From Frances: In my opinion, I believe it is more possible for elementary school, junior high, or senior high school’s teachers to create an extensive reading library in their classroom. If the schools have the budget to create such an environment in every classroom, then students can benefit more from the materials being provided. That is to say, this kind of reading habit should be built once children enter into the elementary school. Unlike university students, senior high, junior high, and elementary schools’ classrooms are more fixed; it will be easier for teachers to manage the books and for students to have access to the books they want to read. That doesn’t mean that university students don’t need this kind of environment, but points out that they could probably buy a book that they are interested in and then exchange it with their classmates once they have finished reading it. If they have 50 classmates, and each of them bought a different type of book, they will have at least 40 different types of materials to choose from if they want to read more. We, English teachers, should try our best to provide them at least 15 minutes to read silently in class and also make it explicit at the beginning of the lesson that students should choose whatever EASY materials they like to read and emphasize that a dictionary SHOULD NOT be used while they are reading. It is normal for second language learners to feel insecure if we prohibit them to use a dictionary in class, because they might believe they will lose the gist of the whole article if they don’t understand a single word in the text. However, teachers should tell students that they’ll have to tolerate the sense of ambiguity while they are reading, and teach them how to guess or ignore some words while they read. However, students should be told that they will not be tested on what they’ve read, but just simply enjoy the feeling of reading in a second language. In conclusion, students’ motivation should be triggered first by immersing them in an environment full of books, and then you can gradually expect them to read more and become an autonomous reader in the future.
I believe one important and practical issue discussed in the second group of chapters assigned was the issue regarding authenticity. This is a highly debatable issue, whether or not authentic materials are necessary for student’s successful learning of L2. It becomes an even more important issue because of the fact that there are so many non-native English teachers (NNET) teaching ESL/EFL around the world. Indeed, one of the most frequently asked questions I get from NNETs is about materials they are using in their classrooms and how they can create/find more authentic materials for their students. Students are also frequently asking how they can better improve their L2 skills, outside of using a textbook.
The ideas and suggestions offered in this chapter are practical, but ultimately the success of any program will most likely depend on the teacher’s patience and commitment to the students and to creating a successful program. The fact is, there are an abundance of authentic materials out there that match all learning levels. It is the responsibility of the teacher to find these sources, or create their own.
In my opinion, a teacher should not try to be an island, working alone. It’s important for teachers to join or create professional development groups where they can work together with other professional towards offering students and environment with opportunities for success. Successful teachers have positive relationships with other professional teachers.
From Chapter 6, I learned that linguistically difficult texts do not always lead to the development of reading skills; moreover, not all the authentic materials are suitable for L2 learners. I remember when I was a college student, majoring in English literature, I was taught to read the original literature texts. However, to me, the original text was far beyond my language competence; therefore, I gave up reading soon and stopped appreciating the beauty of literature. At that time, I was reluctant to read simplified literature because as being an English-majored student, I should stick to the original text. The myth had haunted me for so many years until I read Day and Bamford’s book and I realized that it is OK to read simplified materials as long as the content is organized and the meaning is understandable. Materials truly play a significant role in a reading class, mentioned in Chapter 9. In a reading class, motivating materials, interesting activities, and a wide range of subjects can lead to successful L2 readers. In order to make successful L2 learners, parents, teachers, and administrators should work together to build up a sound reading program, including a free reading activity, a rich-print environment, and pressure-free atmosphere. All in all, reading is enjoyment as long as readers can decide what they want to read, when they want to stop, and how they want to communicate with writers.
