Module 8

Working with Written Texts in the Language Classroom

This module is divided into the following sections:

Outcomes

Author of this module

8.1	   Introduction

8.2	Preliminary considerations
8.2.1	Choosing texts
8.2.2	Text types
8.2.3	Difficulty of texts
8.2.4	Authenticity and editing texts 
8.2.5	Bottom-up and top-down processing
8.2.6	Building hypotheses
8.2.7	Practical issues 

8.3	The pre-reading phase
8.3.1	How can I draw on students’ background knowledge?
8.3.2	How can I introduce the text?
8.3.3	How can I exploit knowledge of text types?
8.3.4	How can students gain a global understanding of the text?
8.3.5	How can I pre-teach vocabulary?
8.3.6	How can I break up a long text?

8.4	 The reading phase                                       
8.4.1	Reading aloud or silent reading?
8.4.2	Why read this text?
8.4.3	Using signpost questions
8.4.4	Jigsaw reading
8.4.5	Coping with new language
8.4.6	Questioning technique

8.5	The post-reading phase
8.5.1	Activity types
8.5.2	Oral activities
8.5.3	Written activities
8.5.4	Making use of figures

8.6	   A model for using L2 texts in class

8.7   Commentary on activities

8.8   References

8.9   Recommended further reading 

8.10  Assessment tasks
8.10.1	Task One: your own post-reading activity
8.10.2	Task Two
8.10.3	Task Three
8.10.4	Task Four

Text bank

ACCREDITATION INFORMATION
Those who are intending to count work on this module towards their university’s postgraduate programme, certificate or diploma in teaching and learning, or equivalent, are advised that sections 8.1, 8.2.5–8.2.7, 8.3–8.4 and 8.6–8.9, along with the assessment tasks in 8.10, are to be considered core material, while sections 8.2.1–8.2.4 and 8.5 are extension material.

‘Before’ and ‘after’ questions
Before you start work on this module, indicate which of the following statements you agree with (), which you disagree with (), and which you are not sure about (?)

1.	Foreign language (L2) texts are for presenting new language to students.
		
2.	In choosing L2 texts for use in class, teachers should be guided mainly by content.
		
3.	It is rarely a good idea to ‘doctor’ or simplify authentic L2 texts.		
4.	If simplifying a text, teachers should replace difficult structures and words by ones familiar to the learner.		
5.	First impressions of a text’s meaning, based on titles and illustrations, can negatively affect students’ understanding of the text.		
6.	The teacher should explain unknown vocabulary before work on a text begins.		
7.	The teacher should always ask students some questions about a text before they read it.
		
8.	‘Silent’ reading in class is a waste of teaching time.		
9.	Unseen reading aloud is good for students’ pronunciation.
		
10.	All L2 texts used in class should be dealt with in detail.
		
11.	It is best to give students one-word mother-tongue equivalents of unknown words.
		
12.	Students should understand every word of a text treated intensively in class.
		
13.	Good comprehension questions often expect the answer ‘no’.
		
14.	The aim of most questions on a text should be for students to practise speaking and writing the foreign language.		
15.	Follow-up activities on L2 texts should only involve written exercises.		

(Based on the approach of Lewis and Hill, 1992: 105)

Once you have worked through the module, you will be asked to repeat this exercise. 

Outcomes
By the end of this module you should be able to:
•	explain the issues involved in choosing suitable texts for the L2 classroom;
•	select and edit L2 texts for use in class;
•	exploit learners’ background knowledge and knowledge of text types;
•	employ a range of techniques to facilitate preliminary work on L2 texts in class;
•	provide effective teacher introductions to L2 texts;
•	employ different exercises to help guide students’ reading of an L2 text;
•	ask varied questions in class to help students process L2 texts effectively;
•	develop a wide range of follow-up exercises that lead on naturally from text-based work.

Author of this module
John Klapper is Director of the Centre for Modern Languages and Professor of Foreign Language Pedagogy, University of Birmingham. He is a trained teacher, a member of the ILT, a HEFCE National Teaching Fellow and from 1997–2001 co-directed the FDTL-funded DOPLA project. His current research interests are language teacher education, factors predictive of success in foreign language learning and the development of undergraduate language competence. He has published on different aspects of the learning and teaching of foreign languages, including teaching methodology, content-based learning, L2 reading, and has produced various commercial materials for the teaching and learning of German and Russian. 

Contact: j.m.klapper@bham.ac.uk

8.1	 Introduction
Second language acquisition research encourages us to conceive of foreign language learning as a process of ‘observation, hypothesis and experiment’ (see, for example, Lewis, 1996) and reading in a foreign language (L2) has a crucial role to play in this. Work on L2 texts is a major source of exposure to the target language, allowing learners to engage in a critical examination of exemplars of the language; this process is central to the formation of (tentative) hypotheses about how the foreign language is structured and to subsequent experimentation with it.
	In view of this, it should be considered one of the foreign language teacher’s most important tasks to help learners to become more efficient and more effective readers. This involves developing learners’ awareness of and ability to employ certain strategies and skills, and encouraging them to engage in independent extensive reading. These topics are largely the subject of Module 7.
	Here we are concerned with the use of L2 texts in the classroom. A traditional view of text-based language classes was that unless students had first worked through the language of a text intensively, they could not do anything with its content. Even today, in higher education, especially at lower and intermediate levels, many text-based lessons focus almost exclusively on exemplars of language, with texts being employed first and foremost as a vehicle for teaching form. When a text is viewed in this way as a linguistic object, as opposed to a vehicle of communication, attention is almost always focused on words and structures, and text work becomes effectively little more than an extension of the grammar class. Although this use of texts can be appropriate in certain circumstances, there are many other approaches that focus on the meaning of the text and, crucially, on what knowledge students themselves bring to the text. If we really believe that a key element in second language acquisition is exposure to the richest possible target language input, we should be doing all we can to enable our classroom learners to access greater amounts of L2 through written text. It is therefore assumed in this module that L2 texts should be used in class primarily to develop students’ ability to access and process written text effectively and thus to enhance their reading ability in L2. 
Readers will find several cross-references here to Module 7. Ideally the two modules should be worked through consecutively but in any case, before working through the current module, you will probably find it helpful to read at least section 1 of Module 7.

8.2	Preliminary considerations

8.2.1  Choosing texts
As noted above, the reasons for using a text in class can be many and varied:
•	for its information content as part of a topic-based sequence of lessons; 
•	as a source of general reading practice with authentic L2 texts;
•	as a means of extending students’ vocabulary;
•	as a way to illustrate aspects of grammar;
•	a combination of these reasons.
In what follows we shall assume the overriding purposes are to explore the content of the text and to practise reading skills and that while other purposes are subsidiary, they will nevertheless follow naturally from these.
	In selecting a particular text to use in their teaching, teachers are likely to be guided by a range of factors.

ACTIVITY 1

Take a few moments to jot down three or four of the factors you think are relevant here.
Click on ‘Commentary’ to see some suggestions.

 	But in all this, one of the principal considerations must be the text’s interest for the students. No matter how accessible the text and no matter how well it fits the needs of the teaching programme, if it is not one that students want to read, it is unlikely to be an appropriate pedagogical vehicle. Not only should a text have points of linguistic interest, it must also have some strong content to which students are able to respond and feel challenged or stimulated by. 
	At the same time, having gone to the trouble of finding a suitable text, teachers often feel they need to exploit it fully, come what may. This is a temptation we should resist: although a text may only lend itself to extensive exploitation and a brief emotional response, or to simple classification of factual information, if it succeeds in provoking or informing students, it will have served its purpose well enough. Texts must not become straitjackets; both teachers and students need to accept that not all texts are worth working on intensively.
 	One of the problems with a resource-based approach to language teaching is that materials need constant updating. Therefore, it almost goes without saying that another key consideration when looking for texts is how quickly they will date. If time and effort are to be invested in a detailed exploitation, you will want to ensure you can get three or four years’ worth of teaching out of it. Less intensively exploited material can have a shorter turnover period.

8.2.2  Text types
It is important to expose learners to a variety of text types, from different sources and written in different registers, since, once they leave the language classroom, they are going to be confronted by all kinds of authentic language via a variety of media, such as radio, TV, Internet, films, newspapers, brochures, notices, correspondence, handbooks, instructions, etc, etc. There are numerous ways in which to classify texts (eg by purpose or function, by situation, by degree of formality, and so on). You may find it useful to refer to the following categorization:

TEXT CATEGORY	FUNCTION	LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS	TEXT TYPES	
Conversational	•	developing or maintaining social contact
•	exchanging views, ideas
•	expressing emotion, preference	•	dominance of first and second person forms
•	informal lexis and phraseology	•	postcards
•	personal letters
•	e-mails
•	conversations in stories and novels	
Descriptive	•	providing information on locations, events, personalities
•	engaging in poetic expression
•	describing in literary texts
	•	richly varied vocabulary
•	complex syntax with embedded clauses, prepositional phrases, etc	•	certain adverts
•	brochures
•	prospectuses
•	literary prose
•	poetry
•	biography	
Informative	•	conveying straightforward factual material
•	reporting news
•	presenting geographical accounts
•	giving instructions
	•	uncomplicated syntax
•	lots of passive and impersonal expressions
•	subject-specific lexis
•	sometimes technical	•	short newspaper items
•	articles
•	instructions
•	brochures
•	formal letters
•	newspaper adverts	
Narrative	•	giving a personal, fictional or historical account
•	conveying a sequence of events and a progression within time	•	varied use of tenses
•	high incidence of past tenses
•	adverbial expressions of time
•	conjunctions
•	clauses conveying temporal relationships	•	anecdotes
•	stories
•	fiction
•	commentary on event (eg sports)
•	agony column
•	‘faits divers’	
Persuasive or opinionative	•	influencing others
•	altering the conduct of reader
•	advertising
•	debating
	•	abstract vocabulary
•	sentence structure expressing hypothesis or supposition
•	high incidence of subjunctive and conditional forms	•	opinion columns
•	leader articles
•	letters to the editor
•	publicity
•	propaganda
•	political manifestos	

Figure 8.1 Text types 
(Adapted from French Study Group, 1981: 10–11 & 61)

Using a checklist such as this can be helpful in ensuring syllabus design is sufficiently broad, covers a range of text types and exposes learners to a variety of structures, styles and functions.

