea of the whole text.)
  3. OTHER PARAGRAPHS See if the main idea/topic sentence is in the first sentence of each paragraph. (This is a standard place to introduce the key idea of each pragraph.)
  4. Sometimes if the writer is not logical enough, the main idea may be anywhere in the paragraph. So be aware, just in case.
  5. Having found the topic for each paragraph, give each of them a heading.
  6. OTHER WAYS TO DEEPEN UNDERSTANDING Make a mind map, notes in the margin or bullet points in your notebook
  7. Make an oral summary of the text in your own words in pairs.

Spotting the main ideas in a text is a skill of its own and it requires both language and thinking skills.

The following task is an example how you can teach how the students can find the main sentences in a text. Suggested answers at the end of the article!

Having done this or similar exercises the students can easily spot the weaknesses in the logic and structure of texts. They can also apply the same principles in writing texts.

TASK 1: Look at the text below and see if you can spot the main ideas in the text and apply the other strategies. Use points 1 – 4 above and do 5. or/and 6. or 7. if you have time.

LEARNING ABOUT THE UNKNOWN

There are a great number of interesting countries that I have visited over the last 40 years. Those who fly abroad, see the airport, a few hotels and restaurants and the beach learn very little about the real culture and life in the country they are visiting. One has to step outside, talk to locals and get to know their way of thinking, their habits and beliefs before one gets a reliable perspective to the country itself.

Few people have visited Oman and know anything about its history and the facts related to it. About 50 years ago Oman was nowhere near the developed country it is today. In the early 1970s there were only seven kilometres of asphalt in Oman and only three schools, for boys only. The infrastructure was non-existent. Hundreds of years before, vessels in the Indian Ocean had brought thousands of slaves to its shores to be sold.

When Sultan Qaboos, who died in 2020, took over power from his father in 1970, he faced an immense task in modernizing the country. Thanks to oil business the change was possible and progress was made quickly with the help of local clan leaders and foreign companies. Nevertheless, due to the drastic decrease in oil prices Oman has to find other sources of funds to keep on developing.

Oman has many similarities with Finland even if they are situated far apart. There are 2, 4 million Omanis and 1,8 million immigrant workers in Oman. The population of Finland is somewhat over 5 million. Both countries are about 1100 kilometres long and have a long coastline. They are both surrounded by powerful countries and are keeping a low profile in world politics, acting often as mediators in conflicts. In addition, they are both very safe and liberal countries.

Hints on possible findings on the text above are at the end of this article.

Towards deep-level analysis

Demanding reading tasks especially in the senior high classes often require reading at a deep level: reading between the lines and making inferences and conclusions on the text , spotting ideas that are more or less hidden, implicit or unclear on purpose.

  1. Figure out what the writer’s point of view is (for / against / balanced / biased) and then find the words and phrases that support you interpretation. Is the writer sometimes in favour or against some people or ideas.
  2. Discuss with your pair why/if some parts were difficult to understand. Often it is not your fault but the writer’s.
  3. Compare your original predictions or assumptions about the ideas in the text with the real ones found in the text.
  4. Was the text worth reading and useful? What would you add or take away from it? Which things would you like to know more about?
  5. What was the tone of the text like? Akward, appealing, humorous, serious, full of facts, surprising, upsetting … Which words make you think that way? Does the tone vary?

TASK 2: Ask the students to work in pairs or groups and ADD nouns, adjectives, verb phrases etc. to change the meaning of the whole text above (more positive or negative or biased or humorous) Orally or in writing! This task will make your students more aware of the effect of word choices and how they affect the readers’ interpretations.

Suggested answers to Reading Task 1

LEARNING ABOUT THE UNKNOWN

There are a great number of interesting countries that I have visited over the last 40 years. (= topic sentence) Those who fly abroad, see the airport, a few hotels and restaurants and the beach learn very little about the real culture and life in the country they are visiting. One has to step outside, talk to locals and get to know their way of thinking, their habits and beliefs before one gets a reliable perspective to the country itself. (= thesis statement/ main argument for the whole text)

The title is unclear on purpose. The reader needs to start reading and realize that ‘the unknown’ refers to unknown countries and their culture. The word ‘I’ implies potential subjectivity in the text. The tone is mildly critical towards tourists who only want to lie on the beach and fool around.