In Chapter 11, the point of “No dictionaries” is discussed. It says in order to make students become fluent readers, teachers should tell them not to use dictionaries too often while doing extensive reading. It also mentions, “Students should understand that they must learn the techniques of fluent reading. This involves guessing the meaning of, or ignoring, the unknown word they inevitable encounter when reading in a second language.” (P.122) I agree with this point since I also read in this way. However, as the problem I talked about in my last reflection, for learning to be a fluent reader I try not to look up new words in the dictionary frequently when concentrating on reading, but my vocabulary knowledge is not improved much at the end, even after I’ve read many books and articles. Therefore, after finishing Chapter 11, I have another question about “no dictionaries.” Is it better to use “no dictionaries” on beginners than on advanced readers, or maybe, is it better to let advanced readers do both intensive and extensive reading at the same time to achieve the academic purpose? I’ve never thought to use learners’ own stories as reading materials. In most reading classes, materials are books and articles from magazines, newspapers, or websites. Nevertheless, those materials may not be interesting to every student. Everyone is interested in others’ stories. If teachers can spend a lot of time on helping students write, edit and correct their own stories, those stories can become the best and the most appropriated materials for them. On the other hand, students may have confidence in their writing by having others to read their stories. I think this idea is great and workable.
When I finished reading the scheduled chapters, together with some practical information in Appendix starting page 169 about EPER (just in case to quench my thirst on this interesting stuff, should this term be pronounced as an acronym, like ['GpQ] or ['0pQ] though personally I prefer the former, or simply regard it as an alphabetical abbreviation?) and descriptions of the four main abbreviated publishers (p. 202), one interesting idea came into my mind: without our novice learners being constantly encouraged and further habitually willing to explore (p. 166) and google the amusing and enjoyable parts of knowledge they think they may gain with ease and reassurance while and after doing extensive reading, all the theoretical bases will be by no means functional. Back to organizing the way to carry out this program, it’s got to be at least a time-and-cost-consuming, space-and-management-needed task (Chapter 10 and C. hereafter). Currently, I’m also learning statistics with our distinguished professor Dr. Huang, and totally agree with what he ever mentioned in class the importance of conducting a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire to sort of meet our readers’ practical needs before an academic research. Substantially providing multiple copies of the same book can be an alternative while doing sustained silent reading together in a group. More economically and eco-friendlily, it is positively suggested using online audible reading materials to the class so as to get their attention to read aloud with necessary guidance. I’m a little bit concerned about the budget spending on the newspapers and magazines, let alone displaying them on shelves. Ideally, I’m totally with such arrangement; but in reality, they are there simply for beautification most of the time. With such a tight time and budget allotment, the effects of doing so need further observation. Peer pressure is another part that interests me. Although kindling our readers with persistent enthusiasm (p. 168) is always a must, sometimes cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, p. 2), also one of the four subcategories in collaborative learning, may work better for extensive reading not just because it appears more efficient while adopting cooperation as the primary structure for classroom, but it furthers the willingness of our learners to get involved in such contexts. It’s got to be some kind of language device mechanism, according to Noam Chomsky, to trigger our readers to shift or transfer their L1 reading skills to L2 or English reading even though, from the mentioned report for Chinese teachers of English by Mary L. Field (1985, p. 175), “it was not possible, not even thinkable ”(p. 119). Extensive reading seems to be the way to get out of such a paradox. Some of the feasible suggestions to transform the formal situation into a reading community are also being adopted in my classes, to name some, browsing and choosing, reading aloud by teachers to the learners (C.12), answering questions, and giving oral reports (C. 13). I totally yes with the idea of setting up myself as a role model in terms of instructing our learners to experience the beauty of extensive reading. Reading for specific purpose or RSP devised by me after skimming chapter 14 would be useful because creativity always wins!
Students, materials, and teachers are three important components which contribute to a successful learning result. Extensive reading is no exception. First of all, students should be guided, drawn, and exposed to the environment of a reading community. Libraries such as school and classroom are set for the creation of a reading environment. Some students’ traits should be taken into consideration while applying extensive reading to the reading class. One is their linguistic competence; the other is their affective factor. Of course, the main purpose of extensive reading is to cultivate students to be autonomy readers.
Regarding the materials, they should be i-minus-1 and interesting to students, for difficult texts tend to slow down the reading speed of the students, which makes extensive reading impossible. It is the purpose of extensive reading to read fast and abundantly. With easy and interesting readers, students may read quickly and extensively. As to the easiness of the readers, a teacher may ask students to read one or two randomly chosen pages to see how many words students do not know. Whether the reader is interesting or not, it is mainly determined by the students and their peers. For the extensive reading, students can stop reading any time they think the readers are not interesting to them.