8.2.3  Difficulty of texts
Although it was suggested earlier that interest had to be a key criterion in selecting texts, it is clearly counter-productive to choose texts with too much difficult vocabulary. Students need to be confronted with challenges and left to guess or work out the meaning of some new words from context, but they must be able to understand most of the rest of the text in order to do this (see Module 7, section 7.5.2.2). As a rule of thumb, six to eight new words per hundred is really the maximum we should be confronting learners with; otherwise we are asking them to cope with too much new material at once. Even if thorough preparation is first carried out with a dictionary, this may not help students significantly  – many students find that even after intensive dictionary work on a text with a high density of new lexis, they still struggle to grasp the overall meaning. This is because the difficulty of a text increases exponentially in relation to the number of new words used: ie twice as many new words do not double the level of difficulty, but more likely treble it. 
	Thus the ‘interest’ criterion has to be interpreted in the light of the likely difficulty of the text for the target group. No matter how imaginative the exploitation of the text, if it is too difficult the result will be a slow, word-by-word and thoroughly demoralizing struggle.

8.2.4  Authenticity and editing texts 
The question of difficulty cannot, however, be divorced from the need to present learners with opportunities to interact with authentic language. There has been a lot of work done on this question in the field of applied linguistics, in particular discourse analysis. The consensus is that meaning is not contained in texts, but is a function of discourse, which is the result of the reader’s interaction with the product of the writer. Consequently, authenticity does not reside in the text itself but in the interaction of reader and text; a (genuine) text can only ever be authenticated as discourse by a reader (Widdowson, 1980). 
However, the reader’s reconstitution of the writer’s message cannot be complete or perfect, since individual realities never coincide and the writer’s assumptions about the reader rarely match exactly the reader’s level of information, awareness of conventions of communication or knowledge of linguistic rules. This mismatch of intention and interpretation is what produces ‘communicative dysfunction’ (Widdowson, 1980: 23). The successful reader, the one who avoids excessive dysfunction, is the one who can reconstitute the writer’s interactive discourse from the textual clues provided.
	Some writers on L2 teaching insist that communicative reading requires ‘authentic texts’, by which is normally meant texts not specifically produced for language learners, and that we should grade exercises, not texts, and encourage selective reading strategies. 

ACTIVITY 2

What do you think about this approach? Does it match your experience of reading in the L2 classroom? Do you see any implications for different levels of L2 learner?
Click on ‘Commentary’ for some thoughts on this topic.

	With regard to adaptation of texts, Johnson’s (1981) research on ESL and native English readers shows that where L2 learners face a text with a foreign cultural background, adapted texts are better understood than unadapted ones, while comprehension of texts with a native cultural background is the same for both adapted and unadapted passages. This suggests L2 readers will only need adaptation on texts for which they have no background knowledge, while unadapted texts are more likely to be accessible to common text attack strategies, provided some cultural background is sketched in (see Module 7, section 7.2). 

ACTIVITY 3

Consider which of the following Spanish-language texts would be most accessible to a group of British HE learners of L2 Spanish and which would require some adaptation:

1.	A newspaper article about students in Paris.
2.	A review of the imported TV game show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’.
3.	A magazine article on the structure of the British education system and current problems facing it.
4.	An article about a debate in the Spanish parliament on income tax allowances.
5.	A review of a biography of Prince Charles.

Click on ‘Commentary’ for notes on each of these.

It is frequently assumed that syntactical simplicity (short sentences, reduction of multiple-clause sentences) makes texts easier to read. In fact, ‘simplification’ or adaptation can perversely make texts more difficult to understand, as the inevitable distortion of language  and diffusion of information often lead to a lack of cohesion and readability; short, ‘choppy’ sentences, in particular, cause the relationships and meanings revealed by the formation of complex sentences to be lost. More specifically, in the process of simplification the original network of redundancies, repetitions, cross-references and discourse markers often disappears or is altered. In view of this, if a text is to be simplified, one needs either to rewrite it in such a way as to make its rhetorical structure more obvious to the reader, or else to start afresh with a ‘simpler’ version of the original content (Widdowson, 1978). 
	Mindful of these issues, one might therefore offer the following advice to teachers editing L2 texts for their learners:
•	simplification should only be attempted where a text is deemed to be too ‘dense’ for the learner;
•	a simple but very effective form of editing is to create sub-divisions with appropriate headings, as in a newspaper article;
•	where length is a problem and sections are removed, appropriate links should be written in to ensure continuity;
•	attention must be paid to the important role played by redundancy in the original text: a degree of redundancy ought to be retained as it creates a context for informed guessing and helps to develop extensive reading ability;
•	it is particularly important to retain such textual features as indicators of contrast (in English: ‘but’, ‘although’, ‘however’), sequence markers (‘first’, ‘secondly’, ‘finally’) and markers of significance (‘most importantly’, ‘above all’);
•	the use of the passive should be kept to a minimum and its use in subordinate clauses should be avoided altogether;
•	only use negation where it is essential;
•	only use pronouns where the referent is obvious, otherwise repeat nouns;
•	the use of tenses, especially at lower levels, should be consistent and, where possible, limited to simple forms;
•	in languages which use indefinite words and phrases to introduce sentences (eg, in English, ‘these’, ‘that’, ‘it’), the syntax can be rather opaque: ‘The fact that these social conditions are by any standard unacceptable must not be ignored’ might be rendered more simply as ‘One must not ignore these unacceptable social conditions’;
•	with lexis that is deemed too difficult, but where rewriting would be too complex or lengthy a process, try using L2 synonyms in a marginal note (see, for example, Text 17, ‘Karla’); only when this is not feasible, should an L1 gloss be given;
•	when subordinate clauses are used, sentence length is often a major difficulty for L2 learners, so one of the most effective means of simplification is to shorten sentences and to reduce the use of subordination; however, it is important not to remove these difficulties altogether since students need to learn to cope with such typical features of authentic texts;
•	final proof-reading for continuity is essential as longer texts often contain internal cross-references and there are frequently issues of sequentiality to consider.

ACTIVITY 4

1.	Choose an authentic L2 text (ie one written for native speakers of your target language) of about 1,500 words. This might be a magazine or newspaper article, an anecdote, short story or report. Re-read sections 8.2.3, on ‘Difficulty of texts’, and 8.2.4, on ‘Authenticity and editing texts’. 

2.	Edit and adapt the text, reducing it to approximately half its length and making it accessible to a first- or second-year post-A level group. If you teach only sub-A level groups, choose a shorter text (eg 700 words) and edit and adapt it to the needs of your particular group of students. 

3.	If at all possible, use your adapted text in class. How did it work? Were you satisfied with your adaptation? Did students have any problems you had not anticipated? What would you do differently next time/what further changes would you make to the text?

8.2.5  Bottom-up and top-down processing
The key task facing any teacher when starting work on a text is to decide how to help students access and interpret the text, and subsequently respond to its content. Some L2 teachers are inclined to read every text with their students intensively, ie to decipher the text word by word, phrase by phrase and sentence by sentence. However, as shown in Module 7, this is likely to be a very inefficient way for students to read:  L2 learners need to be flexible readers and to develop the use of both so-called ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ reading strategies. (See also the discussion of schema theory in Module 7, sections, 7.1.3–7.1.4.).
	It is almost intuitive to think readers need to understand all the individual words and phrases of a text before they can understand the whole (ie adopt a bottom-up approach). However, work on the detail in difficult parts of a text can be greatly facilitated if the reader has a firm grasp of the overall theme. Effectively, the learner guesses or predicts that a particular section or sentence must have a particular meaning because of the overall context and then uses this top-down hypothesis to work out the detail of the syntax. Such an approach allows the reader to exclude other interpretations on the grounds that they do not fit in with the rest of the text or run counter to common sense; a bottom-up approach, focusing on the actual words, can then be used to develop a more appropriate meaning. 
Thus both approaches, top-down and bottom-up, are essential skills for L2 readers. In what follows we explore both approaches but recommend that work on L2 texts should start with top-down interpretation techniques and subsequently alternate between the two as they are interdependent. Figure 8.2 provides a scheme to illustrate this interdependent relationship in work on long texts:

Figure 8.2 A method for reading long texts
(From Revell and Sweeney, 1993: 13)

8.2.6  Building hypotheses
A major feature of top-down processing is the way we make predictions about a text’s meaning and form an impression of what the author of the text is ultimately trying to say. The role of bottom-up processing is to complement these (global) hypotheses by providing supportive or contradictory evidence from the phrase or sentence level. As Nuttall says:
[Students] should learn to treat interpretation as making a series of hypotheses, rather as scientists do. If the first hypothesis (‘I think this text means so-and-so’) is correct, all the evidence in the text will support it. If it is incorrect, it will prove increasingly difficult to justify as you read on and encounter contradictory evidence. 
(Nuttall, 1996: 152)

	Rather than starting a text-based class on something students find difficult or demotivating (eg ‘What words don’t you know?’), it is a good idea to encourage them to skim the text and come up with a working hypothesis of what the text is about. For example: 

‘What aspect of the environment is this text concerned with?’

‘What do you think the text is likely to be arguing?’

	Techniques for helping students to build hypotheses about a text include the following:

•	Read the title; what do you think this text will be about?

•	Read the paragraph headings (where relevant); what do you think the author is trying to say?

•	Look at the accompanying pictures, diagrams, tables, etc. What do they suggest about the content of the text?

At this stage it is best not to tell the students whether their guesses and predictions are accurate. Encourage them rather to use their subsequent reading to confirm or correct their original hypothesis. On especially long texts it may be useful to ask students to make interim hypotheses and then to reformulate them in the middle of the text or at the end of each major section.
	To promote hypothesis-building, students should be encouraged to make use of  their general knowledge and experience of life and, of course, to apply common sense. The emphasis here needs to be on activating learners’ in-built schemata (see Module 7, section 7.1.4 and 8.3.1 below). 

ACTIVITY 5

You are about to introduce your class to work on a text concerned with the trade in buying and selling  babies on the Internet. What might your first step be?
Click on ‘Commentary’ for one possible suggestion.

	This approach to a new text is important as many readers too readily assume they can gain little from an L2 text without painstakingly plodding through it word by word with dictionary in hand. Clearly, there is a need for such intensive ‘bottom-up’ work, but initial access to the text can be made much easier and students’ confidence can be substantially increased through top-down work that shows students they have abilities and knowledge which they can bring to the text and which can greatly aid their L2 reading. 
However, it requires a lot of practice before students are able or willing to adopt top-down processing as a first strategy when left to their own devices. Moreover, they need to be careful when applying it to texts on subjects they are unfamiliar with, since inexperienced readers may well 
assume the text will reflect their own views on the topic.
	Encouraging students to build hypotheses about what they are reading and to be more active in the way they approach a text, is one aspect of encouraging critical reading. An important goal of teaching reading in HE is to reduce students’ deference to the printed word, to encourage independent and critical responses to what they read. While this is perhaps a more readily achievable goal in other (L1-medium) areas of the modern languages curriculum, the barriers in language teaching are not insurmountable and, as some of the activities suggested in 8.5 show, language classes too can contribute to the achievement of this goal.