A drastic change in 50 years

Few people have visited Oman and know anything about its history and the facts related to it. About 50 years ago Oman was nowhere near the developed country it is today. In the early 1970s there were only seven kilometres of asphalt in Oman and only three schools, for boys only. The infrastructure was non-existent. Hundreds of years before, vessels in the Indian Ocean had brought thousands of slaves to its shores to be sold.

The 2nd paragraph opens up with a clear topic sentence. It refers to Oman, a country known only to a few. The idea is to tempt the reader to learn more about Oman. The rest of the paragraph creates strong, visual, even surprising images.

sultan qaboos – the saviour

When Sultan Qaboos, who died in 2020, took over power from his father in 1970, he faced an immense task in modernizing the country. Thanks to oil business the change was possible and progress was made quickly with the help of local clan leaders and foreign companies. Nevertheless, due to the drastic decrease in oil prices Oman has to find other sources of funds to keep on developing.

Paragraph 3 emphasizes the crucial role of Sultan Qaboos in developing Oman. The link to the previous paragraph is clear and now we learn how the change was possible and why the situation is more difficult these days.

LOW PROFILE PEACE-MAKERS

Oman has many similarities with Finland even if they are situated far apart. There are 2, 4 million Omanis and 1,8 million immigrant workers in Oman. The population of Finland is somewhat over 5 million. Both countries are about 1100 kilometres long and have a long coastline. They are both surrounded by powerful countries and are keeping a low profile in world politics, acting often as mediators in conflicts. In addition, they are both very safe and liberal countries.

The comparison between Oman and Finland may at first seem far-fetched until you readers realize that I, the writer, am Finnish and that I have worked in Oman and have a lot of inside knowledge of it.

Finding the key ideas in a text is of vital importance from the point of view of understanding a text.

In addition the very same priciples may be used by the students when they are writing logical coherent texts and essays.

The following article deals with strategies that students should be using in reading comprehension exams and a model lesson how to introduce these ideas is also included.

Reading

Strategies to be used before, during and after reading comprehension exams

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There is no hope of improving reading skills until the reasons for NOT UNDERSTANDING the text are identified by the students themselves and they commit themselves to overcome the problems.

It is essential for teachers to realize that the process of decoding someone else’s messages is not the same with everybody. We are all different and depending on our background and style of learning we process information differently. Our problems in reading may also vary drastically.

Just like listening, reading skill is hard to teach because we have no control of the process in the reader’s mind. Still, we can affect the process indirectly by giving advice and guidance. The general CLT principle which is in favour of a great amount of input resulting in good results needs to be supported by teaching strategies on how to prepare for reading comprehension exams and how we can learn from our mistakes in taking exams.

If you are teaching senior high students, I suggest you go through the whole process once with your students and then get feedback from them if it turned out to be worth the time spent on it.

  • Strategies are dealt with the students before an exam
  • You, the teacher, study how the returning of the exam is to be arranged
  • Arrange a student-centred lesson to return the exam
  • Show the students the ‘heureka’ type of comments to be used

Strategies / tips for students in a reading comprehension exam

Let’s have a look at some strategies that are useful when students take a reading comprehension exam. Some of them are actually the same as in listening exams. Still, learning to apply the strategies does not take place over night. It also requires some practice.

Throwing the students one text or exam after another and assuming that massive input will automatically improve reading skill does not necessarily lead to success with everybody. It is better to teach the students how they should approach an ordinary or an exam text.

  • Relax your body. Take a couple of deep breaths! It will calm your nerves. Being nervous won’t help you.
  • Read the whole text through at first but do not stop even if you do not understand the text perfectly. This way you will have a better idea about the topic and structure of the text.
  • If the logic of the text is good, you can easily spot the main ideas and sentences. The rest of the text is justifications of the arguments or examples.
  • Start working on the questions only if you read the whole text first. Many ideas open up if you know the exact topic and the perspective of the writer.
  • Once you understand the topic and the questions, you can guess many things they talk about. If you use common sense and your background knowledge on the topic you may find it helpful.
  • Read the questions carefully and focus only on them.
  • Most of the information in the text is not needed. It may be irrelevant.
  • Don’t panic if you see new words. Try to guess what they mean. Very often you need not know the meaning of new words at all.
  • Be aware and watch out for extreme words like ‘never’ ‘only’ ‘always’ ‘anyone’. They are often too strong.
  • Link ideas that have the same meaning. For example: If the idea in the text is expressed “He used to go fishing on Saturdays and Sundays.” the same idea is in the answer booklet as “He was in the habit of catching salmon and trout at weekends.”
  • So the most common technique is just to express the same idea in other words.
  • If your exam consists of multiple choice tasks, use elimination technique. For example: Choice A was not talked about at all, Choice B is wrong because they said ’everybody’ which is not true, Choice D is wrong because ‘chance’ means different from ‘change’… SO the right answer has to be Choice C. You have now eliminated the wrong answers and you will answer C (even if you may not know exactly why).

