Dont sweat the small stuff: how to help your students read smarter, not harder, in English

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Dont sweat the small stuff how to help your
students read smarter, not harder, in English

• Barbara Nykiel-Herbert
• Department of English
• Youngstown State University
• Youngstown, Ohio
• nykielherbert_at_yahoo.com

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What is reading?

• decoding graphic symbols to sounds
• getting meaning from print
• psycholinguistic guessing-game
• transaction between text and reader
• retrieving and comprehending some form of stored
  information or ideas
• process consisting of two components word
  recognition and comprehension

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Why do students EFL need to read efficiently in
English?

• According to research commissioned by the British
  
• Council, English is the main language of
• books and newspapers,
• airports and air-traffic control,
• international business and academic conferences,
  
• science, technology,
• diplomacy,
• sport and international competitions,
• pop music and advertising.    

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Moreover

• Nearly 70 of the world's scientists read in
  English  
• 75 the world's mail is written in English    
  80 cent of the world's electronically stored
  information is in English
• 90 of the Internet content is in English.

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English as a life skill

• English is no longer regarded as a foreign
  language, but
• rather, like computer technology, a set of vital
  survival
• skills in the rapidly changing world. In all
  likelihood, in
• the next 10 years or so, the concept of literacy
  will be
• re-defined from the ability to access
  information in a
• written text to the ability to access and
  process
• information in English through digital means.

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continued

• The world doesnt make allowances for non-native
  English readers books and other texts are not
  written like EFL textbooks. When they leave
  college classrooms, our students will have to
  deal professionally with real-life English texts.
  
• Therefore our task as teachers is to equip our
  students with skills, strategies, and confidence
  to read challenging English texts.

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What kind of texts should EFL students read?

• non-fiction
• informative
• narrative
• expository
• persuasive
• technical
• academic
• across a range of content areas
• varying length
• a notch (or two) higher than oral skills level

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Why is reading a challenge for EFL learners?

• poor control of vocabulary
• difficulty in processing syntactically complex
  sentences
• low reading speed
• insufficient content background
• lack of metacognitive strategies (guiding oneself
  through thinking and understanding)

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We learn to read by reading

• Reading is based in language. As there are no
  miracle methods for learning a foreign language,
  there are no quick fixes for reading.
• Successful reading is not only dependent on the
  readers linguistic skills it also depends on
  his content knowledge and his cognitive aptitude.
  
• There are some strategies that can improve
  reading efficiency in L2, but there are no fast
  and easy recipes for a rapid dramatic increase in
  reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension. The
  only reliable way of increasing ones reading
  power is through more reading.

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Word recognition

• Associating form and meaning,
• e.g. flea, bite, household, navigate
• Word recognition in English can be accomplished
  through decoding to sound (sounding out) or
  sight recognition.
• The knowledge of derivational morphemes helps
  processing a given word at many levels phonetic
  (sounding out), syntactic and semantic
• wug
• biometrics
• discormigate
• discormigation

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Efficient reading is sight reading

• Decoding to sound is a transitional strategy
  fluent readers read by sight. However, decoding
  is still useful when encountering new words in
  print.
• Fluent readers do not read word by word they
  perceive and process 5-7 words at a time.
• That is the number of items we can hold at once
  in our working memory.

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Sample 1

• Strange as this all may seem, women have
  suffered for beauty for a long time now. The
  Mayans filed their teeth down and drilled holes
  so that they could embellish them with jewelry.
  The hot beauty treatment of the Middle Ages was
  making yourself bleed to achieve pallor, which
  epitomized sex-appeal.
• Q In the Middle Ages, women were more attractive
  if they were
• A. epitomized
• B. pale-looking
• C. bleeding
• D. appealing

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Sample 1 chunked for easy processing

• Strange as this all may seem, (6)
• women have suffered for beauty (5)
• for a long time now. (5)
• The Mayans filed their teeth down (and) drilled
  holes (8)
• so that they could embellish them with jewelry.
  (8)
• The hot beauty treatment of the Middle Ages (8)
• was making yourself bleed to achieve pallor, (7)
• which epitomized sex-appeal. (4)

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Comprehension lexical and syntactic and
extra-linguistic levels

• Syntactic level determining the relationships
  among words in
• a sentence
• The flea bites the dog.
• The dog bites the flea.
• Lexical semantics level determining the
  meanings
• of words from the context in which they occur
• Ill pick up the wugs on the way home.
• Wugs will thrive in these conditions.
• Question What are wugs?