As for teachers, they should be enthusiastic and passionate in their attitude towards teaching. In the aspect of teaching extensive reading, a teacher should be a role model, a guide and a counselor. He/she reads while asking students doing sustained silent reading during class. He/she guides students to get rid of bad reading habit and get involved in extensive reading to become fluent readers with a view to broadening their vision of the world. A teacher sometimes helps those students who may lag behind in reading to provide them with i-minus-1 and interesting materials, which will in a sense improve students’ sight vocabulary as well as their general vocabulary; to a certain extent, students’ knowledge of the world will be expanded, which will lead to a fluent reading. In a word, teachers should sometimes bear in mind to adopt the less taken approach—extensive reading, for it can bring students to read for pleasure and read for information.
Questions: 1. How do we build a classroom library in a university? 2. How can students improve their vocabulary power by way of extensive reading, which are mainly i-minus-1 materials?
I think the authors point out Dictionaries-or rather " no dictionaries"-can powerfully symbolize the differences between extensive and other approaches to reading in the minds of the students. As to my learning experiences, my teachers mentioned we marked the words that we did not know as we encountered these words without interrupting our reading to check the meaning. At the end of chapter, we went back and looked up some of the words. In my opinion, does this approach suit for every student? The author mentioned the Extensive reading is" I minus 1.” If our students are advanced-level or novice, all they need to do is to understand the meaning of context. If our students are novice learners, do they acquire any knowledge of vocabulary? These questions should be discussed by educators and teachers.
After implementing the Extensive reading approach, we need to evaluate whether a program has achieved its goals, what other results a program might have had, apart from the intended ones, identify aspects of a program that might need change or improvement. Stakeholders such as teachers, students, administrators, or funding agencies concern if the program is suitable for all students.
"For the purpose of developing reading fluency, and confidence second language students need to read interesting, understandable materials that are basically at the i minus 1 level." (p.53)
Chapter 6 discusses the 'cult of authenticity' and the 'myth of simplification'. I think most of us, in our previous TESOL studies have come across numerous readings outlining the benefits of using authentic materials, supporting the idea of the 'cult of authenticity'.
Without taking away from the importance of authenticity, I'm pleased to see support for simplified texts. Most of us aren't just learning about SLA, we are also SL learners ourselves. In my experience, I have noticed that I was only able to read authentic SL materials once I achieved a certain level of SL proficiency. Attempting to read authentic materials at too early a stage in my SL learning resulted in me giving up or spending too much time using a dictionary.
However, simplified texts at the i minus 1 level allowed me to read something confidently. With increased confidence comes increased motivation and with increased motivation, I would inevitably end up reading more, thus the point of extended reading.
The cult of authenticity assumes that authentic materials are superior to simplified materials for SL learners. However, according to Henry Widowson (p. 54), "authenticity....is achieved when the reader realizes the intentions of the writer."
I agree with this and don't think that "realizing the intentions of the writer" automatically excludes simplified materials. For it is equally easy to realize the intentions of a writer who writes simplified materials.
If an authentic text is too difficult, students are likely to spend more time deciphering words than meanings and this can set students back.
It is my opinion that beginner and intermediate students would get great use out of using simplified materials as opposed to authentic ones, mostly because authentic materials are not always at the required i minus 1 level whereas simplified materials are.
I also belive that i minus 1 is more important than authenticity (if our purpose is comprehension and/or extended reading). However, ideally the best materials for beginners and intermediates would be both authentic and simple.
I like the part that Day & Bamford explain about student orientation. It’s important for students to understand how the extensive reading program works. The authors are great in explaining the goals, procedures, reading requirements, and reading materials of the extensive reading program. The procedures are written clearly and in detail so teachers are easy to follow. On page 122, the authors mention “no dictionaries” in the extensive reading program. Most of our students are used to consult dictionaries while encounter unknown words. I think it’s not easy for our students to break the habit of using dictionaries. Therefore, I think it is important for teachers to remind students constantly at the beginning stage.