Strategic tips for the teacher about returning an exam

  1. Have an exam for the students and when you return it devote a whole lesson to go through the exam in detail, every question and every alternative. I explain the process in detail in the next article.
  2. Demonstrate with the first two questions how the analysis is done and then let the students discuss the other questions in groups. Have star students leading the discussion without lecturing the right answers. See my next article.
  3. Don’t interfere with the group discussions but take notes on the problems the groups do not seem to solve well. Answer the students questions at the end of the lesson and point out your own observations.
  4. Now the students should have a vague idea what the reasons for the mistakes are. In other words, they may have identified some of the problem areas.
  5. Now that the students are motivated to hear more it is time to have another lesson where you go through my strategy tips for an exam. Show the tips one by one on the screen and let the students ask questions on them. Give the list as a handout after the discussion with my copyright. Let them have it even in exams.
  6. If you think your class will not be able to discuss these matters in English, let them use the mother tongue to make sure the messages get through.
  7. Make each student write in English what they have learnt over these two lessons and what they are planning to do to overcome the difficulties.
  8. Show them my ‘heureka’ comments on the screen as models of the kind of comments you are looking for. See below!
  9. Collect the comments and give feedback on them in the 3rd reading comprehension enhancement lesson.
  10. Now you have done your job: you gave your students the tools for improvement. Nevertheless, they are the ones who have to start working. Probably making use of the other strategies that I have been talking about.

The students have to come up with ‘heureka’ realizations like …

  • Ah, I think I worry too much about words I have never seen and stop reading because of them and get frustrated. SO, next time I will try to guess the meanings or maybe the word is not important at all or knowing if the word has a positive or negative meaning on the basis of the context is enough.
  • Ah, ‘carry out’ and ‘realize’ can sometimes mean the same OR ‘no adequate funds’ is the same as ‘not enough money’ or ‘lack of sufficient resources’. SO, my problem is vocabulary and learning many ways to say the same thing.
  • Ah, I stumble over the same structures over and over again. Shortened sentences, never heard. Wow! ‘Having left for downtown’ is a shortened sentence meaning the same as ‘When I had started to drive towards the city center’ SO, I have to study grammar more because I always stop at this kind of structures and do not get the meaning.
  • Ah, my mistake is that I start reading by translating the text word by word. SO, I have to stop translation tactics because it is too slow. Working through mother tongue will not do. I have to learn to think in English.
  • Ah, I have been too much in a hurry. I usually start by reading Question 1 and then look at the text without knowing what the whole text is about. SO, from now on I will read the whole text through first without stopping even if I do not understand everything at first. This way I will get an overall picture of the topic and the main ideas.
  • Ah, I never realized that some sentences are more important in a paragraph than others. SO, spotting of the main sentences in a paragraph seems to work for me. I will worry about the details much less this way.
  • Oh, no. All these years I have been trying hard but nothing seems to work. I thought I was just stupid. Now that you told about dyslexia and its symtoms I think I may suffer from it. SO, Thanks. I will contact the special teacher and see if he can help me.

Having a talent rarely takes anyone to the top. Reaching excellence in anything requires very hard work, 10 000 hours of work, they say. Maybe that is the total number of hours needed to master a foreign language ‘perfectly’. I am still counting ...

Up to 10 percent of students suffer from some form of dyslexia, reading and writing difficulty. Luckily these days students have the courage to admit they have these problems and special teachers are trained to help them.

The text in the next article is an example of how a mature 16-year-old might be able to process a reading comprehension text. I believe that if the students are able to apply the strategies and tips given in my previous articles in this ‘test’ they will become better readers. And writers too since good writers will anticipate the reactions of their readers.

