НАО «ВОСТОЧНО-КАЗАХСТАНСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ИМЕНИ

САРСЕНА АМАНЖОЛОВА»

РЕСУРСНЫЙ ЦЕНТР ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОДГОТОВКИ И ПОВЫШЕНИЯ

КВАЛИФИКАЦИИ

СОГЛАСОВАНО: УТВЕРЖДАЮ:
Проректор по стратегическому развитию и научной Директор РЦППиПК
работе _______________Исебаева Б.К.
___________ И. Ровнякова «____» ___________ 2023 г.
«____»_________________2023 г.

Kapysheva G.K., Cghan E.E., Larionova I.Yu., Fedossova S.A.

METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING READING FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Methodological guidelines

Oskemen, 2023
Составители программы:
Kapysheva G.K., Cghan E.E., Larionova I.Yu., Fedossova S.A
___________
ФИО подпись

Рецензенты:
________________________ ___________________
ФИО подпись
________________________ ___________________
ФИО подпись

Программа утверждена на заседании Академического Совета НАО «Восточно-Казахстанский

университет имени Сарсена Аманжолова»

Протокол №___________________2023 г.

Председатель ___________

2
 FOREWORD

These methodological guidelines were created to address the issue of deterioration of reading comprehension
among university students caused by the online education format. The authors of these guidelines are four experienced
teachers of English as a foreign language at the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation Studies of Sarsen
Amanzholov East Kazakhstan State University. Our aim was to combine the existing theoretical material with
instructions from practice for developing a more thoughtful approach to teaching reading for academic purposes.
The theoretical material is represented by the book chapter “Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for
the ESL/EFL Teacher” by William Grabe and Frederica L. Stoller published in the book “Teaching English as a Second
or Foreign Language” edited by Marianne Celce-Murcia in 2001. This book is used in our department as one of the
main theoretical resources guiding our curriculum design and teaching methodology. However, as Grabe and Stoller
(2001) wrote themselves, it is not possible to anticipate every teacher’s context and that recommendations should be
adapted to particular conditions. Following this advice, we attempted to shed light on the way we navigate the
theoretical recommendations in our day-to-day teaching experience. We hope that our insights might be of some help to
prospective teachers considering the advantages and challenges of incorporating reading into their education
curriculum.
The methodological guidelines consist of three main chapters. In the introduction, we are presenting the
definition of reading for academic purposes, general implications for reading instructions, and the discussion of the
reading curriculum. This will be followed by examples of teaching techniques used by the authors. Each technique will
be discussed in detail and accompanied by a list of additional resources. The final chapter is dedicated to the
consideration of students’ motivations to read for academic purposes and approaches to integrated skills instruction.