More ideas from Aaron: Chapter 10 offers some very real and practical suggestions for creating an ER program. However, I think an important area for discussion would be in Chapter 11, discussing “Student Orientation”. I believe this can be directly related to the information presented in the previous chapters regarding “L2 Reading Attitudes”. Teachers need to be aware of cultural issues and how they might affect the learners. However, I believe it’s also extremely important for teacher not to allow these cultural differences to interfere with what has been established as successful practice. By this I mean that just because something is viewed as different, and perhaps more difficult, it should not be dismissed. Over the years I’ve heard several NET and NNET state that “there is no way the students can do that”, and yet at the same time there are several teachers who have students who are doing it, and doing it successfully. Perhaps, if a teacher is new to ER, or if the concept is new or different in a particular culture, the teacher could start slowly and limit the amount of program goals.
One concept mentioned in the book that I agree with is the idea of not allowing students to use a dictionary. This concept may seem scary to both students and some teachers, but I feel it is an important skill for students to be able to negotiate the word meanings from the book themselves or develop communication skills that allow them to work with others to find the answers to their questions. Inference is a highly valuable skill in any language and is one that I have been teaching in my classrooms for my entire career. For most EFL students here in Taiwan, with exception of children, the use of a dictionary is not to learn the definition of a word, it is the find out the Mandarin translation of the English word. It is this exact reason why many students here in Taiwan find it difficult to remember vocabulary words when it comes time to take an exam. The use of a dictionary in this situation eliminates one of the most important processes in learning, the moment of discovery where there is a connection between the input and the individual. There are just too many reasons why students shouldn’t be using dictionaries in EFL classrooms here to discuss in this post.
I completely agree with the authors that “the most essential prerequisite for developing effective, efficient, and independent second language readers through extensive reading has always been the individual, committed teacher.” Although some teachers may argue that they cannot do ER because they don’t have enough money/resources, the reality is that if they are committed to providing ER, there are always ways to make it happen, as discussed in earlier chapters.
I have the same experience as Day and Bamford suggested in the book:" at the end of the year, the class can be asked to donate the books to the library.” I have done this activity when I was a kindergarten teacher. The children were just starting to learn Bopomofo so that I built a class library for my students. Here were some procedures I did: first, I asked the children to bring their favorite five books to class and I also made a list to mark who had brought books for class. Then I asked every child to borrow two or three books home on every Fridays for reading those books with their parents. At the same time, the children had to note what they have borrowed on the list what I gave it to them. Therefore, every Friday was the day they brought different books home and shared with their parents. They might read those books during the weekends. That was the first time I tried to build a class library for my students and happily the parents supported me and provided a lot of children books for our class. This activity created great opportunities for children to read many books without paying extra money and of course, they had a great extensive reading while they were learning Bopomofo. They applied their prior knowledge immediately through reading those interesting books which brought them into wonderful word world. The parents’ reactions were so positive due to the activity increasing the opportunities for them to read with their children. After a few years, I happened to meet Krashen in person and I shared this experience to him. He encouraged me to keep doing it. However, it’s hard for me to build a class library for my students in a university because they do not stay in a same class for a long time. Furthermore, it’s the goal to read English books for my students so that it’s more difficult for me to do the same thing for my college students. However, I believe that we may utilize some other strategies to encourage students to read more books. For instance, as a teacher, students may be curious about the books what teachers recommend. If teachers introduce some interesting or meaningful books for students, they may be motivated to read those books. Take me for an example, my teacher encouraged us to compare the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and it’s novel due to there were numerous differences between the movie and the book. I was a super fan of Audrey Hepburn so that I read the book and compared the movie and the book by myself. That was an amazing experience for me to read a novel. Now I am reading some feminism novels for my passion on sexual discrimination which was inspired by my teacher. Therefore, teacher is really a crucial role for leading students to walk into books’ world.