8.2.7  Practical issues 
The following should be seen as basic preliminary tasks when preparing to use a text in class:

1.	Decide what you want students to be able to do at the end of the teaching cycle (debate, role play, summary, essay, etc). This will ensure work at intermediate stages builds up effectively to these activities, that the informational ground is adequately prepared and that the necessary vocabulary and structures are identified and practised. ‘Starting at the end’ in this way can also avoid wasted effort, since some texts may not lend themselves to full exploitation.
2.	With longer texts which are to be treated intensively in class, break the passage up into sections and exploit each section separately – see 8.3.6 and 8.4.3 below).
3.	Mark the source and date of each text on the page itself, not only for your own quick reference but also to help readers place the text in its general context. 
4.	For the same reason, but also to aid prediction of content (see ‘Pre-reading phase’), retain visuals, such as pictures, illustrations, tables or diagrams, that accompanied the original text, as well as all titles, headlines, sub-headings and use of emboldened type.
5.	When not using a textbook, number the lines of a text before it is copied. This will facilitate work in class, allowing students to locate specific parts of the text much more quickly.

	One can usefully distinguish three phases in the process of working with L2 texts: the pre-reading, the reading and the post-reading phases. These will be looked at in turn in the next three sections.
 
8.3  The pre-reading phase 
‘Pre-reading’ is not to be understood literally. A number of the activities here do, in fact, involve reading – it is rather the phase that precedes detailed work on the text.

8.3.1	How can I draw on students’ background knowledge?
Module 7, section 1.4, explains the importance of existing schemata or background knowledge in reading comprehension. A simple way to exploit schemata and background knowledge, requiring very little preparation, is brainstorming. The teacher gives students a title or key word, and the group has to call out ideas, concepts and words that they associate with the title or key word. The teacher categorizes students’ random suggestions on the board or OHP and creates a semantic map (see Module 10 on Vocabulary) with the aim of prompting an appropriate classification and promoting learners’ comprehension of the text. For example, with the key word ‘transport’, words might be grouped as follows:

Figure 8.3 Brainstorming activity to activate background knowledge

Another way to exploit existing background knowledge is to present students with a narrative or description of something with which they are already familiar from their L1. Reading a well-known joke in French, the German version of ‘Three Little Pigs’, or a Spanish description of Britain’s transport system all draw on existing background knowledge. In the first two cases, the reader will be familiar with the structure of the narrative, while in the third the subject matter will usually be well known and a context provided for reliable guessing of unfamiliar vocabulary.
	If you have access to two well-known stories or fairy tales in the target language, give learners a jumbled set of key phrases, ask them to sort out which text each phrase belongs to and to guess the title of the story/tale. For example:

a wolf 		several dwarves		put on a disguise

	outstanding beauty	the grandmother	girl in red hat

looked in the mirror		kept her safe		beautiful girl	

	walking through the woods		wicked queen

mother waved goodbye	played a trick		ate an apple

		pretended to be a friend		stepmother 

Advanced learners might be asked to provide some of these key phrases themselves prior to reading and to use the first reading of the text proper to confirm or amend their suggestions.
	Even when students are not familiar with the narrative itself, for example when working on factual texts relating to the target country, you can encourage them to predict the likely content based on what they know in general about the topic and its likely implications. For instance, on a text about reactions to the increasing number of new motorways being built in southern Spain, you might ask learners to predict residents’ concerns (encourages more cars, pollution, noise, house prices falling, wildlife affected, etc). 
	Similarly, students might be asked to draw on knowledge of their own culture or on relevant general knowledge. Two texts in the Text Bank provide good examples of this. In Text 15 (‘Mehr Freiheit für alle!’) students are encouraged to answer the following questions in advance of reading:

a) What is the average working week in your country?

b) How many days holiday do people have each year?

c) What is the normal working day? From….. o’clock to…..

In Text 16 (‘Informationen für Familien’) learners are asked to perform the following preliminary task:  

In groups, discuss what the state can do to help parents bring up their children.

Compare the results of your discussion in a plenary session.

	Alternatively, students might be asked to draw on their knowledge of aspects of the target culture. For example, Mitchell and Swarbrick (1994) suggest that with a text about the differences between French and English schools, students could be asked, before reading, to consider the list below and work out which statement applies to which country. When they come to read the text, they compare their predictions with what the author says and decide whether or not they agree:

il y a beaucoup d’activités extra-scolaires	
                                   
                                on a beaucoup de devoirs

	les cours durent une heure                       plus stricte

     	le sport est très important          on va au collège le samedi

                les cours finissent a trois heures et demie		

	on n’a pas beaucoup de devoirs	    en Angleterre

les cours finissent a cinq heures		    pas d’uniformes

	on ne vas pas au collège le samedi	en France

beaucoup d’uniformes!	         les cours durent quarante minutes	

(Slightly adapted from Mitchell and Swarbrick, 1994: 27)

ACTIVITY 6

Read Text 2, ‘The Architecture of Consumption’, and consider how you might encourage students to make use of their existing background knowledge before they read the text. Click on ‘Commentary’ and compare your suggestion with the approach outlined there.

8.3.2	How can I introduce the text?
When students are less familiar with the background to a text, initial hypothesis-building can be usefully prompted by the teacher supplying an oral introduction to provide helpful information that cannot be gleaned from the text itself (eg on the conceptual background, the source of the text, the context in which it appeared). This need not, indeed should not, become a mini-lecture but should seek to involve students and to draw out from them a number of key points of information through carefully targeted questioning. For example, with a text discussing German unification in 1990, it would be important to understand the history of post-war Germany, and such questions as the following could elicit key background facts from students themselves:

When did the Second World War end?

When was the FRG created?

What was the ‘Iron Curtain’?

What role did the Allies play in post-war Germany?

What was the Berlin Wall?

What do you know about the GDR?

Another effective way to introduce a text is to arouse students’ curiosity and to increase their motivation to read the text in order to solve problems or seek clues to answer a question. Consider the following two examples:

•	With a narrative text about the suicide of a powerful industrialist, after you have given some information on the man’s or woman’s life, job and company, students might be asked to consider ‘What could make a person at the top of his/her profession take his/her own life?’, and you could run through possible scenarios for which students would have to find evidence in their reading. 

•	Try to personalise a text so as to make it more relevant to the learners and gain their interest. On a text about xenophobia in Switzerland, for instance, you might preview content by asking: ‘Have you ever experienced prejudice abroad or in this country? How would you feel if this happened to you? What would you do if someone verbally abused you as a foreigner?’, etc.

One needs, of course, to be careful not to put learners in a difficult position if the subject matter is too close to home; one could imagine this might apply to  the second of these examples, in particular.

The question of whether information imparted and elicited in these ways should be L1- or L2-medium is perhaps of less importance than ensuring the introduction observes the following guidelines:
•	Make sure it is relevant to the content.
•	Relate the text to the learners’ own experience and interests.
•	Make them want to read the text.
•	Don’t make it too long.
•	Don’t give away too much content.
•	Don’t provide significant detail or information students can obtain for themselves by reading.
(See Nuttall, 1996: 155–57, for a useful section on teacher introductions.) 

ACTIVITY 7

Read Text 3 (‘Get online and in tune with the job market’) and decide which of the following introductions you would give your students prior to classwork on the text. Why would you reject the others? Click on ‘Commentary’ to get some feedback on each of them. Can you come up with a better introduction of your own?

1.	Do you know the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? No, they’re not quite the same thing. The Internet pre-dates the Web by several years. It emerged in the 1950s, while the Web appeared in the 1990s. It was the launch in 1994 of Netscape’s browser which led to the rapid spread of the Web and most work on the Web now involves browsers of this type.
2.	Have you ever heard of the Institute of Graduate Recruiters? Well, it has just done a survey of online recruitment. Helen Goodison, its Chief Executive Officer, believes most graduates are scared of Internet recruitment, even though it is being used a lot these days. Have you heard of online recruitment? What is it? Yes, that’s right…. It is about more than just sending in your CV. (Do you know what a CV is?) Elliott Wellings, Chief Executive of an online recruitment agency, warns against Internet sites that list jobs which do not exist and which misuse people’s CVs.
3.	The author is a staff reporter with a ‘quality’ British daily newsaper and has written numerous articles and features for the paper’s education supplement. A graduate of English from the University of Manchester, she began her career with the Evening Herald before joining The Observer in 1999. Skim the text quickly to see if the author is in favour of online recruitment.
4.	This is an article from a recent issue of a so-called ‘quality’ newspaper in the UK. It appeared in the paper’s education supplement. Have you ever seen the paper? Who do you think it is aimed at? Have a quick look at the title and subtitle: what do you think the ‘e-job market’ is? Do the following terms from the text help you: ‘graduate recruiters’; ‘job sites’; ‘online application forms’? Skim the article quickly to see how many potential problems you can identify with this type of service. 
5.	Have you heard of the Internet? What is it? Yes, it means you have all sorts of information at your finger tips. And it can even help companies to find new employees. Some of them are using online personality questionnaires to sort out the best candidates. Do you think this is a good thing for companies to do? Do you think it might help them to find the right staff?

Clearly, if a number of texts on a particular theme are grouped together in a reading programme, the topic will be examined in increasing detail and fewer explicit pre-reading activities will be required, since preceding texts and activities will have already provided the necessary background knowledge. This is a strong argument for a coherent, thematically related reading programme, or ‘reading in depth’, which will allow the learner for the first time to sense the ultimate goal of L2 reading: to become a confident and independent reader.