3
 INTRODUCTION

Reading for academic purposes: theoretical foundations

According to Grabe and Stoller (2001), reading is “the central means for learning new information and gaining
access to alternative explanations and interpretations” (p. 187). There are four purposes for reading in the academic
context:
1. To search for information;
2. For general comprehension;
3. To learn new information;
4. To synthesize and evaluate information.
Based on our experience the most difficult task for students is usually the fourth purpose - synthesizing and
evaluating information. The ability to use information requires students to go beyond a simple understanding of what is
written. Students are expected to utilize their analytical and critical thinking skills. As Grabe and Stoller (2001) point
out, the reader, in order to analyze the read information, must be able to draw data from the source and coordinate it
with the knowledge he or she already possesses. Despite paying utmost attention to developing reading skills enabling
students to synthesize and evaluate information, we acknowledge that all four purposes of reading are important. All of
them have the potential to develop students’ critical thinking skills. They are all interconnected and should be taken into
account when planning reading assignments.
Grabe and Stoller (2001) state that reading instructions should help students perform basic tasks as follows:
1. Helping students build a large recognition vocabulary;
2. Providing explicit language instruction to help students build a reasonable foundation in the second language;
3. Addressing the range of skills needed for successful comprehension;
4. Introducing students to discourse organizing principles through the use of graphic representations and other
practices;
5. Helping students become strategic readers by focusing on metacognitive awareness and strategy learning;
6. Giving students many opportunities to read so that they develop reading fluency and automaticity;
7. Making extensive reading and broad exposure to second language texts a routine practice, in and out of class;
8. Motivating students to read;
9. Integrating reading and writing instruction;
10. Developing effective content-based instruction for authentic integrated skills tasks.
The authors also highlight that students might have challenges with reading for academic purposes due to their
limited linguistics skills and vocabulary, lack of cultural knowledge, and restricted understanding of the discourse in
which texts are organized. We support the authors’ position and furthermore, we would like to add that students
nowadays prefer different means of receiving information on academic topics rather than from texts. What we noticed is
that transferring the education process to the online format gave rise to the usage of video and audio lectures that
students access via university learning management systems such as eUniver and Moodle or on the Internet. And
although these types of information sources are extremely useful in their own right, they cannot substitute reading for
academic purposes. As we discussed earlier, reading for academic purposes is a powerful tool for developing students’
analytical and critical thinking skills which are the prerequisite for excellence in any academic activity. In this context,
the main question is not about debating whether reading for academic purposes is a useful skill or not but more about
how to design a course so that it enables students to overcome the abovementioned difficulties.
Grabe and Stoller (2001) postulate that by conducting needs analysis, selecting appropriate text materials, and
diversifying students’ reading experiences, teachers can anticipate the challenges students might encounter and develop
a teaching technique to alleviate them in a timely manner. Below we are offering our template of the students’ needs
analysis designed in a form of a survey that we administer with every new group of students prior to approving the final
draft of the syllabus. This way, based on the findings of the survey, we are able to take students’ opinions and
preferences into account. This step covers all three concerns identified by the author and makes the course more
interesting and engaging for students.

4
 Needs analysis survey

Please, answer these questions. The questions are open and it will be very helpful if you tried to elaborate and provide
full answers. This survey will inform the teacher on how to best improve the course curriculum.

1. What was the last fiction book you have read?

2. What was the last academic text you read?
3. Do you enjoy reading? Why? Why not?
4. What is the importance of reading in your opinion?
5. What, do you think, is the difference between reading for entertainment and reading for academic purposes?
6. In what kind of academic topics you are interested? What would you like to read for pleasure?
7. What kind of challenges do you face when reading in English?
8. Do you prefer reading academic texts or listening to lectures? Explain your preference.
9. What kind of academic activities do you perform when reading texts in class?
10. Do you find these activities helpful? What would you change?

Thank you for your active participation!

INSTRUCTIONS
Vocabulary development
Grabe and Stoller (2001) recommend a number of useful techniques to develop students’ vocabulary such as
learning definitions, word family exercises, matching meanings and collocations, and etc. However, in our guidelines,
we decided to focus on semantic mapping. From our experience, semantic mapping is a very useful technique when
teaching reading for academic purposes to students with different levels of English. Frequently, teachers select the main
words to discuss themselves based on their knowledge of the groups’ linguistic abilities. However, it is very difficult to
accomplish with students who have different command of vocabulary. Semantic mapping allows students to read the
given text and identify unfamiliar words themselves. It also provides a good chance to increase general comprehension
of the text and can be used as a starting point for group discussions. In our example, we are using a mind-mapping tool
called Coggle.it.

Agile working
The world we live in is changing and it is changing rapidly. Whether this is driven by technology, globalization, or in
response to specific crises, there is no doubt that the workplace of today needs to constantly adapt to ongoing
changes in order to remain efficient and competitive.
In more traditional work settings, the definition of a good employee was someone who came to the office on time at
9 a.m., sat at their desk, and worked hard, taking direction from their managers and following the rules. This model
employee would be there rain or shine, always appearing busy until it was time to go home at 6 p.m. But with the
development of smartphones and internet technologies, many companies are starting to form virtual teams with team
members living in different time zones, and employees are now finding themselves answering emails, attending
meetings, and working on reports from home outside their usual working hours. People now need to work smarter
and not just harder.
It is not only the time and location of the modern workplace that is changing. The role of the manager is evolving
too. Many organizations are moving away from an approach where managers constantly supervise their staff and tell
people exactly what is to be done. Instead, they are adopting a more project-based approach, where managers have

