I love reading, and the love of reading is something that I have also instilled in my children. They were only babies when we started to read to them, and it was an enjoyable family experience. However, our ESL learners may have very different experiences of reading. The classroom which I volunteer in is a beginner literacy class. Most of the learners did not go beyond grade 6 in the first language education, and for many, reading for pleasure has not been a part of their life. So, teaching students to read must have a very practical application. Task-based learning, as opposed to skills-based learning is much more engaging, and gives them useful skills to apply in their day to day living. This can be everything from reading restaurant menus and grocery bills, to reading reports for a job.
So, how do we proceed? Obviously along with reading goes the teaching of vocabulary, so each lesson plan must have a vocabulary focused activity to allow the learners to understand what they are reading. But teaching vocabulary does not mean just giving students the definitions of words. There are a variety of methods to teach vocabulary (BBC Learning English 2017). Trying to stimulate their prior knowledge and allow guessing from the context of the word will connect and engage the students and make meaningful connections with the words. Using pictures or realia for beginner students is often a must, and allows for quicker learning, especially for visual learners. Miming of words and scenarios are also useful methods. Games for engaging students are great activities, such as bingo, matching games, story games or anything that helps them learn and apply the words (Salah, 2018).
Students need to be able to use reading strategies to be efficient readers, and it important to teach these strategies and skills (Brown and Lee 2015, pp. 400-413; Pesce, C., n.d.). Help students to recognize patterns in reading, and looks for chunks of words. Teach students to look for word families which will help them to decipher new words from root words that they know, with a little bit of guessing, and looking at the context of the word. Ensure students use grammar knowledge to help understand what the word does in the sentence. Teach students to look for discourse markers to define relationships. Use semantic mapping for learners to make sense of the reading. Teach skimming and scanning techniques for students to get an overall sense of what’s in the text. Using both bottom up (the fine details of reading) and top down (the overall picture) approaches help students to really grasp all aspects of reading, and leads to better reading comprehension. It’s also very important for learners to see the purpose of reading the text. This can be exposed through pre-reading discussion, and engaging the students prior knowledge. Using their prior knowledge, allows them to build on that knowledge, which is a very important aspect of adult learning.
Post reading strategies help students to apply their new vocabulary, and test their reading comprehension. These can be many things from games, to paraphrasing, to writing and summarizing the reading, or just discussions of the reading.
What do learners want to read? This is an important question. As mentioned task-based learning is very important to allow immediate application of their reading skills, but learners must also be engaged. This requires that we know our learners. What are their backgrounds? What do they need to know? What do they want to know? Needs assessments will give us some clues. In beginner classes, there are so many relevant topics, it’s often hard to pick one. In a class of 20-something English for academic purposes (EAL) the topics will be very different than in a class of literacy students.
Just as we teach or children to associate reading with a fun and useful experience, we must also instill this in our learners. It’s important not just for them, but also for their children!
References:
BBC Learning English (2017) The Teachers' Room: Introducing new vocabulary. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iKfb5nDgdU
Pesce, C. (n.d.) 7 Reading Strategies Your ESL Students Must Know. Busy Teacher. Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/15985-7-must-know-reading-strategies-esl-students.html
Salah, T. (2018) Top 5 Games! How to teach vocabulary to kids & adults. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7FR4Qx1Ec
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