8.3.3	 How can I exploit knowledge of text types?
An invaluable support to L2 reading is awareness of how texts are typically structured. 
With discursive texts the structure might be:
1.	A general background opening section, followed by arguments for a point, arguments against and then a concluding paragraph. For an example, see Module 7, section 7.6.1 j. 
2.	A general opening, then each argument ‘for’ is followed by an argument ‘against’, after which comes a conclusion. For example: comprehensive education is a more just system BUT it denies parents choice; it offers equal opportunities to all BUT the most able are sometimes not stretched, etc, etc.
3.	A situation is described – a problem is outlined – a solution to the problem is proposed – an evaluation follows of how the solution has worked or might work. For example: a company’s products are described; its failure to reach new markets is explained; a consultant recommends using the Web as a marketing tool; the impact on the company’s sales figures is assessed.
4.	Main facts to supporting details; this is especially common in newspaper reports where a first paragraph, often just a sentence, gives most of the principal facts. For example: ‘Seven people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber drove a car into a crowded Jerusalem shopping mall’; subsequent paragraphs fill in the detail (how old the victims were, how many were injured, where they were taken, who the bomber was, his or her political affiliation, etc).

With descriptive texts the possible patterns are (cf Module 7, section 7.6.1k):
1.	Movement from detail to overall appearance or vice versa (eg description of a school pupil’s stressful time revising for exams leads on to a point about the teething problems the new exams are causing across the country).
2.	Development from a specific instance to a generalized statement (eg Text 5, ‘It’s unthinkable’).

With fiction, on the other hand, it is important for learners to be aware of typical story-line markers and logical progression (‘first of all’, ‘then’, ‘a few days later’, ‘subsequently’, ‘eventually’) as well as forward- and backward-referencing, turning points and dénouement.
	One way to help develop this awareness is to give students a jumbled paraphrased version before they see the actual text or story. This works best if the paraphrases are simply expressed. For example:

So he decides to phone her		He only has 8 days off work.

She suggests going to the coast.	Pierre is Sophie’s brother.

             They haven’t seen each other for months.

	 They decide to go camping for a week. 	He finds beaches boring.

    But where is there a good camp site? 	So the Alps it is, then.

                     She suggests a fortnight’s camping somewhere.
	
 They both like the mountains. 	She says a week would be OK.

If help is needed with this, learners can be encouraged first to decide how many characters appear in the story, next to group pronouns with proper nouns, then to identify likely first and last sentences and finally to match pairs of sentences together.
	After comparing their version with that of others in the group, learners compare their ‘running order’ with the actual text and look for evidence to back up their version. Apart from providing a genuine reason to read and previewing key vocabulary, this preliminary work on a simplified version helps to establish likely narrative patterns and thus either draws on or fills out learners’ text-type schemata, or background knowledge of text types (see Module 7, section 7.1.4).

8.3.4  How can students gain a global understanding of the text?
Instead of an introduction, or maybe in addition to it, students could be helped to place a text in a clear framework through some type of sequencing activity, in which they gain an overall impression of the text’s structure that will help in subsequent work on linguistic detail.
	Activities here might involve:
•	providing a heading for either a text or a number of short texts (see Text 15 where three headings have to be linked to the relevant texts); 
•	rearranging the paragraphs in a jumbled text into the correct order (see section 8.4.3 below on jigsaw reading); 
•	rearranging, into chronological order, summary sentences provided by the teacher on each paragraph or section of the text;
•	saying what they think a paragraph the teacher has removed from the text is likely to be about. 
If the text is very long and these tasks would be too difficult or too time-consuming, the same approach could be adopted with each section in turn, maybe varying the activity in each case.
	With certain types of text, especially ones containing a lot of description, students might be asked to work on some visual organizer, such as a plan, a map or a diagram. 

ACTIVITY 8

Read Text 2, ‘The Architecture of Consumption’, about the psychology of how supermarkets position certain goods in key locations. Devise some visual way of organizing the information contained in the text. Click on ‘Commentary’ for one possible approach.

If the text features a lot of figures, the task might be to produce a bar chart or graph (see Text 15, ‘Mehr Freizeit für alle!’, Exercise 3). With a discursive or argumentative text, on the other hand (eg Text 5, ‘It’s unthinkable’), students might have to provide a list of arguments for or against something.

8.3.5	 How can I pre-teach vocabulary?
It is sometimes a good idea to provide learners with help in processing vocabulary in advance of reading, especially when the text contains a lot of items that are likely to be new to them and that are not accessible to contextual inference (see Module 7, section 7.5.2.2). One technique, which simultaneously makes use of learners’ background knowledge, is to get the group to brainstorm in L2 on the type of vocabulary they associate with the topic. For example:

Read the text (Text 2, ‘The Architecture of Consumption’) and note down under the following headings all the relevant items you would find in a large supermarket:

Dairy products 
							
Vegetables
							
Fresh meat
							
Tinned goods 
							
Bakery
							
Fruit
							
Clothes
							
Drinks
							
Household goods							
Writing materials							
Entertainment

 If suggestions in L2 dry up sooner than you hope, get students to offer further suggestions in L1 and provide the L2 equivalents yourself. 
Another approach is to draw up a list of difficult lexical items with a note of where they occur in the text, to ask learners to look briefly at the immediate context and then to link each word with the appropriate explanation from a jumbled list of definitions. For example, with Text 6, ‘Destination Gridlock’, the following exercise might be appropriate:

Read the sentences in the text where the following words occur and then find the appropriate definition for each in the list that follows:

para 1, 	sent 1 	smog
                     sent 2		to be flanked by
                     sent 4		to be wracked by

para 2, 	sent 1		predecessor
		sent 2		murals
		sent 4		to come out of the closet

para 3, 	sent 1		autonomous
		sent 2		to weather out

para 4, 	sent 2		secured

para 5,	sent 1		to invest
sent 2		to keep hush-hush
sent 3		to seduce onboard
sent 3		oodles of
sent 4		to be at the helm	

person who used to hold an office or position
obtained	
lots of something 					
to be in charge of something 		
mist or fog usually caused by pollution and heat
to be situated at the side of 
to come safely through bad weather or difficult times
to put money into a plan or project		
to be severely shaken by 
to come out into the open
paintings on, for example, a  wall		
not let anyone know about an idea or project		
self-governing
to persuade someone to join in by offering something attractive

If employed too frequently, this approach can mean learners become accustomed to dealing only with pre-processed texts. However, advance teaching of vocabulary is likely to be a useful aid if: 

•	what is taught are key words from the text; 

•	the pre-teaching of vocabulary is done concurrently with the pre-teaching of background knowledge. 

For this purpose, words might be taught in semantic groups for a number of related texts.

8.3.6	 How can I break up a long text?
Even if the aim of work on texts in class is to teach learners to increase their text processing speed and to improve their reading for gist through such techniques as skimming and scanning (see Module 7, sections 7.2.1–7.2.2), it is better and more productive to start with short sections of a text.
	The sub-division of long texts into more manageable chunks has a number of advantages: 

•	It makes it easier for students to find specific items and means new vocabulary can be dealt with in small amounts. 

•	It means less proficient readers are not overwhelmed and can use discussion/explanation of each section to gradually build up their understanding of the text in a building-block approach. 

•	Teachers can insert signpost questions (see section 8.4.3) to encourage learners to predict what information may appear or what may happen in the following section.

	How long the sections should be will clearly depend on your group and the level of difficulty of the text. If there are no natural breaks in the text, then an appropriate length for sections might be a few lines with low-level learners, and around 15–20 lines or 250–300 words with advanced learners.
	Although sub-dividing a text is an essential pedagogical tool, one should not forget that the ultimate aim is for students to gain an understanding of the whole text. For this reason it is essential to return to global work on the text, once detailed analysis of individual sections has concluded. Often there is a time constraint here, which may mean that some parts of a text have to be dealt with less intensively than others. This is preferable to omitting the final, whole-text phase, because otherwise learners may lose sight of one of the main aims of text work, namely to promote understanding of complete passages. (See also section 8.5 below.) 

8.4  The reading phase
The following assumes that the teacher is working with the whole class on a single text, as this is the nature of most text-based work in modern languages. Lessons based on individual reading involve quite different preparation and change substantially the teacher’s role. (Those interested in developing individual reading lessons or schemes are referred to Nuttall, 1996: 161–64.) That is not to suggest that  a ‘lock-step’ approach, in which the whole group is engaged in the same activity and moves at the same pace, is inevitable; indeed much of the work we shall be looking at is best conducted by breaking the class up into sub-groups.

8.4.1	 Reading aloud or silent reading?

ACTIVITY 9

Before working through this section, take a few moments to reflect on the following: 

Many teachers feel uncertain about how to handle in class a text which students have not yet read. Should the group take turns to read it out loud, sentence by sentence, or should they process it silently for themselves? What is your view on this? Do you get students to read texts out loud? Why? Why not?

The research literature, with few exceptions (eg Rees, 1980), is strongly opposed to reading aloud. It is the way most of us learned to read in our L1, and it is therefore assumed to be an appropriate practice for L2 as well, but this is rarely the case. Most texts used in class have not been written to be read out loud. In any case, a learner should never be asked to read an unseen text aloud, since it will almost certainly contain new words which he or she does not know how to pronounce and, in the case of written dialogues especially, reading aloud is likely to require sophisticated intonation patterns. If the aim is to teach pronunciation and intonation, it is far preferable to use dialogues, rhymes and poems with which learners are already familiar. 
The fundamental problem is that in reading aloud the student has to concentrate so much on pronunciation that it becomes nearly impossible to focus properly on the meaning of what is being read: it is a common experience for a student to read a passage reasonably well but not be able to say anything about what he or she has just read. Usually the reading itself is also problematic, sounding hesitant and unnatural, and making it difficult for other students to follow. If you are not convinced, try the following:

ACTIVITY 10

In the course of a normal lesson on an L2 text, ask one of your students to read something aloud that he or she has not read before and with which you yourself are not especially familiar. Don’t look at the text itself while the student is reading – how much of it can you follow? During the reading take an unobtrusive look at the other students in the group. Are they concentrating? Do you think they are likely to be focusing on what is being read? 