5
the responsibility of clarifying project goals and enabling teamwork and collaboration. The roles that the individuals
play might differ from project to project, and agile managers can serve to support team members in adapting the way
they contribute to a team.
These changes in modern work practices mean that organizations need to adopt agile working approaches so that they
can find the most appropriate and efficient way of getting things done. The consumer goods company Unilever
describes agile working as 'an approach to getting work done with maximum flexibility and minimum constraints.
Agile working is not just about allowing employees to work from home and decide their own working hours. Another
example of agile working might be workspaces designed to suit the different kinds of work taking place. This is an
environment that helps people to be at their best and most productive. An agile workspace might include open areas
with small tables for people to gather and work together and standing desks to improve energy levels and
productivity. It might include quiet zones for a bit of thinking time and social areas for staff to chat and relax
together. Like most things with agile working, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Agile workspaces have to be
adapted to the individuals and their roles in the company because agile working is about valuing people and their
activities and not having them limited by the physical workplace.
Basically, agile working is about being ready to change the way we work – whether it be our working hours, our
physical workplace, the technology we use, the nature of our roles and the way we work together, or the way our
work is done. By encouraging such agility and flexibility, we can adapt to the ever-changing world around us, while
creating a more dynamic workforce and improving our performance and productivity.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english/business-magazine/agile-working

The task for students is to read the text as many times as necessary and create a mind map that would indicate the main
keywords with short explanations. Coggle.it allows users to not only develop elaborate maps but also to insert images,
videos, and links.

A careful reading of texts

As Grabe and Stoller (2001) specify, a careful reading of the text in the academic context is a very common
task. It requires students to understand the details of the text, learn new information, and use that information for other
activities. But, the example we are providing can be used independently from other tasks. It is a stand-alone assignment
that can be performed in class or at home, individually or in small groups. It is quite versatile. The task is determining
the attitude of the writer, the intended audience, and the goals of the writer and identifying clues in the test. We would
also advise teachers to choose a text with an open ending or the one where the author presents controversial views.

Students need to read the text very carefully and answer the questions as follows:
6
1. Why do you think the text is called “The Devil’s in the details”?
2. What was the author’s intention in writing this story?
3. Who is the target audience of this story and why?
4. Why do you think the devil came to meet with Victoria?
5. In your opinion, does money buy happiness?
6. Can happiness exist without money?
7. Have you ever come across the supernatural?