The book provides some practical tips administrating Extensive Reading in future experiments. Questions to ask(personal counseling): Do you enjoy reading? What kind of books do you like? What books have you enjoyed recently? Do you have any problems with or worries about reading? About how long does it usually take you to finish reading a library book? (p128, Bamford & Day, 2002)
The mentioned method “teachers read aloud to students” (p129, Bamford & Day, 2002) could be worth trying, recalling the experiment that one of the Japanese professors used this method, reading “little red riding hood” to her students and won a praising rewards.
“Students follow the example of people they respect, and above all that of their teacher. If the teacher is seen to read with concentration, to enjoy reading and to make use of books, newspapers and so on, the students are more likely to take notice of her when she urges them to do the same.” (p136, Bamford & Day, 2002) Remaining interests in reading may not be an easy task for most English teachers due to the loads of teaching jobs and administration work. However, I approve of it. The book also provides varying evaluation methods for post test, including “mixed summary/ reaction reports”(p148), in-book opinion forms (p151), questionnaires (p160), which are helpful for our future experiments on extensive reading.
After finishing from chapter 6 to chapter 9, I clearly realize the issues about materials and how to set up an extensive reading program. General speaking, reading materials should be at the level “i minus 1” so that we can be encouraged by our confidence in order to read more; should be authentic that those are considered interesting, culturally enlightening, motivating. When it comes to curricular decisions, they are suggested that teacher should guide or offer requirement depend on the size of programs. Teachers should evaluate students in a flexible way and break down the myth of using dictionary while reading. Moreover, extensive reading is associated to individual choice, so reading should not be limited by rules, time or space. In other words, reading in one’s own time and on one’s own terms is the only way to begin to do this. (p.91) By knowing these principles, I reviewed my extensive reading process before, and I found out that I had a bad experience. Because I wanted to improve my English proficiency, I chose NEWS magazine to be my materials; however, I was struggled by the hard and uninteresting context. Obviously, it was failed. The best way to solve this problem, one is like Christine Nuttall writes, “Authentic material is the ideal, but if you cannot find enough at the right level, you will have to use simplified or specially written materials to begin with” (1996, p.178) This means I should pick the “i minus 1” materials to replace NEWS magazine. And the other way is to find the material you are really into it so that can sustain the extensive reading. Take me as an example, I can read the romances novel for my own at any place or any time until now. And this is the real extensive reading.
In my tutorial experiences,I found that extensive reading (or free voluntary reading) is a key to student gains in reading ability,linguistic competence, vocabulary,spelling,and writing. I still remember one of my students comes from 格自 junior high school, he prefers reading to watching television.For him,reading is a pleasant ,meaning-centered activity.I finally realized that reading for pleasure and reading without looking up all the unknown words were both highly correlated with overall language proficiency.The "love"of reading has propelled a learner to successful acquisition of reading skills. Other affective factors just as language ego,empathy,self-esteem and mitivation also undergird the acquisition of reading.
From Vincent: As I have mentioned in the class, what used to change in 60 years, now changes every six years due to the advancement of technology. With the invention of personal computers, pocket pc, laptops, and other devices such as ipad, iphone, or smart phone, students nowadays can get access to Internet easily, and they lead a very different kind of lifestyle compare with those of their parents in the past. For instance, I no longer subscribe to regular copies of newspapers and magazines anymore because they are all available on the net. This leads to the question of whether it is still practical to set up individual classroom library when budgets are limited and when paperback books are now considered environmentally unfriendly (not to mention how my students are unwilling to buy even textbooks). My main concern (as I have suggested in reflection #1) is how we can provide student with useful information on articles, ebooks, or resources appropriate for L2 readers to read extensively on the net. Information overload (reading without knowing the validity of the content and the risk of misinformation) has become a kind of obstacle for teachers to promote extensive reading to L2 readers.
