Document of Le Thanh Tu - Vietnam

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING STYLES 683 ASSIGNMENT 1

Teaching of reading skills

List of content 1. Introduction 2. Brief historical review of teaching reading skills 3. Developments in teaching reading skills and the current state of teaching reading skill 4. Conclusion 5. Reference

INTRODUCTION Reading is one of four basic skills always plays an important role in language teaching though sometimes it is put behind the speaking skill. Reading skill has its own process. Firstly a very low level English learner can also read a text, so do an advanced learner. However, reading and doing reading tasks with more and more difficulties and critically reading is the main purpose of teachers who teach reading skills. Methods and techniques of teaching reading skill is an area that attracted a lot of researchers aiming to successfully teach this very important and powerful skill. In my work, I would like to talk more about teaching reading skills and review the development of this from 1997 to 2010 in many countries and partly describe the current trend of reading teaching. The journals I searched may not be famous but it is a different area of research that can provide reader a very strange development of reading teaching. BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW In (Richards, 2001), the author mentioned the reading teaching particularly in the GrammarTranslation Method, one of important method on the past. The principal characteristics of the Grammar-Translation Method were these: The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development that result from foreign language study. Grammar-Translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and text into and out of the target language. It hence views language learning as consisting of little more than memorizing rules and facts in order to understand and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language. Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or listening.

Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization. In a typical GrammarTranslation text, the grammar rules are presented and illustrated, a list of vocabulary items is presented in their translation equivalents, and translation exercises are prescribed. This reading teaching style was applied in Europe from 1840s to the 1940s. Mid-nineteenth century observed the rejection of the Grammar-Translation Method and the Reform Movement established the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching language and many questions remaining until now. Marcel, Prendergast, Gouin and many language teaching specialists had done a lot to promote new approaches to language teaching but failed to do so. Their ideas were not spread. Only when the appearance of the International Phonetic Association in 1886 and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was created, it advocated 1. The study of the spoken language 2. Phonetic training in order to establish good pronunciation habits 3. The use of conversation texts and dialogues to introduce conversational phrases and idioms 4. An inductive approach to the teaching of grammar 5. Teaching new meaning through establishing associations within the target language rather than by establishing associations with the native language (Richards, 2001) A mission of finding the best way to teach foreign language was set and it was discussed a lot in books, articles and pamphlets. Henry Sweet (1845-1912) said that sound methodological principles should be based on a scientific analysis of language and a study of psychology. He mentions these principles in (Sweet, 1899) 1. Careful selection of what is to be taught 2. Imposing limits on what is to be taught 3. Arranging what is to be taught in terms of the fours skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing 4. Grading materials from simple to complex Reading and grammar gradually lost their positions and in his book, Richards said that the reformers believed that 1. The spoken language is primary and that this should be reflected in an oral-based methodology 2. The findings of phonetics should be applied to teaching and to teacher training

3. Learners should hear the language first, before seeing it in written form 4. Words should be presented in sentences, and sentences should be practiced in meaningful contexts and not be taught as isolated, disconnected elements 5. The rules of grammar should be taught only after the students have practiced the grammar points in contexts that is, grammar should be taught inductively 6. Translation should be avoided, although the native language could be used in order to explain new words or to check comprehension. (Richards, 2001) As a result, Natural Method then Direct Method became new choices for teacher. Direct Method appeared commonly in the United States through its use by Sauveur and Maximilian Berlitz in any famous commercial language schools. Berlitz, in fact, prefer calling his method as Berlitz Methods to using the term Direct Method. In Berlitz school, impressive principles were set: Never translate: demonstrate Never explain: act Never make a speech: ask questions Never imitate mistakes: correct Never speak with single words: use sentences Never speak too much: make students speak much Never use the book: use your lesson plan Never jump around: follow your plan Never go too fast: keep the pace of the student Never speak too slowly: speak normally Never speak too quickly: speak naturally Never speak too loudly: speak naturally Never be impatient: take it easy (Titone, 1968)(100-101) This is not the end point, the events was described in (Richards, 2001) By the 1920s, use of Direct Method in noncommercial schools in Europe had consequently declined. In France and Germany it was gradually modified into versions that combined