The devil’s in the details

By Nicola Prentis
Someone knocked at her door just as Victoria was about to leave her flat. It was strange because she hadn't heard the
lift or anyone on the stairs. She quickly tried to put on her other shoe and nearly fell over. There were many
unopened letters – probably asking for money – on the floor. She was late to work for the third time this month and
now she had a visitor. Great, she thought.
She opened the door and tried to smile in a way that would say 'I'd love to talk, but sorry I can't!'
'And how are you today, Victoria?' the man at her door asked. 'Good, I hope! If not, I bring you an eternity of warmth
and best wishes from the wonderful director of my company.'
Victoria's smile disappeared. How did he know her name?
'You know how I can be so sure?' he asked. 'I am the wonderful director of my company!'
'I'm sorry,' said Victoria. 'I really have to go. I'm late for work.'
'Time!' He sounded sad. 'That's what they all want. Time or happiness, which one would you like more of?'
'Listen, really,' said Victoria, 'I'm not interested, sorry.'
'We've got a special offer on,' he replied. 'Twenty-five years of extra life in exchange for eternity. Or,' he smiled,
'double your happiness for the same price.'
'Price?' she repeated, confused.
'There are no hidden charges. We take everything you have – forever.'
Victoria thought it was strange that he was wasting time on such a stupid joke. 'Then I want fifty extra years or four
times more happiness,' she joked back.
'Oh, you could,' he said. 'But I have to tell you, the quality of the years goes down after twenty-five. I recommend
choosing happiness.'
He pushed the lift button for her. Of course, it was obvious that she was going down because it was morning and she
was dressed for work. OK, so her smart bag only had sandwiches in, not important papers, and her suit was second-
hand. One day, she'd think of a job she was good at and that paid well.
Sometimes Victoria felt as if her sister was the only lucky one in the family. Charlotte had her own prize-winning
company and she was married to the handsome and funny Peter. The only thing wrong with Peter was that he didn't
have a twin for Victoria to marry! Even the way Charlotte met Peter sounded like a film. After a lot of bad luck,
Charlotte was in a car accident. At first, the doctors said she would never walk again but then, a new doctor, Peter,
started work at the hospital. With Peter's help, Charlotte was walking again in just a few weeks. Even he joked that
no one had known he was such a good doctor before he met Charlotte. He asked her to marry him two months later.
Half a year after the accident, Charlotte started her company and now they lived in the most expensive part of
London. Victoria was happy for her sister, of course, and she loved visiting their house and seeing their beautiful
children, Gabriella and Angela. But sometimes it made her feel bad that she didn't have any good luck for herself.
Remembering Charlotte's accident made her think. It was impossible to know what might happen in the future. 'But
what if I get killed by a bus tomorrow?'
'Then your perfect life will only last one day. Time or happiness, I can only offer one. I can't do miracles. Another
company does those.'
'Well, maybe you should change jobs,' she said and pressed the lift button herself.
'No,' he said. 'I've tried working for them. Their sales team makes a very different offer: Have a hard life now, then
be happy for eternity. Some customers like the idea but, honestly, it's much harder to sell it.'
The lift wasn't even moving so she turned towards the stairs. She was going to be so, so late to work. But, as she
started down the stairs, she suddenly remembered something.
'Oh no!' she said. 'Gabriella and Angela!' Her little nieces' birthday presents were still sitting on the kitchen table.
There wasn't time to go back and get them now.
'It's time you want, isn't it, Victoria? I always know,' he called after her.
'I don't believe these stupid things you're saying and I don't have time to talk to you!'
She stopped talking because she realized she was admitting that she needed more time. Then she screamed as he slid
down the banister and suddenly appeared in front of her, floating in the air with his arms and legs crossed.
'Aha!' he said. 'You want happiness instead!'
Victoria moved backward and put her hand against the wall so she wouldn't fall. Now she knew who the strange man
7
was.
'I'm happy enough, thanks,' she said, starting to run down the stairs.
'Are you happy, Victoria?' he asked as he continued to slide down the banister with her. 'Of course, your job is not
bad. You don't mind that the pay is low and your boss hates you because you're always late. I'm sure you'll find the
money to pay your rent, just like you usually do.'
'You can't know that!' she shouted. 'Anyway, money doesn't buy happiness!'
'True, Victoria, true. It's love that makes the world go round.'
'Exactly!' she said. Five more floors to go.
'I'm sure one day you'll meet someone ...' he said.
'I don't need a man to be happy, so if that's all you're offering ...'
'You're so clever, Victoria,' he continued. 'So few people understand that happiness comes from inside us, not from
things we can buy or from other people. I see that you're cleverer than many of our customers. Twenty-five years
extra then. I can see it in you, Victoria. You won't waste them.'
'But twenty-five more than what?'
'No, no, no.' He turned the last corner with her. 'I won't tell you how long your life is. We've tried it with customers
and it doesn't work. When people know how long they are going to live, they don't enjoy their lives.'
'I don't believe in any of this. Or in you!'
He jumped off the banister and held up something small and white.
'Your sister didn't believe it either,' he said. 'Not until she had her accident. Here's my card if you change your mind.'
And he disappeared. Victoria was alone on the stairs, her mouth was open in shock.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/story-zone/a2-b1-stories/the-devils-in-the-details-a2b1

Awareness of text structure and discourse organization

In the academic context, reading can be presented in different genres: newspaper articles, research papers,
peer-review documents, narratives, and instructions. Each genre has its own style of organizing the structure of the
texts. Understanding how a text is organized can be quite confusing for students especially if they were not exposed to
such genres before in their mother tongue. Grabe and Stoller (2001) emphasize that teachers should consistently “guide
students to see the ways that texts are structured” as it will help them develop comprehension skills. The authors advise
paying attention to the ways in which the discourse is organized including headings and subheadings, transition phrases,
pronoun references, and so on. We believe that the best activity orienting students on how the texts are structured is
asking them to reorganize a scrambled paragraph.
Below is the text where six sentences were deliberately mishandled. The task for students is to find these paragraphs
and correct them taking into account the logic of the text and textual clues (the right answer: 5 and 14, 7 and 26, 30 and
38 should change places).
The next task for students is to name the text. The title should reflect the content.
And the last task is to create the continuation of the story. It can be done in class in the form of group discussions or as a
home task in the written format.