You will find the sample exam in the next article and correct answers with a ‘mature’ reader’s comments in the final article of this Reading Unit.

Reading

READING

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Trial and error -method sometimes works beautifully. But would it not be better and quicker to give these people advice how to learn to swim than let them try it out themselves. The same applies to learning to read at a deep level – the students need to realize what they are doing wrong and which new strategies they need to start applying.

When applying CLT ideas in helping my students improve their reading skills I made a few startling discoveries.

  • The first one was that I have no way of knowing what goes on in the heads of my students when they are reading a text. The ‘quality’ of reading was hidden from me.
  • Secondly, as a result of this discovery I realized that the reading process is different for every one of us and the difficulties may be caused by many reasons and I as the teacher had no clue of them.
  • Thirdly, I had not helped my students enough to find the causes to these difficulties or to find a remedy for them. It had been like ‘Read more and more and you will become a better reader’ OR even worse ‘Throw the child into the water and let them learn to swim little by little’.
  • Fourthly, I realized I can make a difference in my students’ reading comprehension only indirectly; I had to make changes in what happens in my lessons and what kind of advice and guidence I could offer my students.
Move the arrow button to see the two options: Is reading a text a relaxing experience or is it filled with fear of not being able to overcome the obstacles on the way?

I had always insisted on my students studying the new chapter at home in advance. So the foundation for reading comprehension was there. It had actually been laid in the elementary school and with some students in the junior high school. When starting to apply CLT ideas in my ‘teaching’ of reading I first made a few important changes in my lessons.

  • I began to use differentiation in my lessons and replaced me asking questions about the text by giving my students 3 options how to ‘check’ reading comprehension. See Point 4 in Reading strategies below
  • The check was always done orally in pairs or groups, not with the teacher. So I combined reading with speaking. Reading comprehension became part of speaking practice. See more detailed account in ‘Deepening understanding of text, Part 1’
  • I started to teach more and more about various strategies how to improve reading skills and how to cope with exams as well. This idea led directly to improving writing skills as well.

The most striking example of the importance of education and reading skills that I have come across in my life is what happened in Oman in 1970 when Sultan Qaboos became the ruler and turned the uneducated nation into a modern cililized country merely in 50 years.

Introduction to receptive skills and reading strategies

As I have stated earlier on that receptive skills (listening and reading), are much more difficult to teach than productive skills (speaking and writing). Speaking and writing skills can easily be measured against a criteria. In contrast, listening and reading take place in the heads of the students and we have no physical evidence on the quality of understanding.

Listening comprehension can be verified only indirectly by checking if the listeners responses make sense in the light of what was said by other people. The other way is, of course, by having an exam.

Reading comprehension is even more challenging because people often read silently on their own and there are seldom immediate situations where understanding is checked in normal life. We rarely challenge the information someone has read about. Besides, interestingly enough research has shown that the process in decoding written messages is different among recipients and may even result in arguments about the content.

The most important thing for teachers is to make the students aware of their own reading processes, strengths and weaknesses, and also of the ways other readers approach a new text. Pair and group work as well as various reading strategies serve as tools for raising the awareness but they are also keys to the remedies, keys how to improve one’s own reading skills.

Nevertheless, the situation is far from being hopeless since we can teach about reading indirectly and most of my other articles on reading deal with strategies that serve as tools to enhance reading skills of ordinary and examination texts.

The other articles related to READING COMPREHENSION are

ReadingReading comprehension strategies in class
Solving reading difficulties
Reading strategies, an example how to teach them
Reading strategies, spotting main ideas
Strategies to be used in exams and a model lesson how to introduce them
Sample exam for reading comprehension
Deep level reading, returning the markes sample exam

These other articles under heading READING demonstrate …

  • how important it is that the students themselves become aware of the reasons why they do not always understand a text or succeed in the exams and what they need to do to overcome the difficulties
  • how complex the process of reading actually is and how differently readers may approach an ordinary or an exam text and how versatile the difficulties they encounter may be
  • how the students can make use of various strategies during the exam to get better results
  • how to organize the lessons after the exam has been taken and the exams are returned to the students
Reading

READING STRATEGIES, an example how to teach them

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Quite often if we do not understand a text, it is the writer’s fault, not ours. Still there are strategies how we can become good readers and learn to understand much more than we ever thought was possible.