some Direct Method techniques with more controlled grammar-based activities. The European popularity of the Direct Method in the early part of the twentieth century caused foreign language specialists in the United States to attempt to have it implemented in American schools and colleges, although they decided to move with caution. A study begun in 1923 on the state of foreign language teaching concluded that no single method could guarantee successful results. The goal of trying to teach conversation skills was considered impractical in view of the restricted time available for foreign language teaching in schools, the limited skills of teachers, and the perceived irrelevance of conversation skills in a foreign language for the average American college student. The study published as the Coleman Report argued that a more reasonable goal for a foreign language course would be a reading knowledge of a foreign language, achieved through the gradual introduction of words and grammatical structures in simple reading texts. Consequently, reading skills are always considered as essential part and useful to every language learner, a part that positively contributes to the development of learners. DEVELOPMENT IN TEACHING READING SKILLS AND THE CURRENT STATE OF TEACHING READING SKILLS From 1997, new ideas about teaching reading proved that teachers never stop finding new methods and technique to effectively teach reading, and prepare the useful knowledge for students after they perceived the reading skills through classical literacy and especially informational literacy. Lawrence Erickson mentioned in (Erickson, Fall 1998) Historically, school literacy lessons reflect the widespread notion that an educated person reads and understands good literature and displays this knowledge by writing stories and essays. As students progress through school, they read stories and discuss settings, characters, problems, episodes, and outcomes; they come to appreciate literature, know about classic literary works, and build a mental repertory of authors, poets, and stories [..]The usefulness of the classical literacy curriculum is that it prepares students to be successful in future school experiences; novels, plays, and poetry prepare students for the next level of education. Informational literacy activities, on the other hand, prepare students for success not only in school but also in work and social situations where information is a form of currency. With that outcome in mind, middle grade teachers create literacy activities where students work with others, ask questions, seek and evaluate information from different sources, and apply what they learn to questions and concerns they themselves raise. With informational literacy activities, students assess the accuracy of sources and construct and revise their concepts. In a world where information use is important, this curriculum prepares students

to be better consumers, who can discriminate between knowledge and informational "noise" and can construct new knowledge. Lawrence thought students should develop their reading and writing because they have to rely more and more on reading and writing for learning that goes beyond school. In content area lessons, they encounter multiple sources and informational material--in, for example, science and social studies texts--that are presented as an array of related concepts organized by time frames or cause-and-effect structures. Teachers who teach reading also should apply seven popular activities like Concepts and Themes, Informational sources and nonfiction text, cooperative learning groups, integration of time blocks content literacy skills, whole class teaching activities, mini lessons of informational literacy strategies, assessing growth in reading, writing, speaking and listening. In these activities, the integration of time blocks content literacy skills seems to be the big one that can be described like: Students undertake informational literacy projects, for which blocks of time are created by combining reading, writing, language arts, and spelling with science and social studies time slots. The projects may last several weeks. For example, devoting ninety minutes each day for three weeks to the theme of famous scientists and inventors led the sixth-grade girls to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening with the content of scientific advancement in medicine, physics, and astronautics, as well as the social concern of gender bias. The combination of time, content, and the opportunity to use all of the language arts processes (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) allows students' questions and concerns to drive the learning process. When the sixth-grade girls discovered the omission of women scientists from one book, as well as the many barriers that women in science have encountered, they were motivated by powerful concerns for equity and justice to attempt to redress the balance.(Erickson, Fall 1998) Different from Erickson, Williams has his own consideration to the group of disabled reader and try to find the particular method to teach these special learners. He said in (Williams, 1998): My students and I have been involved in developing instruction that fits the new constructivist goals in a way that will work for students with serious learning disabilities. We emphasize the holistic nature of the comprehension process and the importance of integrating text meaning with concepts and experiences that are personally meaningful, but we also acknowledge the demonstrated value of structured, direct instruction for this group of learners. We have developed an instructional program for students with serious learning disabilities that teaches them to go beyond plot-level comprehension of a story, that is, beyond the sequence of specific events of a story. We teach them to identify a theme that is exemplified by the story as a whole, and to abstract that theme so that it can be understood in relation to the students' personal experiences as well as to other stories. In Ezells study that compared two instructional strategies for teaching reading comprehension to fourth grade students. In detail, they are, a peer-assisted (P-A) procedure involved 25 students working in dyads to ask and to answer comprehension questions regarding a reading passage, and a teacher-assisted (T-A) procedure involved 23 students working alone to develop questions

