ANALYTICAL READING AS THE BACKGROUND FOR

SUCCESSFUL EXAMINATIONS.

Калинина Е.А., к.п.н., доцент кафедры английского языка и

методики его преподавания СГУ им. Н.Г. Чернышевского

Make a list of items that you read in your everyday life and indicate why.

1. What do you read?

2. What do you read it for?

Quiz.

1. What’s one reason that some students don’t like to read?

Reading is the most difficult skill to develop.

Teachers can’t find appropriate reading material at the correct level of difficulty.

Students don’t believe that reading is a necessary skill.

Many students haven’t experienced the joy of reading.

2. How do teachers often unwillingly discourage students from liking reading?

By not making the readings challenging enough.

By over-testing readers. By sharing how much they personally

enjoy reading. By reading aloud to the class.

3. What can you do to help your students experience the pleasure of reading?

Let them read whatever they like. Never test them on comprehension. Select books and texts that relate directly

to their interests. Have them read the books that you enjoy.

4. Why is reading the most important language skill for students to master?

Reading is what they’ll use most in the real world.

Being able to read shows how intelligent students are.

Reading provides material that students can use with all of the other skills.

Reading is the most challenging and therefore the most important skill.

What makes a good reading teacher?

Be enthusiastic, Be prepared, Read, Seek improvement!

PROBLEMS IN READING:

Lack of vocabulary I need the dictionary all the time It is very slow Because it is slow the pleasure or interest is

soon lost

What is reading?

In the context of language learning, reading means “ reading and understanding”.

How far do you agree with the following statements?

1. We need to decode individual letters in order to read words.

2. We need to read and understand all the words accurately in order to understand a text.

3. If we understand all the words in a text, we will understand the text.

4. The more words there are in a text, the longer it will take to read it.

Beginning reading.

Phonemic awareness. (Various kinds of oral exercises can be used, usually based on getting students to listen to sounds and do different identification tasks).

Characteristics of fluent reading:

Language level. The text is easy enough to be comprehensible to learners.

Content. The topic is accessible to learners. They know enough about it to be able to apply their own background knowledge. (schema)

Speed. Learners read fairly fast, meaningful unit by meaningful unit, rather than word by word. (“sight vocabulary”)

Selective attention. Learners concentrate on the significant bits and skim the rest.

Unknown vocabulary. Learners are not worried by it. They guess its meaning from the surrounding text, or ignore it. They use a dictionary only when these strategies are insufficient.

Prediction. Learners think ahead and predict.

Motivation. Learners are motivated to read: by interesting content or a challenging task.

Purpose. Learners are aware of a clear purpose in reading.

Different strategies. Learners use different strategies for different kinds of reading.

EXAM STRATEGIES

Predicting the content of the text (type, title, headings, the first sentences of each paragraph),

Information in the text vs. your general knowledge of the world,

Matching the information in the text to the questions,

Guessing the meaning of unknown words. What can help here?

1. The grammatical form of the word

2. Its position and role in the text

3. Its general meaning

4. Your general knowledge of culture

Vocabulary paraphrases, Grammar paraphrases.

EXAM TASK TYPES

TRUE/FALSE (9) MUTIPLE CHOICE (11) MATCHING (9, 11) GAPPED TEXT (11)

Forward 10 (p. 16-17)

1. Read the Orraway website and complete the text. Match sentences a-f with gaps 1-5. There is one sentence you don’t need.

2. Work in pairs. Listen and read the website again and find the most suitable activity for these people.

3. Read the website again. Decide which activities match the statements. Two variants are possible.

FORWARD 10 Reading and Listening (p. 79)

1. Which words in the box describe you most closely? In pairs, explain why.

2. Look at the layout, headings and photos in the text and answer the questions.

What kind of text is it? Why? What do you think it will be about?

3. The sentences below begin each paragraph of the text. In pairs, guess what the paragraphs will be about.

Advice to learners: If you aren’t familiar with the context, find something

out about it before you read the text. Read whole “chunks” of meaningful text. Try not to “vocalize” as you read. Focus on information that is vital for understanding. Feel free to skip parts of the text that are not

necessary for understanding. Where possible, try to guess unknown words from

the context. Use the dictionary only when absolutely necessary. Be aware of your purpose in reading.

