Lesson on reading skill

Language Skills Related Assignment

Task

Part 1:

I have chosen the text “9 things I wish I knew before traveling through South America” as it raises the important topic of discovering new countries, some general information about traveling to certain countries and some tips about preparation to journey.

 According to David Riddell, “Apart from the level, your choice (of the text) should be influenced by suitability (choice of topic, consideration of cultural issues, etc.), and interest (is this something which will be useful? or interesting? or maybe both?).” (Teach English as a Foreign Language – 2011, p.149) That is the reason why I have chosen this text. To draw students’ attention, a teacher needs to find handy and entertaining materials.

The topic of this text is particularly relevant to almost all ages (except very young learners) because traveling is one of the most exciting questions, it’s not a secret that every person has a dream of visiting diverse magnificent places, so this text aids to delve into peculiarities in South America, useful enough and also quite gripping.

I assume that the mentioned article is suitable for teaching intermediate (or teenage-adult) English learners (B1-B2 level according to CEFR) because students of this level can read articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular attitudes or viewpoints (exactly what this text is about). The constructions of the text require B1+ level of learner’s language proficiency because word of higher vocabulary are included (e.g. headache, pristine, lax, inspect, denominations), also some grammatical structures (e.g. passive voice), according to “the Cambridge English dictionary: Preliminary and preliminary for Schools Vocabulary List”.

Part 2:

According to Jeremy Harmer, “The procedure for teaching receptive skills generally starts with a lead-in. This is where we engage the students with the topic of the reading and we try to activate their schema (plural schemata). Our schema is the background knowledge we have of the world, the topic under consideration, the linguistic context that such a topic usually provokes, etc”.

To start the lesson I would use questions about students’ experience of traveling to personalize discussion about the topic:

-Have you ever been abroad?

-What was the most surprising fact about foreign country?

-What countries would you like to visit?

After the lead-in comes the first task (pre-reading), e.g. predict from some extracted information (illustration, key words, headlines), read questions about the text, students compose their own question (Scrivener, J). For example:

-what disadvantages do you think you can face with during traveling through South America?

- What is the climate in South America?

Part 3:

David Riddle established the need to deal only with those words which will be needed for the completion of the tasks, because "If you check too many words, you won’t have enough time for the Reading part of your lesson, and your main aims will be affected". And "It is good to focus on vocabulary after as well as before a Reading / Listening task".

I decided to give students matching task on new essential lexis in order to understand text's main points:

Answers:

I chose not to pre-teach all the vocabulary above the B1+ level, as students will be able to infer the meanings from the context of the article. Additionally, this lesson is not intended to concentrate on vocabulary instruction.

Part 4: 

In the next stage of the lesson I would use a gist task/skimming. “Skimming and scanning are both 'top-down' skills (see Section 3 earlier in this chapter). Although scanning is involved with finding individual points from the text without reading carefully through every word of the text) the way that a reader finds that information involves some degree of processing of the overall shape and structure of the text, moving her eyes quickly over the whole page, searching for key words or clues from the textual layout and the content that will enable her to focus in on smaller sections of text that she is likely to get answers from” (Scrivener, J). Taking into consideration the length of the text, I would give 3-4 minutes for reading and answering the following questions:

1)Do you really need to know basic Spanish? (Probable answer: yes, some common words and phrases)

2)Are the seasons the same in South America? (Probable answer: No, they have summer when we have winter, and their winter is our summer)

3) What Bolivia is famous for? (Probable answer: highest capital city in the world)

4) Is the continent big? (Probable answer: South America is a massive continent)

5) Do you need toilet paper during the journey? (Probable answer: yes, because public places in South America often do not have it)

6)What about the Internet? (Probable answer: it will be slow)

Here I encourage students to search for some general information of text (almost all answers are in headings) which they then read quickly to find a required piece of information. Students doing this will be reading the material in a similar way to how people might read it in everyday life.

Part 5:

For the next stage of the lesson I would choose comprehension task (reading for detail) as D. Riddell suggested and “Any of the question types mentioned already could also be used here, but this time requiring understanding – and this could be linked to the vocabulary covered in Stage 3”.

An essential aspect of effectively teaching receptive skills is the selection of tasks that we assign to students in relation to the text. At times, these tasks may seem more focused on evaluating the students rather than aiding their comprehension. While reading and listening can certainly serve as valid tools for assessing language and skills, using them for testing purposes is not the best approach when our goal is to help students enhance their receptive skills. Additionally, texts and the associated tasks can often be either too simplistic or overly challenging. To address these issues, we must implement comprehension tasks that foster understanding and ensure that the text and tasks are well-aligned. Examples of questions:

1)Why should a person be prepared to learn basic Spanish words? (Probable answer: in South America Spanish is the first language and it is less common for people to speak English)

2)Why are altitude effects sometimes unavoidable? (Because Bolivia is home to the highest capital city in the world, so sometimes it's impossible not to suffer from altitude sickness)

3)Why are Brazil and Bolivia exceptions? (Probable answer: these two countries require visa on arrival whereas other countries in South America don't. So to be prepare and enter the country a person needs a visa)

4)Is this a problem that South America is a massive continent?(Probable answer: no, it's not a problem but a person should check the map or read some forums to understand average time to get to the destination)

5) Why do people need to check that bills has no rips, tears, markings or wrinkles? (Probable answer: because in South America people will inspect every bill and some shop owners may refuse to take your money if it's not in good condition)

6*) sometimes disconnecting is part of the charm. Why? (Probable answer: a person can enjoy the moment without Internet and spent more time observing magnificent landscapes of South America)

I anticipate some problems and create the task on matching to make students completely understand the content of the text and to make them able to answer comprehension questions.

Part 6:

As D. Riddell indicates, the follow-up activity is needed in the receptive skills lesson as it creates “a sandwich effect” and makes the main part “less heavy and boring” (Riddell, 2010, p. 145). I would choose a follow-on task such a debate. It is a good way to hear students out: what do they think about something or what would they do in a certain situation. More than that, it is a great opportunity to involve all the students and create competitive atmosphere. The task is:

The teacher split the class on two groups with opposite opinions. The first group supports the statement “You should visit South America” and provide reasons. The second group is against visiting South America and creates the reasons too. However, there will be no winners, the students will listen to each other's arguments and then come to a common opinion that each country has its pros and cons, and whether to visit it or not is the desire of a particular person.

This task does not aim to offend anyone, but rather to prove to students that there are many opinions and it is not always possible to find the right answer. This task is a great way of self-expression, a way to protect your opinion and learn how to convey a thought in English.

Bibliography:

1. the Cambridge English dictionary: Preliminary and preliminary for Schools Vocabulary

2. Harmer J. The practice of English language teaching. Pearson Education Limited, 2007

3. Riddell. D. Teach yourself: teaching English as a foreign language, Hodder Education, 2010  

4. Scrivener, J: Learning Teaching, The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching, 2011