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What kind of grammar challenges do EFL students
encounter in real English texts?

• passive voice
• inversion
• complex noun phrases and adverbials
• complex tense forms
• multiple embeddings (clauses within clauses)
• sentence length main S and V difficult to locate
• Example
• Had a discovery of the improper installation of
  the ring securing the drive shaft been made
  sooner, the extensive damage to the engine could
  have been prevented.

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Comprehension extra-linguistic level

• World knowledge interpretation of text by
  reference to the extra-linguistic reality.
• Usually the lexical, syntactic and conceptual
  complexities co-occur in texts the more advanced
  the topic, the more complex the language.
• The more knowledge of the topic a reader brings
  to the text, the better his comprehension he can
  use his content knowledge to make guesses about
  the language.

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Typically recommended reading strategies

• Determine the reading purpose/task.
• Preview the text (look at title, headings,
  pictures, etc.) to identify text genre.
• Make predictions about its content.
• Read fast for the gist/main idea of the text pay
  attention to boldface words etc.
• Re-read for details.

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Working with challenging texts

• These strategies do not always work, especially
  if a text is challenging for the reader. There
  may be no title or any other indicator of the
  genre or content of a particular text, like in
  the above examples. (These kinds of texts are
  often included in language and reading tests.)
  The text may include unknown vocabulary, complex
  syntax, or deal with unfamiliar concepts.
  Different strategies are necessary for working
  with such texts.

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Sample 2

• The evidence suggests that a field-dependent
  cognitive style, and other characteristics of
  limited differentiation, tend to prevail in
  social settings which are characterized by
  insistence on adherence to authority both in
  society and in the family by the use of strict or
  even harsh socialization practices to enforce
  conformance, and by tight social organization.
• Q The occurrence of field-dependent cognitive
  style in societies correlates with
• limited differentiation characteristics
• strict social order and compliance with authority
• consistency in child-rearing practices
• unusually harsh living conditions

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Sample 3

• Evolution of the unique attachments and the
  proportionately large size of the gluteus maximus
  muscle in hominids may be related as much to the
  requirements for control of the trunk on the
  hindlimbs during movement involving forelimb
  activities in tool using as to those for
  maintaining the trunk above the hindlimbs in
  bipedal locomotion.
• Q Which statements are true? Which are false?
• Bigger buttocks help maintain balance on two
  feet.
• Big buttocks are an impediment to fast movement.
• Bipedalism and tool use are evolutionarily
  related.
• During evolution, buttock muscles first appeared
  in hominids.

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Reflect on your reading strategies

• What kind of reading difficulties lexical,
  syntactic, or extra-linguistic do the Samples 1,2
  and 3 present to you?
• As an experienced reader, what strategies have
  you applied to understand the texts and answer
  the questions?
• Did questions help you understand the text?

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Some strategies for working through short but
challenging texts

• Read the question(s) first. Restate the question
  to make sure you understand exactly what is being
  asked.
• As you read the text, stop to ask yourself if you
  understand what you have just read.
• Clarify what exactly you dont understand is it
  a word, the way words are put together (grammar),
  or a concept?
• Examine the structure of the unfamiliar words
  (prefixes, suffixes, etc.) Can you figure out
  approximate meanings of these words?
• List the facts in the passage that you do
  understand.
• List the gaps - what you dont know.
• Using what you know, try fill in these gaps
  meaningfully.
• Verify your answer re-read to check if the text
  still makes sense with your understanding.

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Example of working through a challenging text

• The gluteus maximus muscle in hominids is large.
• It is attached in an unusual way.
• These two features evolved for two reasons.
• First reason When a hominid uses a tool with his
  hands he has to stand on his feet. When his moves
  his arms to use the tool his body has to stay
  upright. The g.m. muscle helps him to maintain
  such position.
• Second reason The g.m. also helps to keep the
  body upright when the hominid is moving on two
  feet.