No name story
By Dinara Mukhamejanova

1. This happened to me a few years ago and I still can’t believe that it was not a dream.
2. At that time I was living in City A trying to find a decent job in the field of journalism.
3. I never doubted my determination to make it big, but I have to admit it was one of the most challenging periods of
my life.
4. I had to juggle three jobs to survive.
5. She did not have any talent for foreign languages, constantly complained about my teaching approach, never came
on time.
6. In the evening I taught Russian for local students majoring in the Russian language and literature.
7. It was cozy and I never felt alone.
8. As my reader can imagine, I was very busy and at times felt exhausted.
9. The people I worked with were different.
10. I enjoyed my work in the newspaper.
11. The main editor was a faculty from the Department of Journalism and I learned a lot from him.
12. Teaching students was also very interesting. They were curious and enthusiastically participated in my classes.
13. But I struggled a lot with the actress.
14. From 9 to 5 I worked in a small university newspaper covering academic affairs.
15. To make matters worse, she was quite capricious.

8
16. Whenever I was explaining something, she would roll her eyes and snort.
17. Her annoying habit and disrespectful attitude drove me crazy, but because this work was paid well I endured
everything patiently.
18. Now, let me tell you a bit about the apartment where I lived.
19. The building itself was a typical building for that part of the city.
20. My apartment was on the fifth floor and strangely enough, I did not have any neighbors.
21. Even more strangely, the rent was only 300 USD a month.
22. The apartment came fully furnished and I signed the lease for one year without thinking.
23. The landlady, a friendly middle-aged Asian woman told me that if I took care of the apartment, the apartment
would take care of me.
24. Seeing me surprised at her remark, she laughed that old buildings always have souls protecting their owners.
25. I lived in the apartment quite happily.
26. And finally, during weekends I gave private lessons of Russian to a young actress who in a few months was
supposed to take up the role of a Russian spy.
27. Keeping in mind the landlady’s words, I kept the apartment clean.
28. Once or twice, I had a feeling as if someone was looking at me, but the feeling quickly disappeared and I was too
busy to take notice.
29. Everything changed on December 4, 2021.
30. I dragged myself out of the bed, opened the door, and found the actress’s assistant staring at me with frightened
eyes.
31. The actress decided that she was ready for her role, canceled all our classes, and refused to pay my salary for the
past month.
32. Talking on the phone with my friend, I cried that I wished something terrible had happened to the actress.
33. I said that people who disrespect other people’s efforts should be punished.
34. I was angry and helpless.
35. The words flew out of my mouth without registering in my mind.
36. That night I felt someone’s presence in the apartment more than usual.
37. Early the next morning, someone knocked on my door.
38. It was Saturday, I came home furious.
39. She said that the actress had a nightmare where a terrifying voice threatened to kill her if she did not pay the
money she owed me.

Strategic reading
According to Grabe and Stoller (2001), teachers’ main goal should be developing strategic readers who “understand the
goals of the reading activity, have a range of well-practiced reading strategies at their disposal, apply them in the
efficient combinations, monitor comprehension appropriately, recognize misconceptions, and repair comprehension
problems effectively” (p. 195). In other words, strategic readers use different reading strategies to read and analyze
texts. In our everyday teaching practice, we use such reading strategies as predicting what will come later in a text,
generating appropriate questions about the text, and summarizing. The most important step in developing strategic
readers is to turn strategic reading practices into a routine. Only when strategic reading becomes an established pattern
of every lesson, students will be able to use the strategies effectively. Below, we are demonstrating how it is possible to
develop students’ abilities to generate questions about the text. The task for students is to read the text and create such
questions that will prompt students to discuss the text in more detail.