  • The teaching of learning strategies is one of the latest innovations in CLT philosophy and an essential part of increasing the students’ motivation.
  • The use of the word ‘strategy’ implies that there are ways and techniques that will make us better readers; approaches that should be taught and can be learnt in a short period of time.
  • Discuss the strategies presented in these articles with your students at some point, in advance or afterwards. They will see that you really care!
  • Practise the strategies little by little and let the students pick up the ones that work for them. Many of the ideas will enhance writing as well.

Sample text on how you can teach reading strategies 1 – 6 below

The text below is in Finnish, a languge you probably do not know. But don’t panic! I’m sure you can handle the text.

I want teachers and students to have an experience on how powerful a tool reading strategies can be even if you do not master the language at all.

An example on how you can teach some reading strategies even if the task seems impossible

Instructions to the students

  1. Look at the photo, headline and the layout of the text to give you clues what the text in Finnish is about. Don’t use phones or other sources of information!
  2. Underline words that resemble words in your mother tongue or some other language and try to guess what they mean.
  3. Make two assumptions what you think the text is about.
  4. Make two questions you think the text might give an answer to.
  5. Use common sense, general knowledge, logic and guessing to figure out what the hard sentences are about.
  6. Read the text on your own first and then discuss it with your pair or in your group.
  7. If needed your teacher will solve the mystery for you. See how close you can get!

N.B. Teachers! Don’t cheat. Try the exercise out yourself first and after that let your students apply the first 5 tips/strategies above. They will internalize them without teaching, first reading alone and even more in groups afterwards.

You are wrong if you think you are not able to understand written Finnish! Tackle the text now!

Salalah, hedelmäparatiisi

Tämä valokuva on otettu Salalahissa, joka on noin 900 kilometriä Omanin pääkaupungista Muscatista etelään. Banaanit, mangot ja vesimeloonit alueen päätuotteita.

Hedelmät poimitaan hieman raakoina ja siksi ne ovat myytäessä vihreitä. Muualla Omanissa kasvaa melkeinpä ainoastaan taatelipalmuja. Mutta jos vuokraatte auton, varokaa kameleita, koska niitä voi olla jopa moottoriteillä.

Instructions to the teacher

  • When the students have studied the text on their own, let them discuss it in pairs or groups. This is the moment they will learn most, explaining others about their strategies.
  • Start going through the text with the whole class using points 1 – 5. First, look at the photo: What can we learn from it? Some students have never ‘analysed’ a photo before! It is a skill of its own.
  • Then look at the title: What does it probably mean?
  • Students assumptions, guesses about the content?
  • Which questions might be answered in the text?
  • The importance of background knowledge and common sense and logic?
  • Take turns and get the answers from many pairs/groups. Most likely you will get most of the answers from the students.

The suggested answers with the text both in Finnish and in English can be found below under the photos.

Salalah, fruit paradise / Salalah, hedelmäparatiisi

  • The key to solving the meaning of the title is to connect ‘paratiisi‘ with ‘paradise’. The photo should imply that ‘hedelmä’ means ‘fruit’.

This photo was taken in Salalah, which is about 900 kilometres south of Muscat, the capital of Oman. Bananas, mangos and watermelons are the main products of the region. / Tämä valokuva on otettu Salalahissa, joka on noin 900 kilometriä Omanin pääkaupungista Muscatista etelään. Banaanit, mangot ja vesimeloonit alueen päätuotteita.

  • Green words are nearly the same in Finnish and English, loan words, and they reveal the topic, ‘fruit’.
  • Common sense and logic: Oman is a country, Muscat is probably the capital. Salalah must be a fruit production area 900 kilometres from Muscat. Which direction? It does not really matter. To the south, but you can know it only if you know the map of Oman.

Fruits are picked a little raw and therefore they are green when they are sold. Elsewhere in Oman date palm trees are just about the only trees growing. But if you hire a car, mind the camels because you might see them even on motorways. / Hedelmät poimitaan hieman raakoina ja siksi ne ovat myytäessä vihreitä. Muualla Omanissa kasvaa melkeinpä ainoastaan taatelipalmuja. Mutta jos vuokraatte auton, varokaa kameleita, koska niitä voi olla jopa moottoriteillä.