To read aloud well, one needs to have studied the text and its meaning thoroughly first. It is therefore an advanced skill. Moreover, given that the activity merely allows readers to show what they have already learnt, it is in effect little more than a test.
	Generally speaking, a far preferable approach is silent reading for meaning, which is both a more natural and more efficient approach to getting students to process a text for the first time. When working intensively on a text, silent reading clearly needs to be linked to questions, tasks and exercises which check that reading has indeed been done and that the level of comprehension is appropriate.	
	However, if it is not abused as a form of pronunciation training or is not persisted with for too long, reading aloud can be of some use in the early stages of language learning. The golden rule is that reading should never be ‘cold’ but should be properly prepared. Lewis and Hill (1992: 110–11) suggest a number of approaches:
1.	At very low levels, the teacher reads, followed by the class reading chorally sentence by sentence.
2.	Also for low levels, the class repeats chorally after the tape (more difficult than after the teacher).
3.	The teacher reads a paragraph, then the class reads the paragraph chorally, possibly followed by an individual reading the same paragraph.
4.	An individual reads sentence by sentence after the teacher.
5.	Students rehearse their parts: the class is divided into groups and each group prepares, for example, a paragraph, then one representative from each group reads so that the whole text is read aloud. In the case of a dialogue, groups prepare different speakers. In all cases, the teacher goes from group to group, quietly helping with pronunciation, stress and intonation problems, before anybody reads anything for the whole class.
6.	With dialogues, students prepare in pairs, the teacher goes round and helps, and then all students read aloud in pairs simultaneously, before one pair reads aloud for the whole class.
	These are certainly interesting ideas, but with lower levels of proficiency even sentences can be too long and it may be better to break the text into short sense groups of a few words for each repetition. For example:

¿Qué vamos a hacer / durante mi visita? / Me gusta mucho la natación./ ¿Vamos a ir a una piscina / o vamos a estar unos días en la costa? / ¿Vamos a visitar unos castillos? / etc.

A further method, probably better suited to intermediate and higher-level students and to texts without substantial amounts of new lexis, involves the teacher reading chunks of text aloud while the learner follows the written text. The learner then has to look up and say each chunk of the text, concentrating on conveying the meaning rather than repeating exactly. This can help to increase both reading speed (by chunking and reading in sense groups) and comprehension.
Besides these pedagogical considerations, teachers also need to think about variety and maintaining students’ interest. Texts are a staple part of classroom language input, but if they are always treated in the same way, they can make lessons quite dull. For this reason, it is best to vary the way they are initially processed by mixing ‘cold’ silent reading with prepared individual or group reading, teacher reading and tape recording.

8.4.2  Why read this text?

ACTIVITY 11

Consider five things you have read recently. What was your purpose in reading them? For work? For pleasure? To get information? To check times or arrangements? To learn how to do something? How did the purpose affect the way you read the particular texts?

In everyday life we often read selectively and read different texts in different ways depending on our reason for reading, on what we hope to gain from the text. For example, we are likely to read an instruction booklet or a recipe much more closely than a newspaper report. In class, it sometimes helps to invent a reason for reading so learners know what to look for in the text, what to pass over quickly or even ignore. Such reading purpose questions encourage flexible reading skills and avoid detailed reading of every section becoming the students’ default  approach to a text. Detailed reading will be appropriate, indeed essential, with certain documents (eg directions, a contract), but with others it will be more important to adapt reading to a purpose. 
For example, with Text 9 (‘Les jobs de l’étudiant’), students are asked to find suitable jobs in published listings for five people with differing availability, interests and skills. Alternatively, with a more complex text, students might be required to collect relevant data on one particular city from a wide-ranging article on national traffic problems, for inclusion in a regional report. To develop such flexible reading skills, students need a lot of practice in targeted reading using different text types.
	Such an approach does not mean the rest of the text has to be ignored: detailed work on other aspects of the text can follow later. Alternatively, the same text can subsequently be read for a different purpose – another good way to develop flexible reading.

8.4.3  Using signpost questions
In order to help students find their way through any text, but especially a long one, it is advisable to employ signpost questions. The idea is to give students a question before they start reading to encourage them to focus on especially important elements of the text and to prevent them ‘losing their way’ as they read. For example, with reference to Text 6 (‘Destination Gridlock’), signpost questions for the first two paragraphs might include the following:

1.	What links the concrete pillars described here with President Fujimori?

2.	Which two groups are hoping to tackle Lima’s traffic problems?

By providing a question in advance of reading, the teacher gives learners a reason or purpose for reading. To avoid the danger that learners then only read to find the specific point requested (ie scan the text) and do not read the whole section or text, Nuttall (1996: 160) offers three important pieces of advice:
•	make sure students know there will be a lot more questions when they have finished reading;
•	make sure the signpost question cannot be answered until the whole (or most) of the section has been read;
•	devise signpost questions that require students to think about the meaning, not just to locate information.
It may be helpful to start with a signpost question relating to the text as a whole, as in Text 16 (‘Informationen für Familien’) where the text is preceded by the following:

The Press and Information Service of the Federal Government has issued a booklet under the title ‘Information for Families’. Which of the following would you expect to find in such a booklet?

1.	Rules for how families should behave politically.
2.	Help for politicians who wish to work on behalf of families. 
3.	Information for families on the main forms of state support available to them.

Some points to remember when designing signpost questions: 
•	Be careful not to overdo them: one per section will normally suffice, otherwise the benefits of clear, targeted guidance will be lost.
•	Either incorporate questions into the text itself (at the start or inserted between sections) or else write them in an ad hoc fashion on the OHP or board.
•	A good question should be accessible to most learners: if it is too difficult, it defeats the purpose.
•	The answer to the question should normally be elicited or discussed after the group has read the particular section.
•	When it appears that several students have not found the answer, it is worth drawing their attention to where it can be found, especially if it is important for understanding subsequent sections of the text.
•	However, if you provide the answer too often this can be counter-productive: the aim is for students to learn to access the information themselves.
•	Therefore return to the question later and ask students to keep looking for evidence to the original question as they move further through the text.
Finally, with a narrative text, a variation on signpost questions are questions to encourage students to predict how the story will continue. For example:

Read the first part of the text and answer the question that follows it. Then read the next section and if your answer was right, put a tick in the box next to the question. Do the same with the other sections.

The tops of the mountains were shrouded in mist and there  was a gentle drizzle in the air. Jacqui made her way further uphill. ‘Away, away’, she kept telling herself. She came to a series of hillocks, each so steep it was impossible to see ahead to the horizon. Once she cleared them, however, she could suddenly see on the vague, grey ridge ahead an orange-clad figure moving down towards her. It had to be Euan. He mustn’t see her. 
(a) What do you think Jacqui is going to do next?   
She retreated immediately and scrambled off the path to hide on the far side of one of the rocky knolls. The effort of clambering over the loose scree had made her breathless and as she clung to the rocks she could hear her heart pounding.
	From the path down off the ridge Euan thought he saw something moving in the rocks a hundred feet or so below. Once he reached the spot he paused, looked around and listened. His eyes scanned the ground, in particular the path ahead.
(b) What do you think Euan is going to see?	 
Much of the path was overgrown with grass and heather but this was a section that was well trodden and bare. Here he noticed in the soft mud that had formed during the recent bad weather some fresh footprints. They were small but distinct. He moved off the path in the direction of the prints.

This type of task seeks to approximate what we do naturally, usually subconsciously, when reading in L1, namely use what we have read to predict how a text will subsequently develop. 

ACTIVITY 12

Read Text 11 (‘Diet’) and try to devise appropriate signpost questions before each of the marked sections. Once you have done this, you might like to compare your questions with those provided by a teacher who worked on this text with a class of L2 learners. (Click on ‘Commentary’.) What differences do you notice? Compare and evaluate the questions you and the teacher provided for each section. 

ACTIVITY 13

Read Text 7 (‘Bangladesh’) and then consider the following signpost questions. Decide what makes each of the questions less than ideal. Click on ‘Commentary’ to check your response.

Paragraph 1	
1.	How long has Bangladesh been independent?
2.	Where does the word Bengali come from?
3.	What has religion tended to do?

Paragraph 2	
1.	What two threats were there to Bangladesh?
2.	What was the local name for the Battle of Plassey?
3.	What did the city-dwelling agents become?

Now suggest a better question of your own for each paragraph.

8.4.4.	 Jigsaw reading
It was suggested earlier that getting students to rearrange in the correct order the jumbled paragraphs of a text was an effective way to promote global understanding of a new text. A useful extension of this preliminary activity, which also introduces a communicative element based on an information gap, is the ‘jigsaw’ text. 
This can be employed with a range of texts, but one simple approach with a basic narrative is to distribute to each student in a group of, say, five, part of the story. Students must not show their section to anyone else. They  then have to find, through discussion and exchange of information, the correct order for the story. With a well chosen text this can lead to prolonged and effective oral discussion. 
Another approach is to set up a common task whose solution depends on obtaining information from all the parts of the text or all the other texts, if several different ones are being used. After considering their own passage and maybe answering a couple of questions on it to focus their attention on key aspects, students once again have to exchange information orally without looking at each other’s texts until they have solved the common task. To keep things manageable, limit this to three texts or three sub-sections. 
A good example of such a task, based on a classic brain teaser, can be found in the Collins Cobuild English Course:

Figure 8.4 An example of a jigsaw task
(From Willis and Willis, 1988)

8.4.5	 Coping with new language
One method is to get students to prepare unknown vocabulary outside of class, using a dictionary. This is an especially useful approach if the aim is to focus on the content and/or to apply the text and its language to some other task (eg to prepare a debate on the subject of the text). However, teachers will often approach a written text ‘cold’ in class. 

ACTIVITY 14

Besides using the pre-reading activities discussed above, what might you do to help students gain access to an L2 text they had not seen before, in particular to cope with the linguistic challenges it might hold? Would you introduce lexical items in isolation or in context? How could you encourage students to get at meaning for themselves? How could you use oral questions to elicit meaning?   

8.4.6	 Questioning technique
The first point to establish is that students should be allowed to refer to the text when answering any questions. The purpose of asking questions is not to test memory but to support understanding, to prompt and draw students’ attention to aspects of the text. 

ACTIVITY 15

What do you think is wrong with the following question?

Did the man know the woman?

This is a common mistake when setting questions on a text. It is an example of a ‘closed question’, to which the answer can only really be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Although such a question may test very basic comprehension and can thus have its uses, if the teacher wants students to use the language of the text in their reply, it is a pretty useless question.
	One simple way round this is to make an obviously wrong statement and to invite correction through a question tag – for example: 
It was in the autumn, wasn’t it?
This invites the response ‘No’ but also the correction: 
It was in the summer. 
Or, again: 
The man had never seen the woman before, had he?
This prompts the reply and correction: 
Yes, he had. He had met her at the party at the weekend.
	Another approach is to ask more ‘open’ questions which cannot simply be answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. For example: 
What are we told about the weather?
What measures did the government introduce to tackle unemployment? 
How do we know the housing policy is not working?
As well as prompting greater use of language by the student, this technique sounds a lot more natural than typical comprehension questions.
	When asking questions on a text, you need to be clear about the purpose. Is it:
•	to check that students are following the text and have not got lost?
•	to get students to show that they understand the text?
•	to get students to practise language by manipulating a structure in the text?