Alberto’s new neighbors

By Chris Rose
Alberto took one look at his new neighbors and knew that his life was going to get more difficult. He watched them
arrive in their big, noisy car and watched them get out. There they were, two of them, as big and as noisy as their car
– and smelly and stupid as well.
'Terrible!' he thought. 'How am I going to put up with them?' He went to tell Mimi. Mimi was the friend he lived
with.
'Have you seen the new neighbors?' he asked her. 'No,' she said. 'Who are they?'
'Two of them. The ones we don’t like. Big and noisy and stupid and smelly. Just like they always are.'
'Oh no,' said Mimi. 'How awful! Still, I suppose we can just ignore them.'
'I suppose you're right,' agreed Alberto. 'We'll just have to ignore them.'
For a few days, then, Alberto and Mimi tried to ignore their new neighbors. When the neighbors went out for a walk,
Alberto and Mimi didn't say hello to them. When the neighbors were in their garden, Alberto and Mimi went inside.
This was OK for a few days, but, perhaps inevitably, things didn't stay this way …
One day, Alberto woke up from his sleep to find one of the neighbors in his garden. 'Mimi!' he shouted. 'Have you
seen this!? He's in our garden!!!! Look!'

9
'How terrible,' said Mimi. 'Let's call our staff and make sure they get rid of him immediately!'
Mimi went off to call their staff. Two minutes later, Alberto and Mimi's head of staff was out in the garden trying to
get rid of the unwelcome neighbor. 'Go on!' he shouted. 'Get out of here! Go home!' The neighbor didn't say anything
but gave Alberto and Mimi's head of staff a dirty look, then he went back into his garden. Alberto and Mimi felt
better and then asked their head of staff to prepare their lunch for them.
However, it wasn't enough. Over the next few days, Alberto and Mimi often found one or other or both of their new
neighbors walking around their own garden. It was terrible. To show how they felt, Alberto and Mimi went into their
neighbors’ garden at night, when the neighbors were inside, and broke all the flowers.
The next morning one of the neighbors came to talk to Alberto.
'Hey!' he said. 'Hey, you!' Alberto ignored him, but he continued talking. 'You came into our garden last night and
broke all the flowers!' Alberto didn't say anything but gave his neighbor a dirty look. 'Now I'm in trouble!' continued
his neighbor. 'They think I did it!'
'Who are "they"?' asked Alberto.
'My owners, of course,' replied the neighbor.
'Owners!?' said Alberto. 'You have "owners"?'
'Course we do,' said his neighbor. 'Don't you?'
'Oh, no,' replied Alberto. 'We have staff.'
Alberto went to tell Mimi that the neighbors didn't have staff but owners.
'That's not a surprise,' said Mimi. 'That explains everything. That's why they're so noisy and smelly and stupid. We
need to make their owners become staff.'
The next day, Alberto and Mimi were actually very friendly with their new neighbors. They tried to explain how to
make their owners become 'staff'.
'Listen,' said Alberto to them. 'It's very easy. First, understand that the house is your house, not theirs.'
'And second,' said Mimi, 'make sure that you are always clean.'
'Make sure they give you food whenever you want!'
'Sit on the newspaper while they are reading it!'
'Sleep as much as possible – on their beds!'
'And finally, try not to bark but to miaow instead.'
But it was no good. The neighbors just didn't understand. After a week, they gave up.
'It's no good,' said Mimi. 'They'll never understand – dogs have owners, cats have staff.'
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/story-zone/b2-c1-stories/albertos-new-neighbours

Fluency development
We support Grabe and Staller’s (2001) position that reading fluency development is the foundation for efficient reading.
Fluency is the rapid and automatic recognition of words, words combinations, and grammatical structures. Developing
fluency is a difficult task mainly because it requires a lot of time, management, and commitment from a teacher.
Fluency often involves mechanical tasks and reading aloud, the very activities that are not perceived well in the
traditional formats of teaching foreign languages. What we offer to do is to use word recognition exercises. For the best
effect, it is recommended to organize them under time pressure. Usually, we build a table where the first column
contains 10-15 keywords. Each keyword is followed by a row of 5-7 words. Among them, one word should be identical
to the keyword in that row. The task for students is to scan through the words and mark identical words. Students can do
it competitively tracking the time and the number of correct answers. If these kinds of activities are performed regularly
and organized in an engaging manner, they will successfully develop students’ reading fluency.

