An Exploration of Approaches to the Teaching of Reading

1、an exploration of approaches to the teaching of reading 阅读教学方法探讨an exploration of approaches to the teaching of readingabstract: reading, as an important input of language, is one of the most essential parts in elt. this paper analyzes the strategies in middle school english teaching of reading. the

2、re are different definitions of reading, purpose of reading and reasons for teaching reading in an english classroom. in middle schools, there are many problems to teaching of reading: reading efficiency is low, reading speed is slow; poor reading habits; difficult materials; students dont like read

3、ing, and students dont understand many words in reading. in the development of the english teaching of reading, there are many ways to solve the problems, such as special scientific in-class training, reduce the intensive reading time ; stressing the use of previous knowledge of text structure and c

4、ontent and so on. depending on the different purposes for reading, different reading strategies should be employed. you will look at four main strategies often used by efficient readers: orientating yourself to the text, skimming; scanning for specific information and detail; identifying main and su

5、pporting ideas; identifying and understanding argument. you also look consider in teaching of reading: vocabulary in reading, using literature to solve cultural problems; forming good reading habits. they are effecting on the teaching of reading.key words: reading; teaching of reading; reading strat

6、egies; reading ability摘要：阅读，作为一种输出语言，是英语教学中不可缺少的一部分。该论文分析了英语的阅读教学方法；介绍了阅读不同的定义，阅读的目的及中学课堂上影响阅读教学的因素，提纲等等。根据不同的阅读目的，读者使用不同的阅读方法：五种主要的阅读策略：根据文章自己给自己提问，预测；仔细留意具体的信息和细节；找出主要的观点争论点.阅读教学存在着一些问题：阅读效率低，阅读速度慢；没有阅读习惯；阅读教材过难；学生不喜欢阅读，学生不明白文章中的一些词汇。随着英语阅读教学的发展，也找到了一些解决方法，例如特殊的科学的课堂训练，加强阅读时间；根据文章运用以前所学知识列持观点；找出充足

7、的理由。你也将看到阅读要考虑的因素：阅读中的词汇问题，利用文献解决文化问题；好的阅读习惯。他们都影响着阅读教学。关键词：阅读;阅读教学;阅读策略;阅读能力 15 第 页 共 14页contentsi. introduction.1ii. purposes and reasons of reading.2a. different definitions of reading.2b. purposes of reading .2c. reasons for teaching reading in an english classroom.3 iii. reading activities .4a.

8、 pre-reading activities for the teacher41. introducing the text.42. giving guiding questions.53. presenting new vocabulary.5 b. pre-reading activities for the students.51. making predictions.52. activating prior knowledge.53. raising questions.6c. while-reading activities.6d. post-reading activities

9、.6. problems and strategies in english teaching of reading. 7a. problems.7b. solutions and strategies.91. predicting and previewing102. skimming and scanning.103. identifying main and supporting ideas.124. identifying and understanding argument12. conclusion.12works cited.14.introductionthousands an

10、d millions of people in our country are foreign language learners. getting students to read english texts in an important part of the teachers job. it can make students think that reading can become easier for their careers. reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second languag

11、e, particularly in english as a second or foreign language. reading is essential to academic learning in all subject areas. it is an especially vital skill for postgraduate researchers since a great proportion of science-related research papers are written in english. reading texts provide good mode

12、ls for english writing and opportunities to study language vocabulary, grammar, and the way construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. it can introduce interesting topics. it is increasingly important for students to develop reading and writing abilities.english reading is paramount. this is not jus

13、t because english is learned primarily as a means of gaining information through the written language, but also because reading provides the most efficient and hence the most important channel of linguistic input through which students improve their linguistic competence. the teaching of reading in

14、such a context is, therefore, indispensable from two objectives: to develop both reading proficiency and linguistic competence.reading means the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud. reading, along with listening, is sometimes viewed as a passive skill. however, rea

15、ding, as well as listening, is anything but passive. among the four language skills, reading might be the most familiar to us chinese learns. in a way, we have been learning english mainly through reading (shu and xiang 129) .according to carrel (1998), for many students, reading is far the most imp

16、ortant of the four skills in a second language, particularly in english as a second or foreign language. at advanced proficiency levels in a second language, the ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate and with good comprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral

17、skills, if not more important (gu 1).reading involves the processing of written language, and there are important differences between spoken and written language. reading is a kind of communication, and for most people in most situations. it is more important than speaking. as foreign language learn

18、ers, middle school students learn english mostly in class. quite a few middle school english teachers are unable to teach english through english because of their own inadequate spoken english. students have little opportunity to listen to the spoken english. based on the arrangement of sec, twenty-

19、five minutes is spent in training students listening per unit. it is not enough for students to gain enough language input by listening for such a short time. but things are not so pessimistic. reading can make up for the loss of input even though it does not have exactly the same function as listen

20、ing (zhen 29).in china, teachings reading have many problems, such as reading efficiency is low, reading speed is low, poor reading habits, difficult materials, students dont like reading ,students dont understand many words in reading and so on.ii. purposes and reasons of reading a. different defin

21、itions of reading there are different ways of defining reading. unman thinks: “the view of reading is essentially concerned with meaning, specifically with the transfer of meaning from mind to mind: the transfer of a message from writer to reader.” (2000:3) in silbersteins opinion, “reading is a com

22、plex information processing skill in which the reader interacts with text so as to (re)create meaningful discourse.”(2002:12)ur also definition of reading is that: “reading means reading and understanding ” (2000:138).i think reading is a mechanism by which a bill is introduced to, and approved by,

23、a legislature; the act or practice of rendering aloud written or printed matter; the act of one who reads; perusal; also, printed or written matter to be read. the way in which anything reads; force of a word or passage presented by a documentary authority; lection; version.b. purposes of reading th

24、ere are so many different reasons for reading and that we read in different ways for different purposes (nuttall 2). these different purposes, generalized into the following two main categories: we read for pleasure and for information in order to find out something or in order to do something with

25、the information you get (grellet 4). specifically, they are, to get information, to respond to curiosity about a topic, to follow instructions to perform a task, for pleasure, amusement, and personal enjoyment, to keep in touch with friends, to know what is happening in the world, and to find out wh

26、en and where things are (hedge 195). in real life people have various purposes for reading different types of texts. first, people may read for survival. this kind of reading serves your immediate needs or wishes. for example, you read the city map as a traveler because you want to go to a particula

27、r scenic spot.second, people may read for learning. this means reading can help extend our general knowledge about the world. we read because we want to learn. for example, you may read a book about english teaching methodology because you are a teacher of english and you want to learn how to teach

28、better.third, people may read for entertainment. quite different from reading for survival which involves an immediate response to a given situation, or reading for learning which is also goal-driven, reading for entertainment is done for its own sake. in other words you do not really have to do it.

29、 many people believe that reading in any language for pleasure tends to improve language fluency. this has important implication for language teaching: as teacher we should try to make students want to read what we want them to read.c. reasons for teaching reading in an english classroom it is an im

30、portant part of the foreign language teachers job to get students to read in the classroom. we should teach reading in english classroom for the following reasons. first, students want to be able to read texts in english either for study or simply for pleasure (harmer 68). reading is done in class f

31、or language acquisition. the students are exposed to the english language through reading texts. some of the language contained in the texts will stick in their minds as part of the process of language acquisition is likely to be even more successful. second, reading texts also provide good models f

32、or english writing (ibid). when the teacher teaches the students the skill of writing, he/she will need to show the students models of what they are expected to do. third, reading texts also provides opportunities to study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way we construct sentence

33、s, paragraphs and texts. last, many students will need the ability or skill to read either for study purposes, for their job, or simple for pleasure. this is the most important reason for doing reading in the classroom. the only way students gain this ability and skill to read is through reading, an

34、d they need to do a lot of reading practice in the classroom in order to acquire the necessary skills for real life reading.what is more, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative response and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lesson

35、s (ibid). therefore, it is possible for us language teachers to help our students learn how to read, because reading is learnt (nuttall 33)even though the question whether it is possible to teach reading is a debatable one(ibid:1), and to get our students to read english texts is one of the most imp

36、ortant parts of a language teachers job(harmer 68) and our goal to engage our students in a reading program should be to develop fluent, independent readers who set their own goals and strategies for reading and who learn aspects of the reading process through reading.(silberstein 12).reading activi

37、tiesa. pre-reading activities for the teacherthere are various things that can be done before reading a text to make it easier for students to understand the text and to help them focus on it as they read. three ways are discussed here, namely, introducing the text, giving guiding questions, and pre

