TEFLChina Teahouse: Teaching: Reading:
<< (Continued from) Teaching language points
I don't advocate ignoring grammar and vocabulary in favor of a total concentration on global comprehension. It is just that the grammar and new words need to be placed in a context. To me these are the details, the building blocks that the writer uses to achieve his/her purpose. So I usually start at the wide end of the funnel - purpose, global meaning, more detailed meanings, structure of the text (thesis statement, introduction, body, conclusion, argument strategies, etc.), voice and tone, and then on down to the level of the sentence, phrase and word.
A few good points about intensive reading and language points: I really thank my foundation teachers and myself for focusing on accuracy at my early stages of English learning. That habit of "focusing on form" has really carried me far into the EFL learning process. Every time I saw Hong Kong students making horrible grammar errors, I would feel that they had missed some "intensive reading" style training in the basics of English grammar and usage. However, I succeeded in learning English in China DESPITE the constraints of intensive reading.
As a native English speaker I can say to the students that this word or that is especially useful, out of date, appropriate for a formal writing style but not suitable for casual speech, etc. On the other hand I cannot answer their "why" questions on grammar. A Chinese teacher can do that much better because they have learned grammar far more thoroughly than I have. I can just tell them that a sentence sounds right or doesn't sound right.
I have learned a lot about how my native tongue works by working with Chinese students. I find myself explaining that one sentence sounds formal because it has a lot of Latin root words and another sounds more informal because it uses Anglo-Saxon root words instead. This text is lively because it uses active voice and mixes short sentences with longer ones, because the sentences have a rhythm you can hear, etc. This sentence is effective because it is packed full of descriptive detail. That one sounds empty because it is too abstract. I rely more on sound than on grammar to explain a sentence.
A lot of students assume that "now that the grammar is learned, what's left is vocabulary. If I remember enough vocabulary words, and know enough idiomatic expressions, I've completed the whole task of English learning." Hence language points, i.e. new words, phrases, and a few syntactic rules.
I agree that students need to get something new from each text or unit, but it doesn't have to be limited to words or grammar points. The text can give them new information, new styles of writing, new writing strategies and new reading strategies. The teacher can point out these new things and encourage students to compare one text to another to see how one purpose in writing contrasts with another purpose, how one style of writing contrasts with another, how one author's way of writing is different from another because of cultural background, purpose, time of writing, etc.
I may try another way of teaching. First, I will still give them vocabulary work to do before class, and check it in class for half an hour. Second, I explain the ideas of the text, together with some other language points for twenty minutes. Third, I arrange a communicative discussing activity, aimed at making them clearer about the whole text. I want to make my teaching of language points such as new words, verbal phrases, difficult structures of English as communicative as possible so that students can use language correctly.
Have the students do a communicative activity that is apt to require certain vocabulary, grammar, usage patterns etc. first. Then, after they have done the activity for a while, present those language points with examples and explanations. Then let them do the communicative activity again and experience the benefit of the new language.
However, if your students have never studied the vocabulary/grammar/usage patterns/etc. needed to attempt the communicative activity, it is perhaps better to present the points first with examples and explanations. Then have them do the communicative activity. That way they have an example to imitate. Unless they really are beginners though, the first way, letting them try the communicative activity first, is good because often they *already* know some of the language required. The challenge of remembering what they *already* know and using it to communicate plus the excitement of anticipating the language you will present, can boost moral in your classroom.
Remember to embed new vocabulary, grammar, etc. in plenty of language that is already understandable to the students.
The need for communication creates the need for language. So you create the need with a communicative task, call upon the students' latent English proficiency (which is often substantial), and only after you and they have discovered their current ability, offer them more language (vocabulary/grammar/usage patterns/etc.). This stimulates them to build from where they are rather than stay within comfortable pre-learned limits. It encourages risk taking and discovery of new language points.
You can make intensive reading more interesting and motivating by adding other language learning activities and you can make it less of a chore by lowering the level so that the text is more accessible so that students spend more time reading the text than reading their dictionaries.
I agree that there are too many words to be learned from an intensive-reading text. However, I do not want my students to master all of them. Anyway, it does not make much sense to teach them so many words in the limited hours. Students will not remember. Moreover, they will not be able to use them either in speaking or in writing. They might not even distinguish them the next time they meet them somewhere else. Therefore, I concentrate on about 15 to 20 of the new words in a single text, and explain their usage from the context, and do some exercises that involve the use of these words. It does not take a lot of time really.
I see that if the text doesn't contain many new words, we have more time for communicative activities. Honna suggests a text is easier which contains about 10 or 15 new words. Well, there is a new words list at the end of each text, and at the end of the textbook. It is difficult for them to remember them in one week.
Of course the reading tests also includes the ability of understanding specific words or phrases in the passage, but its purpose has more to do with the testing of students' ability to guess the meaning from contexts rather than that of their memorizing ability.
I found from my experience that it takes a lot of time to finish one difficult text in 100 minutes. How do you distribute your time within 100 minutes if you will spend time on global comprehension, language points and communicative activities?
You do not have to deal with all things in relation to each text. Pick one issue for special emphasis for the lesson. If the students have confidence and motivation they can accomplish more in a class than if I am dragging them through the lesson. Therefore, I try to get their attention right away with a motivating activity. Every activity must serve more than one purpose. Design activities that encourage students to learn from one another and also build confidence and motivation.
I use two hours at most to teach a single text, while some teachers use 6 hours to teach the same text. So I can make free use of the four hours to do communicative activities that have definite purposes for the training of reading, speaking, listening and writing abilities.
Today, we started a new text, "The Present." In this story a poor old lady, on her 80th birthday, hopes to receive a present from her daughter, but her daughter doesn't send her any present but only a cheque folded in a printed card. The old lady tore the cheque into pieces. I gave an assignment to prepare for today's class focusing on three new words: rare, content, arrange for. I had also asked them to answer comprehension questions about three of the sentences in the text. My questions directed their attention to the global comprehension of the text. At the beginning of today's class, I asked them which part they think we should spend more time on. They chose the comprehension questions. From their answers I found they were poor at understanding the whole text from the specific words and sentences. I always tell them that the author's idea is expressed through these words and sentences, and that the author will use some writing techniques to reach his aim, but my students still had no idea When their answers were far from right, I asked the whole class for more opinions. They are very cooperative and provided me many answers. I made comments, and encouraged them to provide more. I succeeded in helping them understand the whole text from the specific sentences and my questions. By combining their ideas, we together arrived at the central idea of the text. I sense today's teaching is also communicative, because students and I arrived at the comprehension of the author's ideas step by step. I didn't tell them answers, but they found them with my help.
Your lesson was communicative. You were showing the students with your questions how to understand the meaning of the text. As they told you, now they know how to do it. You have given the students motivation. They will prepare better next time. You are using an important teaching principle -- start where the students are.
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