One additional recommendation is to develop word recognition tables in relation to the target topic. By this, we mean
that the keywords are better to be taken from the text being currently analyzed in class. Unfamiliar words should be
discussed prior to the organization of the activity. Teachers can substitute similar sounding words with synonyms,
antonyms, or even phrases with similar or opposite meanings.

Keyword

10
thought through thorough thought tough through thought

dignity dignified dignify dignitary dignity dignity digress

flashpoint flashgun flashpoint flashcard flashpoint flashdrive flashgun

idle idle idol idyll idle idler idyll

difference different difference diffidence differing difference defend

loam loaf loam load loan loath loam

oodles ooze oodle oodles oops oodles oomph

oration orator oration oratorio oration oratory orangey

11
 revile revise revile revile revive revisit revise

stain stain staid stake stain stair stale

Extensive reading
Extensive reading is one of those activities that have the potential to develop students’ critical thinking skills but are not
used actively by either teachers or students. Many teachers do really think that extensive reading is an activity for home
reading only. We would like to argue that not only extensive reading activities are well-suited for in-class usage but are
also quite easy to integrate with other tasks. First of all, we recommend building a diverse course library with resources
ranging from classical prose to contemporary stories. Second, during every lesson, it is important to include a 15-20
minute reading activity. It can be a teaser for an interesting story to be read at home individually. And finally, we advise
combining extensive reading assignments with academic writing activities. For example, to plan to read 15 short stories
for a semester, one story for each week. Every story should be followed by an essay written about the story’s main
ideas. At the end of the semester, all essays will be collected in a portfolio. Students can be asked to defend their
portfolios, share and discuss their ideas.

Below, we are offering resources for extensive reading.

Websites for extensive reading:

● Classic short stories - http://www.world-english.org/stories.htm
● Contemporary short stories - https://theshortstory.co.uk/category/featured-short-fiction/
● American literature - https://americanliterature.com/books
● British library - https://www.bl.uk/learning/online-resources
● Open access journals - https://doaj.org/
● Comparative literature and culture - https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/

Books to take for extensive reading:

● Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
● To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee
● Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
● Dracula by Bram Stocker
● North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
● Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
● Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

We have chosen these particular websites and stories because we use them ourselves. As our readers might have noticed
the websites are mainly open resource libraries, but we also included the database for open access academic journals. In
order to reinforce in the minds of our students the rules and regulations of academic integrity and ethics, we never use
questionable resources.

As for the books we selected, they comprise a mixture of classic novels and contemporary fantasy prose. All of them
were quite successful in motivating students to read extensively.

12
CONCLUSION
Student motivation
When teaching students to read for academic purposes, it is extremely important to take into account their
motivation. The experience of thousands of foreign language teachers indicates that without motivation students will
never succeed in becoming strategic readers. In the traditional teacher-centered learning environment, it is possible to
develop students’ grammar and vocabulary competence. However, when it comes to reading, giving instructions and
expecting students to engage in reading voluntarily by themselves might be a mistake. What we mean is that by
requiring students to do grammar and vocabulary exercises mechanically, teachers can at least develop students’
automatic recognition of grammar and vocabulary patterns. On the other hand, forcing unwilling students to read will
have no positive effects at all. To become strategic readers successful in their academic endeavors, students have to be
ready to work autonomously, take responsibility for their own learning process, and evaluate the outcomes of their
efforts. As we wrote earlier, these goals are unachievable without motivation.
Motivation does not appear by itself, especially when we are dealing with complicated academic texts.
Motivation to read for pleasure is a completely different thing than reading for academic purposes. Reading for pleasure
is easier in the sense that a reader is already interested in the topic and eager to spend his or her time reading. Students
might develop their motivation to read for pleasure while communicating with their peers when discussing a new TV
series based on a popular book, or they might just follow the advice of some influential blogger from YouTube.
Motivation to read for academic purposes is rarely cultivated outside of the classroom. The process itself often has
negative associations. Students might link reading for academic purposes with boring, tedious, and ambiguous work.
The question we are attempting to answer here is how to fight negative associations and develop students’ motivation to
read for academic purposes.
According to Cambria and Guthrie (2010), motivation to read consists of three aspects: interest, dedication,
and confidence. Interest refers to the excitement of learning something new about the topic of interest. Dedication
encompasses all the instances when a student does not want to perform a certain task but since it is in the curriculum he
or she has to complete it. It might also be about reading a text which does not appeal to the student. In such cases,
students have to persevere and be dedicated enough to work on their assignments. And finally, confidence is a vital part
of the motivation to read. If students are confident that they will manage to achieve good results, it is more likely that
they will take up any assignment with enthusiasm even if the topic does not trigger their curiosity. Based on our
experience, we offer several activities to develop students’ interest in reading for academic purposes, dedication to
overcome difficulties and find inspiration even with seemingly tedious assignments, and confidence in their skills. Our
recommendations are presented in the form of a diagram. It is done for the convenience of teachers who might find our
advice helpful and would want to use the diagram in their classroom.