From Frances:
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe it is more possible for elementary school, junior high, or senior high school’s teachers to create an extensive reading library in their classroom. If the schools have the budget to create such an environment in every classroom, then students can benefit more from the materials being provided. That is to say, this kind of reading habit should be built once children enter into the elementary school. Unlike university students, senior high, junior high, and elementary schools’ classrooms are more fixed; it will be easier for teachers to manage the books and for students to have access to the books they want to read. That doesn’t mean that university students don’t need this kind of environment, but points out that they could probably buy a book that they are interested in and then exchange it with their classmates once they have finished reading it. If they have 50 classmates, and each of them bought a different type of book, they will have at least 40 different types of materials to choose from if they want to read more. We, English teachers, should try our best to provide them at least 15 minutes to read silently in class and also make it explicit at the beginning of the lesson that students should choose whatever EASY materials they like to read and emphasize that a dictionary SHOULD NOT be used while they are reading. It is normal for second language learners to feel insecure if we prohibit them to use a dictionary in class, because they might believe they will lose the gist of the whole article if they don’t understand a single word in the text. However, teachers should tell students that they’ll have to tolerate the sense of ambiguity while they are reading, and teach them how to guess or ignore some words while they read. However, students should be told that they will not be tested on what they’ve read, but just simply enjoy the feeling of reading in a second language. In conclusion, students’ motivation should be triggered first by immersing them in an environment full of books, and then you can gradually expect them to read more and become an autonomous reader in the future.
Aaron’s Reflection 2
ReplyDeleteI believe one important and practical issue discussed in the second group of chapters assigned was the issue regarding authenticity. This is a highly debatable issue, whether or not authentic materials are necessary for student’s successful learning of L2. It becomes an even more important issue because of the fact that there are so many non-native English teachers (NNET) teaching ESL/EFL around the world. Indeed, one of the most frequently asked questions I get from NNETs is about materials they are using in their classrooms and how they can create/find more authentic materials for their students. Students are also frequently asking how they can better improve their L2 skills, outside of using a textbook.
The ideas and suggestions offered in this chapter are practical, but ultimately the success of any program will most likely depend on the teacher’s patience and commitment to the students and to creating a successful program. The fact is, there are an abundance of authentic materials out there that match all learning levels. It is the responsibility of the teacher to find these sources, or create their own.
In my opinion, a teacher should not try to be an island, working alone. It’s important for teachers to join or create professional development groups where they can work together with other professional towards offering students and environment with opportunities for success. Successful teachers have positive relationships with other professional teachers.
From Chapter 6, I learned that linguistically difficult texts do not always lead to the development of reading skills; moreover, not all the authentic materials are suitable for L2 learners. I remember when I was a college student, majoring in English literature, I was taught to read the original literature texts. However, to me, the original text was far beyond my language competence; therefore, I gave up reading soon and stopped appreciating the beauty of literature. At that time, I was reluctant to read simplified literature because as being an English-majored student, I should stick to the original text. The myth had haunted me for so many years until I read Day and Bamford’s book and I realized that it is OK to read simplified materials as long as the content is organized and the meaning is understandable. Materials truly play a significant role in a reading class, mentioned in Chapter 9. In a reading class, motivating materials, interesting activities, and a wide range of subjects can lead to successful L2 readers. In order to make successful L2 learners, parents, teachers, and administrators should work together to build up a sound reading program, including a free reading activity, a rich-print environment, and pressure-free atmosphere. All in all, reading is enjoyment as long as readers can decide what they want to read, when they want to stop, and how they want to communicate with writers.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 11, the point of “No dictionaries” is discussed. It says in order to make students become fluent readers, teachers should tell them not to use dictionaries too often while doing extensive reading. It also mentions, “Students should understand that they must learn the techniques of fluent reading. This involves guessing the meaning of, or ignoring, the unknown word they inevitable encounter when reading in a second language.” (P.122) I agree with this point since I also read in this way. However, as the problem I talked about in my last reflection, for learning to be a fluent reader I try not to look up new words in the dictionary frequently when concentrating on reading, but my vocabulary knowledge is not improved much at the end, even after I’ve read many books and articles. Therefore, after finishing Chapter 11, I have another question about “no dictionaries.” Is it better to use “no dictionaries” on beginners than on advanced readers, or maybe, is it better to let advanced readers do both intensive and extensive reading at the same time to achieve the academic purpose?
