Reading: Breaking it down for ESL

Here are some aspects of reading that must be considered in an ESL classroom:

Reading skills have two major components: linguistic knowledge (formal schema) and knowledge of the world (content schema) (Brown and Lee 2015). The linguistic knowledge is more obvious, but our own knowledge that we bring to our reading is just as or even more important.  So everyone's perspective when they read something is very different.  There is a literal interpretation, but our own interpretation will depend on our own background knowledge.  Something to really keep in mind when teaching.  People from different cultures may have very different knowledge sets.  

Language also has a 'distance' characteristic, meaning it can move through time and through distance (Brown and Lee 2015).  Something else that I was aware of, but I never really thought about much.  We can read what was written centuries ago, and we can send the writing almost anywhere in our digital world.  But the context when we read it will change.  Reading something written centuries ago, has a very different meaning for the reader now, than it did when written. Someone reading a text in Britain may take a different meaning from it than in Canada. 

The written word is often very different from the spoken.  The written word is often more formal, and uses longer clauses and more subordination.  Whereas the spoken word has shorter clauses and uses the conjunctive more often (Brown and Lee 2015).  Our receptive vocabulary (reading and listening) is often much smaller than our productive vocabulary (writing and speaking) (TalkingEnglish.com 2005).  There are also a huge range of types of written genres that we can use in the ESL classroom such as memos, signs, maps, fictional stories, menus and the list goes on and on.  Just think of how many written things you read each day.  Authentic materials are best for learning such as music, poetry, ads, magazines (ONTESOL 2013), and there’s so much variety to choose from.  We just have to make sure it’s at the appropriate level.  

Comprehension must be considered when choosing material for reading.  The difference between 80% and 98% is huge, even though the numbers aren’t.  At 80% a reader at best can get the gist of what is being said, compared to 98% where only a few words are unknown and can be predicted from the context (McCulloch 2016).  So if your students don’t know the vocabulary before they read, comprehension can be limited. But don’t teach all the vocabulary before reading (ONTESOL 2013).  Students must learn to think critically while reading, and predict and infer and decipher meaning from the context.  

Having students read aloud in class may seem like a good thing, but it can distract the students from actually reading for comprehension, because they are focusing more on pronunciation (ONTESOL 2013). This may be particularly true from beginner level learners where they are learning correct pronunciation. For good reading comprehension, it’s best to introduce the theme, garner some interest in the topic, and set the mood for positive reading time.  

All these and many more are important for a good reading experience for our ESL learners. 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by Principles. Chapter 17, pp. 389-400

McCullough, G. (2016). What 80% Comprehension Feels Like. Retrieved from https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/155043761501/what-80-comprehension-feels-like

ONTESOL (2013) TESOL Teaching Reading Skills.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBslJMq4LAg

Talking English.com (2005) English Vocabulary. Retrieved from https://www.talkenglish.com/vocabulary/english-vocabulary.aspx