38、senting new vocabulary.1. introducing the textintroduction to the text serves two purposes. it helps students in there reading because the introduction gives them some idea what to expect and increases their interest and so makes them want to read the text. one way to introduce the text is just to g

39、ive a simple sentence. a more interesting way might be to have a short discussion, to start students thinking about the topic. the introduction should be brief. the teacher should not say too much when introducing the text, or she will “give away” what it has to say, and kill the students interest i

40、nstead of arousing it.2. giving guiding questionsbefore the students read the text, the teacher can give one or two guiding questions, either orally or written on the board, for students to thing about as they read. the questions should give students a reason to read, lead the students to the main p

41、oints of the text, or arouse the students interest. it is important for the teacher to make sure the questions are concerned with the general meaning or with the most important points of a text, and not focus on minor points. besides, the guiding questions should be fairly easy to answer and should

42、not be too long.3. presenting new vocabularywe do not need to present all the new words in a text before the students read it, since it is quite possible to understand a text without understanding every word, and it is possible to guess many unknown words from the context. an important part of readi

43、ng is being able to guess the meaning of unknown words, and we can help the students develop their reading skill by giving them practice in this. moreover, asking the students to guess the meaning of new words also help them focus their attention and makes them want to know what the words mean.b. pr

44、e-reading activities for the studentsgenerally speaking, the students are only partly involved in the pre-reading activities when the teacher introduces the text, asks guiding questions, and presents new vocabulary. they can get more actively involved through some activities such as making predictio

45、ns, activating prior knowledge, and raising questions.1. making predictionsthe students can make predictions about the content and the structure of a text they are going to read. they can predict from the title, a key word, a picture, other visuals like graphs and charts, first or last line of the t

46、ext, etc. when predictions are made the students start to read and they will want to confirm their expectations. in this way they are actively involved in the reading process because they have a strong reason to do so.2. activating prior knowledgejust as activating known vocabulary, grammar, and bac

47、kground knowledge is important to successful listening, so is it important to efficient reading. the teacher can help the students review what they have learned either in english or in their native language, so can the students themselves. 3. raising questionsthe students should be encouraged to rai

48、se questions before they start to read. if the questions are raised by themselves and not by the teacher, they are more likely to be stimulating and can focus the readers attention on locating the answers. the teacher can even have the students write down a couple of questions which they want to be

49、answered in the text. after reading the teacher should remind the students to check whether their own questions were answered or not.c. while-reading activitiesreading activities have several important purposes. some of them are: to keep students interested, to encourage the students to keep looking

50、 ahead for meaning, to check comprehension, to assist comprehension, etc. the following are some reading activities and many serve more than one of the above purposes; therefore, they are not categorized.skimming for the main idea of the text:looking for specific information (facts, dates, train tim

51、es, figures, causes and results, etc.);transferring information from the text to a diagram, table, map, picture, or flowchart;taking notes on the main points, or on specific points of the text;putting the events and happenings in the correct order;deciding whether the statements are true or false;de

52、ducing meaning of unknown words from context through multiple choice questions;answering factual and/or reference questions;answering reading comprehension questions;matching given headings with corresponding parts of the text; etc.d. post-reading activitiesthe purposes for post-reading activities m

53、ay be: to consolidate comprehension, to stimulate further interest, to integrate language skills, to raise awareness of reading strategies, etc. below are some examples of post-reading activities, again many can serve more than one of the purposes, therefore, are not categorized.giving the reading p

54、assage a title or inventing another title if there is already one;dramatizing a part of the story;interviewing the author of the text (imaginary interview):writing a summary of the text;holding a discussion on the topic in the text or a related topic;changing the story of the text;writing a response

55、 paper/paragraph;.problems and strategies in english teaching of readinga. problems the main task in teaching reading is to teaching understandingto assess the problem of what to teach when teaching understanding，we must try to determine what is likely to prevent a learner from comprehending a given

56、 text ?to make this case clear, according to middle school students textbook my friend help me worked out a questionnaire on problems and difficulties that students are most likely to meet in reading. to make the calculation easier, we dont consider students achievement , one hundred students are selected randomly among in grade 8 and grade 9 in no.7 middle schoolthe questionnaire asks students to give an answer to the items with “yes” or