ACTIVITY 16

Consider the following passage:

At long last, after much delay, VW has rejected the more radical recommendation of the Munich-based management consultants, and has implemented its own Supervisory Board’s original rescue package. This has led to the loss of a ‘mere’ 15,000 jobs but it has at least secured production at all four existing German plants and the three other main European ones. The two plants in Scandinavia are not affected by the changes.

Here are some questions one might ask on this text. What differences do you notice between them?(Click on ‘Commentary’ for some notes on this activity.)

1.	Whose recommendation has VW rejected?

2.	What has VW done?  What has VW done instead? What has this meant?

3.	How many plants does VW have in Europe as a whole?

4.	Did VW welcome their consultants’ recommendation? The good thing is they’ve managed to save 15,000 jobs, isn’t it?

5.	What do we learn about VW’s current economic performance?

6.	What do you feel about VW’s action? How do you think VW employees will feel about the decision?

7.	What do you think the author’s view is of VW’s action?

It is all too easy to ask questions of just one type when doing oral work in class. But it is important that students are exposed to a variety of question types so that they are encouraged to read in different ways and to read critically and with interpretation – both crucial skills in the development of reading in a foreign language. A natural sequence might be to start with literal questions and to move onto interpretative and analytical ones, before introducing inferencing, evaluative and personal questions once the basics of the text are fully understood. Questions to practise language can either come after types 1, 3, 4, or at the end.
	Finally, it should not always be you who asks the questions. Teachers’ traditional reluctance to get students to ask questions, means many learners are not very good at formulating them. Just as the best way to get to know any material is to try to teach it to someone else, having to devise questions on a text is certain to make students read it thoroughly and more critically. Questions can either be asked of other learners, individually or in groups, or the tables can be turned on the teacher and you can try to answer them (perhaps without referring to the text to make it more interesting/challenging!).

8.5	The post-reading phase	

8.5.1  Activity types
Once intensive work on parts of the text is finished, it is important to draw students’ attention to the whole once more and to encourage some form of global evaluation or response. Initially, this is likely to involve oral work, but it can and often should lead into some written follow-up task.
	It was suggested earlier (section 8.3.4) that global understanding of individual sections of the text might be developed by getting students to come up with a provisional title for each section. At this stage it is a good idea to get students to return to these titles, to revise them if necessary, and to engage in discussion of an appropriate title for the whole text, assuming one has not been provided at the start. In order to stimulate discussion, a range of alternative titles might be offered and small groups could be asked to discuss these in the target language and reach a consensus on one of them. 
	In this follow-up phase students might return to the initial hypotheses they made about the text in the pre-reading phase and see if they have proved accurate and, if not, amend or reformulate them. They should now also be seeking to link the text to a wider context and responding to it by engaging in such activities as:
•	reconstructing the argument/story, etc;
•	continuing/developing an argument or producing a counter-argument;
•	adapting a narrative/description;
•	producing a sequel to a narrative, etc;
•	speculating about what had happened before or would happen after the account/story;
•	giving a personal response (eg expressing agreement/ disagreement);
•	reporting, both formally and informally;
•	discussing; 
•	interviewing;
•	improvising a spoken or written commentary;
•	comparing facts, ideas, etc, in this text and others;
•	evaluating events, ideas, arguments.
	One must be careful not to proceed to this post-reading phase prematurely, ie  before the text has been properly processed by students and the linguistic ground adequately prepared. For example, to launch into a class debate on nuclear energy in France after reading a single text on the controversy surrounding the setting up of a nuclear reprocessing plant in Le Havre, is unlikely to prove very productive. Unless the text has been exploited in the ways suggested above, especially with regard to the post-reading phase, students are likely to find the task very difficult indeed and the outcome will be disappointing. Preparation is everything!
	The types of activities which fall into this category are discussed more fully in Module 6 (‘Developing speaking skills’) and Module 9 (‘Developing writing skills’). The next two sections provide just a short annotated list of possibilities.

8.5.2	Oral activities
•	Role play: especially useful if the aim is to explore or develop specific viewpoints on a topic; very flexible and can be used with all levels of proficiency.

•	Drama: not always easy to set up and very dependent on the particular group and their willingness to participate; good as a follow-up to a narrative text with, or better without, substantial dialogue; not everyone’s cup of tea.

•	Simulation: a development of role-play which is especially useful in bringing to life a text dealing with a controversial issue. For example, with the text mentioned above on the setting up of a nuclear reprocessing plant, roles could be allocated to various members of the class to represent the views of people who are affected by the plans and are attending a local consultative meeting with a government environment minister, a Green MP, local residents, unemployed people keen for new jobs, parents of young children, etc. This is an effective way to involve most of the class.

•	Debate/discussion: either a formal debate with a Chair and appointed speakers and a participating audience, or an informal discussion in small groups, with subsequent reporting back to the whole class. This has the advantage of allowing students to express their own views rather than having to represent those of others in a role-play or simulation. It can often become independent of the text and therefore proves very challenging for students, but it is an excellent exercise for developing a range of linguistic functions (making suggestions, disagreeing, providing evidence, refuting, denying, etc). For example, with a text discussing performance-related pay in nursing, group members could argue from one of the following viewpoints: a nurse, a trades union representative, a patient, a doctor, a hospital administrator, a politician. Setting debates in the context of a TV show can add a touch of colour, excitement and humour to proceedings, especially if it is possible to video the exchange.

8.5.3	Written activities
One common activity is to recast the text in a different form:
•	Rewrite a report for a different audience – eg for one’s superior, for shareholders, for a newspaper article.
•	Devise a dialogue based on the text’s subject matter between characters mentioned in the text or ones you invent – eg with a text about a council’s plans to raise taxes, imagine a discussion on the pros and cons between a councillor and the representative of a local pressure group.
•	Provide a general summary of the text: full summaries are very challenging and best reserved for advanced learners as they demand high-level skills, such as separating key arguments from illustrative material and the ability to bring together disparate elements from different parts of the text; lower-level learners might be asked to correct a factually inaccurate summary or to complete a gapped summary.
•	Summary for a specific purpose: a summary provided according to a brief (often a real work-place scenario) can also be more suitable for lower levels as it might involve presenting information in schematic or diagrammatic forms, or as lists, tables or basic notes. For example, with a text discussing the public consultation process over plans for a new wind farm, students might have to summarise in tabular form the arguments presented for and against, and the government’s response to them. With a text concerned with pupil misbehaviour, learners might draw up a list of school rules for consideration by a School Council.
•	A variation on the jigsaw reading mentioned in section 8.4.4 above is to distribute parts of a longer article to individual students who have to work collectively to bring together facts and arguments and to re-build the global situation from their disparate bits of information, with the aim of re-writing the text – an exercise which could be orchestrated by the teacher on the board. This also provides an excellent opportunity to work with a group on the planning of a written text.
•	Read alternative versions of a process/event/person’s character, etc, and make a note of where the differences lie, prior to writing one’s own version which explains the real situation and why the discrepancies occurred. This is another high-level task but could be adapted for lower levels (see the comparing pictures idea below).
Alternatively, students might be asked to adopt a particular point of view or present the written text from a new perspective. For example:
•	provide some form of personal response to points made in the text by writing a letter, message or e-mail, eg a reader’s letter to a newspaper;
•	retell the story from a particular character’s perspective;
•	renarrate an incident from someone else’s point of view, eg an eyewitness to an accident;
•	with a descriptive text, devise a prospectus, guide or tourist brochure based on the place/event/phenomenon described.

8.5.4	 Making use of figures
A useful hint to remember when considering how to exploit a new text in class is to consider how you can bring about some transfer of information – from text to text, from visual representation to text, or from text to visual representation. At its simplest, this can be the type of idea mentioned under ‘summary for a specific purpose’ above, whereby a text is summarized in tabular or diagrammatic form. Alternatively, a text and a visual are provided with some subtle differences or inaccuracies between them and students are asked to correct the text by rewriting it, using the information provided by the diagram or figure. 

ACTIVITY 17

Read Text 1, ‘A Walk to Mam Tor’, and think how you could exploit the text in class. You might like to click on ‘Commentary’ to compare your ideas with another teacher’s suggested activities.

Several variations of this are possible. Thus, Text 2, discussing the typical layouts of supermarkets, could be readily adapted for this purpose, as indeed could the description of any location, route, routine, process or procedure. 

8.6	 A model for using L2 texts in class
It would clearly be wrong to propose a simple, inflexible model, as teachers’ purposes in using texts will vary enormously and no two teaching situations or groups of students are ever the same. However, the main points in Nuttall’s ‘possible sequence’ (1996: 168) constitute an ‘ideal’ pedagogical structure and can serve as a handy reminder of the various stages that can be involved in exploiting a text in class. The following needs to be interpreted in the light of the time available and the length of the text: with anything other than short texts, the stages would be spread over several lessons and would probably involve a number of individual homework tasks too.

Stage 1: Establish the purpose for reading the text and introduce it.

Stage 2: Set skimming and scanning task or another top-down exercise on the whole text.

Stage 3: Tackle the text section by section.
Procedure for each section:
1.	Deal with essential language points for the section.
2.	Assign signpost question for the section.
3.	Get the whole class to read the section silently.
4.	Check answers to signpost question and assign other questions for the section.
5.	Get individual students to re-read the text and do tasks/prepare answers to questions.
6.	Work through the section orally with the class, discussing questions/tasks and ensuring thorough understanding of all important elements.
7.	Return to signpost question, if necessary, and then assess the section as a whole; encourage students to: predict what will follow (unless it is the last section); relate it to what has gone before (unless it is the first); predict or discuss its function in, and contribution to, the whole text.

Stage 4: After completing section-by-section study, assign tasks (group or individual) requiring response to the text as a whole, drawing together information obtained from the detailed study and including the contribution of each part to the total message.

Stage 5: Get groups or individuals to attempt oral and written post-reading tasks.

Stage 6: Organize report-back session(s) on post-reading tasks or collect homework from written work for marking.
(Adapted from Nuttall, 1996: 168)

8.7  Commentary on activities
This section contains suggested approaches to the Activities in the main body of the module. 

Activity 1
Possible factors include:
•	the current topic on the syllabus;
•	the group’s proficiency in L2;
•	the register and style of the text;
•	its major linguistic features;
•	the range of structures employed in it;
•	the variety of lexis used. 