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continued

• If a text is challenging for students, rather
  than translating it into L1, guide them with
  questions so that they can reason out the meaning
  and restate it in simpler terms. Model the
  process so that they can begin doing it for
  themselves. Try to use English for this rather
  than Chinese.

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Reading longer texts

• Reading longer texts creates its own challenges,
  especially if they contain a high number of
  unfamiliar vocabulary, complex grammar, and
  difficult concepts, or complex arguments. A
  longer text may need a more extensive
  pre-reading introduction to make it possible for
  students to understand the text better.

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Introducing a persuasive article some
pre-reading questions

• Title We Must Not Fear Scientific Revolution
• What is a revolution?
• What is scientific revolution?
• Judging from the title, how do people feel about
  scientific revolution?
• Do you think scientific revolution can be scary?
  What is your opinion on the issue?
• Do you know what cloning is? Stem cells? An
  embryo?
• Why is the use of stem cells controversial?

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continued

• The students may not know the answers to some of
  these questions, but just asking these kinds of
  questions activates their thinking (creates
  hooks for the new information), and so while
  they read they will be more likely to pay
  attention to the relevant details.
• We may want to give students some information
  relating to the content of the text before they
  read, since juggling too many unknowns is
  counterproductive (this has to be determined on a
  case-by-case basis.)

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continued

• Encourage the students to read selectively. This
  is not the same as reading fast. Rather than
  reading and understanding every sentence, get
  them to focus on specific information to find in
  the text e.g.,
• What kind of people are the most afraid of
  scientific revolution?
• What are their reasons to be afraid?
• What are the authors arguments for supporting
  scientific revolution?

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Some problems with texts

• Much to the relief of the astronauts families
  and people all over the world, the space shuttle
  Discovery returned home safely on August 9, 2005.
  But after Discovery blasted off on its successful
  mission, experts discovered small pieces of
  debris had fallen from its external fuel tank
  during lift-off. Fortunately, the debris did not
  hit the frame of the shuttle and didnt put the
  crew at risk. A similar accident happened in 2003
  when the space shuttle Columbia blasted off. A
  suitcase-size piece of debris broke off it and
  punched a big hole in the shuttles wing.
  Super-heated gases escaped into its frame, and
  then the shuttle blew up. All seven astronauts on
  board were killed. But this time the experts
  didnt take any chances. They postponed the
  blast-off until everything was OK.

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continued

• Space shuttle Discovery _____ as a result of
  small pieces of debris
• found falling from its external fuel tank.
• blasted off as scheduled
• landed on Mars
• was destroyed immediately
• was not allowed to leave the ground

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Some problems with test questions

• No valuables were stolen, and the furniture was
  all in place. But the police officer found that
  the skin on the body had turned pink.
• It can be inferred that
• the person might have died of carbon monoxide
  poisoning.
• the person may have died of food poisoning.
• the person may have died of lead poisoning.
• the person may have been murdered.

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continued

• A monk walked down a path that led to a cabin.
• In the moonlight he pushed open the door and
• entered the cabin.
• It can be inferred that
• the monk knew there was someone in the cabin.
• the monk knew there was no one in the cabin.
• the door was locked.
• the door was open.

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Conclusions

• Vocabulary, grammar and content knowledge
  contribute in different ways to comprehension.
• Reading strategies must be appropriate to
• purpose
• type of text
• level of linguistic complexity.
• In order to cope with various types of reading
  challenges, EFL students must develop flexibility
  in the use reading strategies.

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References

• Text and test question samples have been
• taken from the following sources
• 1. Gibson, KR and Ingold, T., eds. 1993. Tools,
  Language and Cognition in Human Evolution.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press
• GEPT Classroom Reading and Writing
  Intermediate. 2005. Pearson Longman
• Information in frames 3 and 4 comes from
  www.britishcouncil.org/learning-faq-the-english-la
  nguage.htm