followed by a class discussion that focused on asking, critiquing, and answering students questions. All students increased their reading comprehension skill, results showed no important difference between the two groups.(Ezell, 1997) Another trying is teaching reading skills with technology which is describe in the Media and Methods show the great effort of teaching reading, many opinions had been shared in ("Teaching reading skills with technology," 1997) Debbie Svec, media specialist with the North Palm Beach School District, knows about such technology because she uses a motivational reading software program. Svec says one of the strengths of this type of software is that it makes students active rather than passive readers. "These programs force students to think about what they've read. You can see the concentration on the kid's faces when they're thinking about answering the questions that the program asks," she says. Bonnie Botel-Sheppard, director of the Penn Literacy Network at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania, says she finds spelling programs particularly helpful, but cautions that such tools should only be one component of a reading program. "The best use of technology is when it accompanies a rich, literate environment in which students are reading and writing," says Botel-Sheppard. Technology does not just teach students to read. It helps to keep them reading, says Betty Carter, an associate professor of library and information studies at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. Carter cites a World Wide Web site called the Internet Public Library (http://ipl.sisl.umich.edu/), which has a feature called Author Interview. This allows students to ask specific authors questions online. "This provides a wonderful author-reader connection that spurs students to continue reading," says Carter. In his fastback, Melton want to examine the learning process in reading, not with an eye to simple solutions, but with concern about problems and potential remedies. He focused on children in grades K-8 in (Melton, 1999). He raised question The ability to communicate is at the core of educational success. Reading is universally accepted as a basic tool of communication, essential in the modern world. Learning to read also is motivational for the young child. Kindergartners and first-graders come to school full of enthusiasm for learning to read. Why, then, do many students leave school with underdeveloped reading skills? Why do other students, capable readers, choose to read very little? Why do students' attitudes change? These are the questions that we will examine. A number of factors were mentions to find the answers for the question. They are Language development and early reading, cognitive ability and learning styles, multiple intelligences in teaching and learning, connecting MI theory to reading instruction, connecting reading and other

subjects. In these, the multiple intelligences in teaching and learning is focused and this reading program based on Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory encourages students to learn to read in ways that make reading skills most meaningful to them. In (D'Arcangelo, 2002), the author carefully said about the difficulties that elementary, middle as well as high school face when teaching reading. And he raised questions: does it seem to be especially difficult to teach reading and writing at the secondary level? Why is it that high school teacher need to teach students how to learn? He explained: Today's students don't choose to read in their independent time very much because there's so much out there for them to do. When students haven't had experience in reading widely, they don't have the wealth of background knowledge that teachers assume they have. And if you don't know much about the content, you're also going to struggle in reading because vocabulary is crucial in reading text. So they need teachers help to become more strategic readers. The 2010 research of Lei, S.A., et al discussed the strategies for improving reading skills among ELL College students. In (Lei, 2010), he said about the English Language Learner (ELL) college students who face numerous challenges in reading, writing, speaking and listening at college level. Most of them struggle with achieving the reading level necessary to study in college level. He suggested strategies to improve this phenomenon: develop positive attitudes toward reading, increase vocabulary, use signal devices, read repeatedly, read frequently and extensively. An advice is that ELL should combine some strategies for better effect. CONCLUSION Reading skills are interesting to study and attract the consideration of many specialists who research the better ways or methods to teach reading. Changing from classical literacy to informational literacy is an effort, using technology to teach reading is also an effort, solving the difficulties in teaching reading in middle and high school is a mission and finding the strategies to help ELL achieve the necessary reading level appropriate in college is a wonderful thing. Reading is important and need more research in future. In future, reading will be not simple as books and letters it will be shown in form of picture, games, project or numerous sources instead of the literature or poetry like the textbook at the present.

REFERENCE

D'Arcangelo, M. (2002). The challenge of content-area reading. Educational Leadership, 60(3), 12-15.

Erickson, L. (Fall 1998). Information Literacy in the Middle Grades. The Clearing House, 71(3), 165-168. Ezell, H. K., et. al. (1997). Comparison of two strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills. Education and Treatment of Children, 20(4), 365-382. Lei, S. A., et. al.,. (2010). Strategies for Improving Reading Skills Among ELL College Students. Reading improvement, 47(2), 92-04. Melton, L., et. al. (1999). Improving K-8 reading using multiple intelligences. Phi Delta Kappa Fastback(448), 7-33. Richards, J. C. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Second ed.): Cambridge University Press. Sweet, H. (1899). The practical study of Language. Teaching reading skills with technology. (1997). Media & Methods, 34, 16-17. Titone, R. (1968). Teaching Foreign Languages: An Historical Sketch. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Williams, J. P. (1998). Improving the Comprehension of Disabled Readers. Annals of Dyslexia, 48, 213-238.

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