  • Green words are nearly the same in Finnish and English, loan words, and they reveal how the text goes on.
  • The 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph really tests the readers ability to guess what the sentence may mean. The title >>‘ hedelmät’ =’ fruit’.
  • What happens to fruit before they are eaten? They are picked up ‘raakana’=’raw’ when they are ‘vihreä’ = green like in the photo. This is general knowledge: fruit ripen up on their way to the shops.
  • ‘Omanissa taatelipalmuja’ = ‘In Oman date palm trees’ is the essence of the sentence. Not the full meaning but close enough.
  • If you go abroad, you probably do not take your car with you but you hire it. So ‘vuokraatte auton’ = hire an ‘automobile’/’auto’/’car’
  • If camels are mentioned with motorways, it must mean they are the ones causing accidents on motorways. Not deer or elks, like in Finland.

The complexity of the reading process above in our heads is astonishing. But listening to others explaining how they processed the text is one of the keys in becoming a better reader.

N.B. It is quite amazing how much you can actually understand Finnish just cracking your brains a little and using various strategies. I bet Paragraph 1 was a piece of cake for you and you even guessed the meanings of the new words. The last sentence too.

If your students can crack this Finnish puzzle at least partially, they will not give up very easily if they come a cross a problem in an English text.

The next article is about how to use the same strategies in solving a reading comprehension test in English.

Model text-based lesson, Reading

SAMPLE EXAM FOR READING COMPREHENSION

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One of the keys to the students’ success and improvement in reading comprehension exams is to devote a couple of lessons to the strategies when you get a new group.

Throwing the students one exam after another and assuming that massive input will automatically improve the reading skills for an exam, does not necessarily hold true.

In the previous articles I hopefully gave a lot of food for thought about preparing the students for exams.

All language skills are intertwined. Thus many of the tips given on listening comprehension, writing tasks and learning vocabulary apply in taking reading comprehension exams too.

The text below is a sample exam for those who are about 15 years of age. The idea is to let them take the exam either before or after the strategies lessons. The exam has A) True/False-questions, B) multiple choice questions and C) a task combining reading with writing and justifying opinions.

The next article after this one is an example on how a mature 16-year-old might be able to process this exam. I will also give the ‘correct answers’ there with some recommendations on how to organize the return of the ‘test’.

I believe that if the students are allowed to use and apply the strategies handout in doing this exam they will internalize the ideas more profoundly. I am talking about the handout and articles in the previous article. And the student may become better writers too since they will learn to anticipate the reactions of their readers better.

Still, learning to apply the strategies does not take place over night. It also requires a lot of practice.

Let’s look at the exam now.

https://asanteafrica.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/matt-suskis-impressions-from-a-school-in-tanzania/

Making a difference in Tanzania

Up to 113 million children worldwide do not have access to school books. What a waste it is that old school text books are binned or pulped. Books written in Arabic will, of course, be of no use in most of Africa but English is an official language in Tanzania, for example. Moreover, all secondary education is done in English there and children are taught following the old British O- and A-Level curricula. Due to the way syllabi in Tanzania mirror the old English system, second-hand course books are perfect to help bridge the gap between rich and poor nations.

In Tanzania educational resources are scarce but children have the will to learn. An organisation based in Liverpool is working hard to see that school text books and other equipment are collected and re-distributed. The Tanzanian Book Appeal would be nothing without the help and support of schools, many of which have been involved in fund raising activities as well as donating old books. John, one of the students involved in the project, says that before the fund raising he didn’t really know or even care about Tanzania. Now he understands that Tanzania is the fourth poorest country in the world, and that there may be up to 40 pupils sharing one text book.

Once the books have been donated they are collected in a truck and taken to a holding warehouse – which was donated by a local business – sorted through and stored. They will be packed up and shipped off to Tanzania in a big container. The students who have worked on the project will then fly out to meet the books over there. The government in Tanzania have loaned government vehicles to sort out the distribution. The group of English students and teachers will then tour the schools in the Kagera region near Lake Victoria.

A  Decide whether the statement is true (T) or false (F). Correct the false statements.