Activity 2
This insistence ignores the fact that if a text was not intended specifically for language learners it is unlikely to produce an authentic response (in the aforementioned sense of reconstituting the writer’s intended message). With students of a low level of proficiency, authentic texts can be very demoralising and demotivating; the most that one can hope to achieve here is basic scanning of an authentic text, which has its value (see Module 7, section 7.2.2) but which, on its own, is not going to develop reading ability.
Probably the most promising approach, especially at lower and intermediate levels of language proficiency, is therefore to present learners with a series of texts of increasing complexity written in deliberately simple language (cf Widdowson, 1978) and to move gradually towards what purists would regard as ‘authentic’ texts.

Activity 3
1.	Although this would be a topic undergraduate learners could relate to quite readily, the particular circumstances of life in the French capital and the specific context of French youth culture might well place barriers in the way of comprehension. In addition to any specific linguistic difficulties, slight adaptation would therefore probably be needed to make the cultural context more accessible. 
2.	Assuming the learners know the programme, this is likely to be very accessible, since much of the background would be understood (‘Fastest finger first’, ‘Phone a Friend’, etc) and contextual guessing would be possible with such expressions as ‘Is that your final answer?’
3.	Depending on specific linguistic difficulties, this text is the one likely to be most accessible to our group of learners as they will all have first-hand knowledge of the education system and will be able to use their contextual and cultural knowledge to access unfamiliar lexis. Such a text is likely to need only minimal adaptation, perhaps occasional lexical substitution and  glossing of phrases. 
4.	This will probably be the most challenging of the texts as it is likely to involve some semi-technical vocabulary and, being aimed at Spanish citizens who will take a close personal interest in the detail of the debate, will assume intimate knowledge of how the tax system works, of existing thresholds and allowances. If it could be used at all, the text would need major adaptation and explication. 
5.	While such a text might seem to be culturally accessible, this assumes students are interested in or know something about the Royal Family,  constitutional matters and political life, which will not necessarily be the case. However, since such a review would be aimed at a foreign audience, it might well contain some explanation of background and context (eg other members of the Royal Family and their relationship with Charles, the role of crown and parliament). Similarly, references to public life in the UK are likely to be at least partly familiar and will facilitate contextual guessing. 

Activity 5
A useful first step is to brainstorm with the class on what one would associate with the topic; for example: 

websites  –  childless couples  –  contractual matters  – 

role of natural parents  –  legal disputes  –  moral 

implications, etc 

In this way, students very often provide pointers to specific content themselves and thus their initial skimming of the text can be made slightly easier.

Activity 6
(Text 2, ‘The Architecture of Consumption’)
Before you read the following article about how supermarkets encourage us to buy more than we actually need, think about a supermarket where you regularly shop: 
•	What do you come across first in the shop? 
•	What do you find at the end of rows and aisles? 
•	Where are the vegetable and meat sections? 
•	What do you find in the final aisle?

Activity 7
(Text 3, ‘Get online and in tune with the e-job market’)
Comments on the five introductions:
1.	This provides irrelevant information on the Internet which is not needed to understand the text. Of no help to learners.
2.	There are some good points here but there is also far too much information which learners could and should find for themselves in the text.
3.	The biographical detail is not helpful to understanding the topic and becomes increasingly irrelevant. The skimming activity is too demanding and does little to help readers ‘get into the topic’ before they have to make their evaluation.
4.	This is the best of the bunch as it tries to relate the text to what students already know about the source and the topic, and provides some advance linguistic help.
5.	Apart from the fatuous opening, this focuses too much on the companies, whereas the article is aimed at job-seekers and the things they should look out for. So, no preliminary support is offered to the reader.

Activity 8
(Text 2, ‘The Architecture of Consumption’)
Read the text and indicate on the plan below where you are likely to find the following goods:

toys	oranges	juice	crisps	coffee	

sweets		soap		toothpaste	sugar	

spices		milk	flour		potatoes	

mince		yoghurt	rice	jam	onions	
	
cottage cheese		toilet paper				

Activity 12
(Text 11, ‘Diet’)
Suggested signpost questions:
Section 1	Why do we sometimes fail to recognize former school friends?
Section 2	Why, according to the author, do formerly slim girls feel unhappy
Section 3	What sorts of thing do middle-aged men do instead of sport?
Section 4	What are the consequences of decreased physical activity?
Section 5	What effects can ‘freak’ diets have?
Section 6	How do middle-aged women’s attitudes to dieting differ from those of men?

To answer the questions, students need to have read the whole section and in most cases they must focus on overall meaning rather than specific points.

Activity 13
(Text 11 , ‘Bangladesh’)
In both paragraphs the first question can be answered by reading just the first sentence; the second question in each focuses on an unimportant, minor fact; and the third question in each case can be answered simply by quoting part of the text verbatim.

Suggested alternatives:
Paragraph 1: What have been the two factors that have made Bangladesh ‘a land apart’? OR: Which two religious faiths have dominated Bangladesh?

Paragraph 2: How did the British administer their rule of Bangladesh? OR: Which two groups of the Bangladeshi population were important in administering the country?

Activity 14
Clearly, one could simply run through all unfamiliar items with the group first before anyone undertakes any reading at all. But besides doing nothing to develop learners’ L2 reading skills, this can be a deadly dull activity in which students are overwhelmed by a long list of unfamiliar words and structures, all presented out of context and thus without the support of contextual clues. Moreover, once they start work on the text, if students only have to ‘recognize’ words they are already familiar with, they are not involved in a genuine process of comprehension. The latter involves  coping with unforeseen difficulties, making intelligent guesses and predicting the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items or indeed longer stretches of language, without engaging in literal translation. Unless learners are gradually introduced to this approach and learn to feel comfortable with it, they will not be able to tackle authentic written texts with any real confidence.
	A far better approach is to allow students to encounter new language in context first, so they at least have the chance to try to work out meaning from the surrounding text. Very often they can process unfamiliar structures and words without the need for any explanation, while other elements which are not essential to understanding can be passed over. (See Module 7, section 7.5.2.2, for a full discussion of techniques for accessing unfamiliar vocabulary.) This latter approach is something students and even a few teachers find difficult, which is possibly a comment on their own reading style. All the same, it is essential that students learn to prioritize their processing of language in this way because otherwise they will find it very difficult to develop into effective extensive readers. (See Module 7, section 7.3.) 
	However, there will be times when specific linguistic items need to be taught or explained. As suggested in connection with pre-reading activities, comprehension of the text may well be enhanced by the pre-teaching of carefully selected items of lexis. Additionally, you might divide the text up into sections, get students first to practise extensive reading for global understanding on each section (eg by using a signpost question) and follow this up with work on individual linguistic items. This makes new vocabulary more manageable and less daunting for students, and ensures at the same time that, before they are offered an explanation or definition by the teacher, they have the opportunity to use text-attack strategies (see Module 7, section 7.2) to access meaning independently.
	Effective intensive work on texts is very dependent on explanation of vocabulary. The obvious question for the teacher to ask is: ‘What does “x” mean?’ This is fine if all one wants is a translation, as this is what the question will invariably produce. Far more useful in developing learners’ vocabulary, and more importantly their sense of how it is used in context, is to employ definition questions, such as:

 What word in this paragraph means ‘very surprising’?
Answer: ‘astonishing’. 

Or, with structures and phrases: 

What expression is used to suggest proof is needed? 
Answer: ‘It would have to be demonstrated that…’  

This is an important teaching technique: it enables the teacher to do the hard work of formulating a definition for the students, while the latter first have to find the item and then say the new word or phrase out loud. 
It is frequently forgotten that, especially for low- and intermediate-level learners, a new word can be daunting, not just because it is unfamiliar but because students may have difficulties pronouncing it; the question ‘What don’t you understand?’ may not therefore be terribly helpful. That is why it is a good idea to do some brief repetition practice of words which students are likely to find difficult before asking comprehension questions: it builds students’ confidence and prepares the ground for them to start using the words themselves.

Activity 16
Notes on the different types of question:
1.	This is a simple or literal question: it merely requires the student to read more or less directly from the text. 
2.	These are questions to practise language and might induce the replies: ‘It has rejected’, ‘It has implemented….’ and ‘It has led to…’ or ‘15,000 have lost their jobs’, thus providing practice in use of the perfect tense.
3.	This is an example of an interpretative question: closely related to the first type, interpretative questions are slightly more difficult as the student has either to interpret the information presented or else piece an answer together from different parts of the text. In the first case, questions can be oral or written, while in the second they will usually only be written as the student will need quite a bit of time to process various sections of the text. 
4.	These are examples of analytical questions: here the student needs to relate the content of the text to some external factor. For example, a reply to the first question depends on comprehension of the word ‘reject’, while  the second, deliberately erroneous question requires students to understand the compromise implied by the penultimate sentence of the text. Once again, as noted earlier in this section in connection with simple tag questions, comprehension questions that expect the answer ‘no’ and prompt the learner to correct the teacher are an effective way to test comprehension.
5.	This is an inference question: this type is more difficult as it requires students to get at information that is implied by the author rather than being explicitly stated. The inference may involve piecing together information, as in 3 above, or it may be like this question which depends on understanding the whole text. 
6.	These are examples of personal response questions: they require a response from the individual learner, possibly calling for empathy, but it has to be one based on the text rather than just a personal question. 
7.	This is an example of an evaluative question: this type involves an assessment of the writer’s aim and how effective the text is. This may involve consideration of the writer’s point of view or how well he or she argues the case. The question here focuses on clues in the text such as ‘At long last’, ‘delay’ and ‘mere’.

Activity 17
(Text 1 , ‘A Walk to Mam Tor’)
Read the following text which describes an upland walk in the English Peak District. Using a coloured pen, draw the route it describes on the map which follows the text.

Turn left out of the car park along the A731, past the playground to a farm road on the right signposted ‘Eden Farm’. Keep to this road, past the farm as it bends left then right, and just before another farm take the path to the left signposted ‘Mam Tor and Hollins Cross’. Cross the stream and walk steadily uphill to the left of a copse. Cross a wall at a stile. After 300m turn right through a gap in the fence, bear right past a disused mine. After ¼ mile cross another stream and climb the final steep slope to the summit.
Follow the ridge path to Hollins Cross where there is a viewfinder table. On a fine day this is a good spot for a picnic. Descend sharply to the right, then after 200m turn left at a fork signposted ‘Edale’. This path drops down to join a farm track. Follow it over a stream to Hollins Farm. After a ¼ mile bear left and soon join a minor road. After a further ½ mile turn right to reach the car park and your starting point.