Different types of reading. Quiz.

1. You come across an article about a film you’ve just seen and you want to know if the writer enjoyed it as much as you did. How do you read it?

By looking for individual words. By looking for any vocabulary that is unknown to

you and checking it in a dictionary. Quite quickly to get a general idea of the writer’s

opinion. (skimming or gist reading)

2. You have just received a contract for a new job. Before you sign it, how do you read it?

Very thoroughly, focusing in detail on all the information in the contract. (close reading)

Intensively looking for spelling mistakes. By scanning to count the number of clauses

in the contract.

3. A newspaper article you are interested in includes a few words you don’t know the meaning of. How do you read it?

Stopping and starting to look up each new word in a dictionary.

At a normal rate, trying to guess the meaning of the new words. (reading to infer vocabulary meaning)

At a normal rate, skipping the sentences that contain difficult words.

4. You want to know what time the next train home is. How do you read your local train timetable?

From the beginning until you find the relevant page. By flicking through the pages to locate the specific

piece of information you need. (scanning) Quickly to find out the different places the timetable

refers to.

5. You are doing some research into different viewpoints of a key historical event. You come across an article by an unknown writer. How do you read it?

Quite quickly to look for any facts. By searching the text, looking for any difficult words. Quite carefully to find out if you can detect any

political bias. (reading to infer textual meaning)

READING FOR DETAIL (INTENSIVE)

skimming=read quickly to get the gist of the passage

scanning= move eyes quickly over the text to locate a specific piece of information.

POSSIBLE ROUTE MAP FOR A READING LESSON:

1. Pre-text Introduction and lead-in First task (pre-reading)-prediction from

illustrations, key-words, headlines), reading questions about the text, using graphic organizers.

SQ3R – “Survey, Question, Read, Recall, Review”

SURVEY means skimming through the title, main headings, illustrations and maybe taking a quick glance at the main points of the text.

QUESTION. What questions occur to the reader about the text or its topic or writer?

READING. The person reads the text bearing in mind the questions asked previously.

RECALL. It means checking that the reader can remember the main points made.

REVIEW. The learner rereads and reviews the content of the text.

WHILE- TEXT ACTIVITIES: Skimming tasks (check text against predictions,

guess the title from the choice of 3 options, put events in the right order)

Scanning tasks Tasks to focus on general meaning (answer the

questions, make a sketch, fill out a form, find out which picture is being described, compare viewpoints)

Tasks to focus on detailed meaning Vocabulary or grammar exercises, use of

dictionaries)

POST-READING ACTIVITIES:

Follow- on task (role-play, debate, writing task, personalisation)

Closing (reflection). Summary. Artwork. Further reading. Further writing.

Match the following tasks with the “pre-reading”, “while-reading” and “post-reading” stage:

Learners are encouraged to form certain expectations about the text.

(pre-reading) Learners complete a paragraph.

(post-reading) Learners complete a questionnaire.

(pre-reading)

Learners role-play a plot.

(post-reading) Learners write a summary.

(post-reading) Questions to activate what the learners

already know are asked.

(pre-reading)

In a brainstorming activity the learners anticipate the main points.

(pre-reading) Learners recognize the paragraph that

summarizes the main information in the text.(while-reading) A picture representation of the text is studied

and discussed.(pre-reading)

Learners match headlines with paragraphs.

(while-reading) Learners match the text with pictures or

diagrams.

(while-reading) Learners order jumbled paragraphs.

(while-reading)

Learners contrast two texts.

(while-reading) Learners take notes.

(while-reading) Learners exploit a text for grammar or

vocabulary.

(post-reading)

Learners discuss different interpretations of the text.

(post-reading) Learners distinguish the main idea from

supporting details.(while-reading) A listening text on the same topic is

presented.(pre-reading)

FORWARD 11(p. 10-11) FORWARD 11 (p. 42-44)

Work with the texts in pairs, using the strategies for active reading.

You are welcome with your questions!

Thanks for attention!

Good luck!