  1. In Tanzania there are 113 million children without school books.
  2. In Tanzania all education starting from the first school years is done in English .
  3. The curricula in Tanzania follow the old English model to a great extent.
  4. In Tanzania there is not a lot of money to organize teaching.
  5. An organization in Liverpool gathers secondhand school books and forwards them to Tanzania.
  6. The aid organization does not need the help of school children in its work.
  7. In Tanzania there may be as many as 40 pupils in one classroom.

B  Answer the multiple choice questions. Choose a) b) or c)

8. What happens to the school books once they leave the donating schools?

  • a) They remain in an old lorry until a storage warehouse is found.
  • b) They are sent to Tanzania in small units with goods from local businesses.
  • c) The books that have been given away are taken into storage and sorted in Britain.

9. What happens to the books when they reach Tanzania?

  • a) A group of students from England will go and distribute the books in Tanzania.
  • b) The schools have to pay for the transportation of the books.
  • c) The British students travel on the trucks to the schools.

C  1 Why are British secondhand school books ideal for Tanzanian schools? (Give 3 reasons and answer in your own words in a full sentence or two.)

2 What do you think about the procedures of getting the books to schools after they have arrived in Tanzania? (Mention 3 opinions and why you think so.)

The ‘correct’ answers with detailed analysis are to be found in the next article.

Africa at its best. Karin Blixen’s home near Nairobi. Blixen wrote famous books about her life in Africa.

Before you look at my next article about returning this sample exam, please ponder on the questions below.

How would you organize immediate student-oriented feedback after a reading comprehension test? Background info: The test was 30 min long, 6 multiple choice questions and 4 open-ended ones. A mixed-ability class, 16-year-olds and onwards.

  1. What would you say to the students about the purpose of the exam-returning session?
  2. How do you organize the feedback session right after the test?
  3. Grouping the students? Making it a student-centred learning situation?
  4. How to provide a model how to approach the questions?
  5. How to deal with multiple choices?
  6. How to answer open-ended questions?
  7. When do you give the correct answers and to whom?
  8. Various options to deal with low-achievers, i.e. How do you deal with differentiation?

Reading

Reading comprehension strategies in class

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In the previous article I pointed out that reading takes place in the heads of the students and we have no physical evidence on the quality of understanding. Besides, in general people are reluctant to admit that they did not understand what was said or written.

For this reason I have always tried to make sure all my students know how to study a new text beforehand at home. Once the students start to think in English, there is no need for any translations. If the students come to classes unprepared there simply is not enough time for most of them to understand the text well enough to learn from it. I have found the teaching of study skills and strategies more and more important over the years. It is a wonderful asset in CLT classes.

In the mid-1980s I had a rather weak new senior high class and I discovered that seven out of 30 of those 16-year-olds did not understand the texts in our textbook at all. So I made them sit down and translate texts with me once a week while the others were working independently. I felt embarrassed and so did my students. I simply told them what I expected them to do at home and demonstrated how to do it.

In addition, I told them that they could leave the group and study with the others the minute they could prove they have no difficulties any more in translating a text into Finnish. It took five lessons and all seven students learnt how to get prepared for my lessons. After that we did not have to translate any of the texts. It was taken for granted that everybody has to understand the new texts at the beginning of the lesson.

Reading strategies to be applied in class

Provided the students have done their homework and studied the next chapter beforehand, we can quite quickly move on to the stage in the lesson where the understanding of the text is checked.

The change that CLT brought along was that I started to use the textbook chapters as a stepping stone to free speaking. Understanding the text and doing written exercises was not enough. I started to differentiate the activities in class which lead to the students checking understanding ORALLY in many ways in pairs and groups.

At its best reading comprehension is linked seamlessly to speaking freely in pairs or groups. There are many ways to do it. I have already discussed these matter in ‘Deepening understanding, Part 1’ but I will rephrase the main points here. Many of the strategies I discuss under deep-level reading in exams can be applied in reading ordinary texts too.