OR  Draw in an incorrect route on the map and give students this instruction: The following map of a walk and the accompanying directions contain some discrepancies. Read the text carefully and correct the route indicated on the map.

OR  As above, but include an erroneous route direction: Read the following route description which contains a number of errors. Use the correct route indicated on the accompanying map to find where the errors are and correct the text.

8.8  References
French Study Group (1981) French 16–19: A New Perspective. A Report of the French 16–19 Study Group, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Johnson, P (1981) Effects on reading comprehension of language complexity and cultural background of a text, TESOL Quarterly, 15, 169-81
Lewis, M (1996) Implications of a lexical view of language, in Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, ed J Willis and D Willis, pp 10–16, Macmillan Heinemann, Oxford.
Lewis, M and Hill, J (1992) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching, 2nd edn, Language Teaching Publications, Hove.
Mikulecky, B (1990) A Short Course in Teaching Reading, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
Mitchell, I and Swarbrick, A (1994) Developing Skills for Independent Reading, CILT, London.
Nuttall, C (1996) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, Heinemann, Oxford.
Rees, A (1980) Reading aloud: suggestions for classroom procedure, English Language Teaching Journal, 34, 112–21.
Revell, R and Sweeney, S (1993) In Print: Reading Business English, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Silberstein, S (1994) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading, Oxford University Press, New York.
Widdowson, H G (1978) Teaching Language as Communication, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Widdowson, H G (1980) The realization of rules in written discourse, in Pariser Werkstattgespräch 1978. Leseverstehen im Fremdsprachenunterricht, ed H von Faber, H Eichheim and A Maley, Goethe-Institut/British Council, Munich.
Willis, J and Willis, D (1988) Collins Cobuild English Course Student’s Book 1, Collins ELT, London.

8.9  Recommended further reading

Aebersold, J A and Field M L (1997), From Reader to Reading Teacher. Issues and Strategies for Second Language Classrooms, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
This book is aimed primarily at novice teachers of a second language and focuses on teaching approaches suitable for the type of dedicated reading course found in many ESL programmes in the USA. Nevertheless, it is of relevance to the very different British foreign language teaching context too, linking reading theory to classroom practice most effectively. It extends the approach used in Module 1 of the DELPHI programme by encouraging readers to explore their own assumptions about reading. It then shows how to select appropriate reading activities and plan reading lessons. Used selectively, it will provide much useful back-up to the present module; chapters 4–7 are especially relevant.

Brown, H D (1994) Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Prentice Hall Regents, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Chapter 16 ‘Teaching Reading’, pp 283–318.
This section of Brown’s user-friendly book on EFL/ESL teaching is an excellent introduction to research on L2 reading and to the practical insights that follow from this research. It looks at a range of strategies for reading comprehension and at ways to develop interactive reading techniques. It is especially good at distinguishing between the needs of learners at different levels of proficiency and provides sample reading texts exploited for use in the classroom. 

Greenall, S and Swan, M (1986) Effective Reading. Reading Skills for Advanced Students, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
This book is aimed at EFL/ESL learners but its ideas can easily be adapted to the teaching of any foreign language. It provides a wealth of suggestions for developing learners’ reading ability, emphasizing in particular the matching of activities to readers’ needs. It provides a large number of authentic texts and a diverse range of accompanying classroom exercises and activities, while the accompanying Teacher’s Book explains the rationale behind the exercises employed. The texts are beginning to date but the pedagogical principles are still very relevant.

Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills: A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Even after more than 20 years this handbook, aimed at language teachers who want to develop their own L2 reading materials, remains a classic of its kind. Following a succinct and readable introduction to ways of reading and reading strategies, the author provides over 220 pages of authentic texts and accompanying activities and exercises (all in English) grouped under such headings as ‘Improving reading speed’, ‘From skimming to scanning’, ‘Organization of the text, ‘Non-linguistic and linguistic responses to the text’. Always practical and relevant, if you assimilate even a fraction of the ideas here, you will revolutionize your use of texts in class.

Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching, New Edition, Longman, Harlow, Chapter 10, ‘Receptive Skills’, pp 181–234.
A highly practical illustration of ways to train students in effective reading skills, embedded in a chapter devoted to both listening and reading in a foreign language. Using actual teaching materials and texts for the (EFL/ESL) classroom, the author demonstrates a range of approaches to, for example, reading for general understanding, for specific information and for detailed comprehension. Very effective in putting flesh on the bones of L2 reading theory.

Nuttall, C (1996) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, 2nd edn, Heinemann, London.
Still the most useful and accessible book-length study of all aspects of foreign language reading. The first half provides well written sections on L2 reading theory, word-attack skills and understanding discourse. In Part Three, which this module is particularly indebted to, teachers will find countless helpful ideas on selecting texts, structuring reading lessons, exploiting texts, devising reading tasks, formulating questions and testing reading. The book also provides sample lessons and a range of exploited texts for use in the (EFL/ESL) classroom and an extensive bibliography. A word of warning, however: the book assumes more time is available for L2 reading than normally applies in University foreign language courses in this country, so readers will need to be selective.

Sanderson, P (1999) Using Newspapers in the Classroom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
A collection of over 130 practical and creative newspaper-based activities for teachers of general English and ESP. They are designed to be used with young-adult and adult learners from pre-intermediate to advanced levels, and show how to exploit the different features and sections of typical newspapers to good effect in the classroom.

Willis, J (1996) A Framework for Task-Based Learning, Longman, Harlow, Chapter 5 ‘Text-based tasks’, pp. 66–85. 
Part of a very accessible description of task-based language learning, this chapter includes thoughts on text selection and reading strategies as well as a wealth of ideas for working with written (and spoken) texts in class. Well worth reading if you are in need of practical inspiration.

8.10  Assessment tasks
It would be excellent follow-up to this module if you were able to do all four of the tasks listed below. However, if you are using this module to count towards your institution’s certificate or diploma in learning and teaching, the minimum requirement is Task One and any ONE of the other three tasks.

8.10.1  Task One: your own post-reading activity
1.	Now you have completed the module, go back to the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ questions that you answered at the start and repeat the exercise in the light of your work on the module. Have you changed your mind about any of the items? If possible, compare your responses with those of a colleague who has also worked on the module, and discuss any issues you are still unsure about. You may find it helpful to see which sections of the module relate to which statement:

Statement	Section	
1	8.1	
2	8.2.1, 8.2.3	
3	8.2.4	
4	8.2.4	
5	8.2.6, 8.2.7	
6	8.2.6, 8.3.1, 8.3.5, 8.4.5	
7	8.3.2, 8.4.2	
8	8.4.1	
9	8.4.1	
10	8.4.2, 8.4.5	
11	8.4.5	
12	8.4.5	
13	8.4.6	
14	8.4.3, 8.4.6	
15	8.5.1, 8.5.2, 8.5.4 	

2.	Write a short reflective commentary (c 1500 words) exploring the relationship of these statements to the role of L2 reading in both your teaching and your own learning of the target language (or English, if it is not your mother tongue). In addition to comparing your ‘Before’ and ‘After’ answers, refer back to Module 1 and the list of personal teaching principles you drew up there:
•	Are these consistent with your responses to the ‘Before and After’ task? 
•	Are there any contradictions? 
•	Is there anything in your principles you would now modify? 
Include reflection on these questions in your commentary. 

8.10.2	  Task Two
Choose an L2 text book you use regularly in your teaching. Review a selection of four or five reading passages used in the book together with any supporting exercises. Write a commentary (c 1500 words) in which you explain the author’s reasons for employing these exercises. Assess how well you think the exercises address the three phases of pre-reading, reading and post-reading described in this module. How do you think the use of texts in the book might be improved? 

8.10.3	  Task Three
1.	Skim texts 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 17, 18 and 19 in the Text Bank and choose one you find interesting. Read the chosen text in greater detail until you are thoroughly familiar with its meaning and think you know what the author intended to convey to his/her readers. 
2.	Reread section 8.2.5 on bottom-up and top-down approaches and revise the notes on different reading phases, especially 8.3 and 8.4. 
3.	Prepare detailed lesson plans with supporting exercises for a series of three classes based around your chosen text. The focus of these lessons should be the content of the text, rather than the language used. You should indicate in your plans:
•	how long you plan to work on the text with your class;
•	the various phases of your lessons;
•	how you intend to break up the text into smaller sections.
In preparing your exercises, consider in particular: 
•	how you will promote global understanding of the text;
•	how you will help learners tackle difficult items of vocabulary;
•	what oral questions you will ask on each section of the text to focus students’ attention and promote comprehension (try to include at least five different types of question – you might like to look again at section 8.4.6);
•	what follow-up exercises would be appropriate (cf  8.5).

8.10.4	  Task Four
1.	Choose a text from amongst your own teaching materials in which a particular aspect of language is especially strongly featured (eg it may have a lot of past tense forms, subjunctives, extended adjective phrases, etc). This might be either a free-standing passage or one taken from a textbook. It should be about 500 words long (300 for a sub-A-level group) and should be a text you are actually going to use in your teaching in the near future. 
2.	Prepare detailed plans for two lessons but this time the focus of your lessons is to be the language used in the text, ie you are going to use the text to teach and practise the text’s salient linguistic feature. What will you do first to facilitate students’ understanding of the text? How will you explain the linguistic item? And what exercises will you use to practise it? The following questions are intended to guide you in this:
•	Does the text require an introduction from you? 
•	Which pre-reading task will you set? 
•	Is there any background knowledge you need to activate? 
•	Is it worth breaking the text up into sections? 
•	Is there any difficult vocabulary you need to deal with? 
•	How will you alert students to the feature you are interested in? 
•	Can they identify the examples of it in context themselves? 
•	Can you get them to formulate any rules themselves? 
•	Do you need to provide any formal explanation? 
•	Can this be done in L2? 
•	How much metalanguage (eg grammar terms) do you need to use? 
•	What guided exercises (eg drills) will you use to practise the item? 
•	Is there any opportunity for less guided exercises? 
•	Can you make use of the themes of the text to practise the linguistic item? 
3.	The proof of the pudding is in the eating! Find the earliest opportunity to put your lesson plans into action with your students.
4.	Write a short evaluation of your plans: Did they work? Which aspects were successful? Which worked less well? Why was this? Were there difficulties you had not anticipated? What would you do next time to improve the success of the class?