13
 Motivation

Interest Dedication Confidence

1. Provide additional information about the 1. Institutionalize the reading activities 1. Evaluation and assessment should
chosen text, its author(s), and context; into a class routine; be objective with detailed feedback on
2. Discuss the impact of this text on the 2. For the first couple of times, perform achievements and mistakes;
current situation in the targeted field; the most complicated assignments in 2. The assignments completed
3. Start the lesson or follow-up the class; successfully should be praised;
reading activities with engaging video- 3. Explain the meaning and the 3. Teachers must follow the rules and
material on the topic. importance of each assignment, rubrics diligently themselves.
provide examples, assess the most
successful variants.

YouTube Resources:
1. Why reading matters? BBC documentary;
2. Engaging language learners;
3. Methodologies and materials in English for
Academic purposes.

14
Integrated-skills instruction
Traditionally, in our department, English was always taught in accordance with the segregated-skills
instruction approach. We had such courses as Practical Phonetics, Theoretical Grammar, and American Literature that
would focus on one particular command of knowledge or a set of skills. At the moment, our instruction approach is
gradually changing. We are making attempts to interweave listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills together and
with learning vocabulary, grammar, spelling, pronunciation, and syntax. This process is called integrated-skills
instruction. The advantages of the integrated-skills approach are many. First of all, it provides purposeful learning at all
levels of language proficiency and contributes to the consistency of teaching and communication. Secondly, it allows
teachers to diversify class activities and home assignments, this way increasing students' motivation. Thirdly, this
approach gives students an opportunity to learn a foreign language naturally and transfer their knowledge and skills
from one activity to another. And finally, it enables students to develop their critical thinking skills and evaluate their
progress in a more encompassing way (Pardede, 2019).
In teaching reading for academic purposes, we advise integrating reading activities with writing and speaking.
For example, after reading the text “Agile Working”, students can engage in the discussion of the modern working
environment and the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and contemporary working conditions. This can be
followed by writing an essay about students’ ideal working environment. The text “The Devil’s in the details” can
become an excellent platform for students to expand the dialogue between Victoria and the devil and perform their
version in class. They can also write in a form of a story their past experiences encountering the supernatural. The text
“Alberto’s new neighbors” presents an interesting case for class discussion too. Students can share stories about their
pets, show cute pictures, and discuss the characters and habits of pets.
In these methodological guidelines, we tried to systematize our expertise and provide some food for thought
for prospective teachers. We will finish our discussion by presenting one last idea - teachers will never succeed in
teaching students reading for academic purposes if they do not read regularly themselves.

15
 REFERENCES

Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2001). Reading for academic purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL teacher.
Teaching English as a second or foreign language, 3, 187-203.
Cambria, J., & Guthrie, J. T. (2010). Motivating and engaging students in reading. New England Reading
Association Journal, 46(1), 16-29.
Pardede, P. (2019). Integrated Skills Approach in EFL Classrooms: A Literature Review.
The devil’s in the details - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/story-zone/a2-b1-stories/the-
devils-in-the-details-a2b1
Agile working - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english/business-magazine/agile-working
Alberto’s new neighbors - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/story-zone/b2-c1-stories/
albertos-new-neighbours
Why reading matters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdwFFFBCPzw&ab_channel=ChrisLol
Engaging language learners - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=hg6BSbpVgVU&t=89s&ab_channel=CambridgeUniversityPressELT
Methodologies and materials in English for Academic Purposes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=FtM4LIC4Oe4&t=100s&ab_channel=CambridgeUniversityPressELT

16