  1. ‘Question-answer’ technique (QA): if you use ready-made questions, have them on the screen and let the students answer them in pairs. After all we teachers.already know the answers so the only reason for asking these questions is to get the students talking; this is an intermediate stage on our way to free speaking. N.B. If we ask the students’ opinion about a text, it leads to free talking: To what extent do you agree with the ideas in the text? / What is the most interesting and boring part of the story and why?
  2. Replacing one-student-answering-the question-at-a-time with pair work means the activity level soaring towards 100 %. But CLT teachers are not pleased with this situation. Why not? Because the answers can simply be read from the text, which means the QA is ‘mechanical’ and our aim is to move via semi-communicative tasks to free speaking.
  3. However, there are other ways than questions to test reading comprehension and have the focus on free talking. I have discussed True-False tasks, Multiple Choice tasks, Explaining the story with the help of pictures or mind maps (= my favourites) and especially differentiation in reading skill in article Deepening understanding, Part 1.
  4. My way of realizing differentiation is very simple. For example, if the topic of a chapter is ‘Sports’ and we are on the verge of checking understanding of the text, every student chooses one of the 3 tasks and works with others who took the same level task. The tasks are: A) Answer the questions on the screen and work in pairs B) Explain about the content of the chapter in your own words , use the key words on the screen if needed. C) Have a discussion in pairs or in groups about your sport experiences and what sports means to you.
  5. Some students insist on doing A, B and C. Others A and C or B and C. It is all the same for me. All I demand is that they work actively all through the lesson. Not for me, but for themselves.

As you can see I have minimized the extra work for the teacher in this A, B, C style of invisible differentiation. Invisible in the sense of no stigma on any student. Now the students work at a level that suits and pleases them.

I can sense some of you are wondering ‘How can I be sure my students understand the text correctly?‘. A justified question. My answer is. You can never be sure of it since you can observe it only from outside. Your students will ask each other or you if they do not grasp part of the text. Mostly they simply rely on each other’s help.

Intensive and extensive reading

Intensive reading

In a narrow sense ’intensive reading’ is what we normally do with textbook texts: study them in detail trying to understand the content properly. Sometimes we may look at the vocabulary and the structures more carefully too. I suspect many teachers have never really stopped to think about the various stages and strategies that take place in reading.

  • at first reading is based on translating the text into the mother tongue, aloud, silently in the head or like I do with weak readers: force them to write the translation in their notebooks or the translation of new words between the lines in the text, this goes on for a few weeks or months until the students realize they simply have to do it
  • beginners’ reading pace varies a lot while they are reading a text and they tend to stop and go back and forth in the text, which is quite normal
  • beginners are mostly provided with simplified texts in their books to avoid frustration due to the language being too difficult, still they should be encouraged to read authentic texts at least in their free time
  • at an advanced level the students start to think in English, no translations are needed any more and authentic texts can be used as a source of information at least in projects
  • advanced students should be taught how to make use of various strategies while reading texts, many of the strategies can be taught to younger students too
  • however, there are always a number of students in all age groups who work through translation, which slows down the reading process a lot so teaching effective reading strategies is of vital importance for them in particular

In a wider sense ’intensive reading’ covers the study of many types of texts and genres often followed by a set of tasks to be done. There are two types of reading tactics depending on what kind of information we are looking for. Both ‘scanning’ and ‘skimming’ a text are very useful skills later on in working life too.

  • We often ’scan’ texts to find a particular answer or a detail.
  • On other occasions we ’skim’ the whole passage or text through to get an overall idea about the text.

Extensive reading

’Extensive reading’ means reading for fun, reading because we enjoy the content or the story as such. Present-day media offers everybody a massive number of sources for extensive reading: in addition to library books we can make use of the internet which is full of interesting texts. It does not really matter what the students read as long as they are interested in the articles or texts. This kind of internal motivation guaratees learning and takes place in a relaxing atmosphere. In brief, the more there is INPUT, the more the students learn.

It is a good idea to let the students sometimes read whatever they want in class and then tell others what they find interesting in the texts. Some read only short newpaper articles, others may leaf through a thick novel. Encourage all of them to keep on reading no matter what.

I hate to admit it but during my time at school song lyrics were the only extra thing I read on top of textbook chapters. The first book I read in English was the university entrance exam novel ‘Brigton Rock’ by Graham Greene.

These days one of my most popular sources for reading is ‘onlinenewspapers.com’ where you can find hundreds of newspapers in English and other languages from all over the world. And I let the students read whatever articles they want, take notes and then summarize the content orally to their group or occasionally for the whole class.

The more there is INPUT, the more the students learn. The main thing is that they enjoy the texts and the content. Internal motivation to read is best!