ReplyDeleteI’ve never thought to use learners’ own stories as reading materials. In most reading classes, materials are books and articles from magazines, newspapers, or websites. Nevertheless, those materials may not be interesting to every student. Everyone is interested in others’ stories. If teachers can spend a lot of time on helping students write, edit and correct their own stories, those stories can become the best and the most appropriated materials for them. On the other hand, students may have confidence in their writing by having others to read their stories. I think this idea is great and workable.
When I finished reading the scheduled chapters, together with some practical information in Appendix starting page 169 about EPER (just in case to quench my thirst on this interesting stuff, should this term be pronounced as an acronym, like ['GpQ] or ['0pQ] though personally I prefer the former, or simply regard it as an alphabetical abbreviation?) and descriptions of the four main abbreviated publishers (p. 202), one interesting idea came into my mind: without our novice learners being constantly encouraged and further habitually willing to explore (p. 166) and google the amusing and enjoyable parts of knowledge they think they may gain with ease and reassurance while and after doing extensive reading, all the theoretical bases will be by no means functional.
ReplyDeleteBack to organizing the way to carry out this program, it’s got to be at least a time-and-cost-consuming, space-and-management-needed task (Chapter 10 and C. hereafter). Currently, I’m also learning statistics with our distinguished professor Dr. Huang, and totally agree with what he ever mentioned in class the importance of conducting a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire to sort of meet our readers’ practical needs before an academic research. Substantially providing multiple copies of the same book can be an alternative while doing sustained silent reading together in a group. More economically and eco-friendlily, it is positively suggested using online audible reading materials to the class so as to get their attention to read aloud with necessary guidance.
I’m a little bit concerned about the budget spending on the newspapers and magazines, let alone displaying them on shelves. Ideally, I’m totally with such arrangement; but in reality, they are there simply for beautification most of the time. With such a tight time and budget allotment, the effects of doing so need further observation.
Peer pressure is another part that interests me. Although kindling our readers with persistent enthusiasm (p. 168) is always a must, sometimes cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, p. 2), also one of the four subcategories in collaborative learning, may work better for extensive reading not just because it appears more efficient while adopting cooperation as the primary structure for classroom, but it furthers the willingness of our learners to get involved in such contexts.
It’s got to be some kind of language device mechanism, according to Noam Chomsky, to trigger our readers to shift or transfer their L1 reading skills to L2 or English reading even though, from the mentioned report for Chinese teachers of English by Mary L. Field (1985, p. 175), “it was not possible, not even thinkable ”(p. 119). Extensive reading seems to be the way to get out of such a paradox.
Some of the feasible suggestions to transform the formal situation into a reading community are also being adopted in my classes, to name some, browsing and choosing, reading aloud by teachers to the learners (C.12), answering questions, and giving oral reports (C. 13). I totally yes with the idea of setting up myself as a role model in terms of instructing our learners to experience the beauty of extensive reading. Reading for specific purpose or RSP devised by me after skimming chapter 14 would be useful because creativity always wins!
Students, materials, and teachers are three important components which contribute to a successful learning result. Extensive reading is no exception. First of all, students should be guided, drawn, and exposed to the environment of a reading community. Libraries such as school and classroom are set for the creation of a reading environment. Some students’ traits should be taken into consideration while applying extensive reading to the reading class. One is their linguistic competence; the other is their affective factor. Of course, the main purpose of extensive reading is to cultivate students to be autonomy readers.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the materials, they should be i-minus-1 and interesting to students, for difficult texts tend to slow down the reading speed of the students, which makes extensive reading impossible. It is the purpose of extensive reading to read fast and abundantly. With easy and interesting readers, students may read quickly and extensively. As to the easiness of the readers, a teacher may ask students to read one or two randomly chosen pages to see how many words students do not know. Whether the reader is interesting or not, it is mainly determined by the students and their peers. For the extensive reading, students can stop reading any time they think the readers are not interesting to them.
As for teachers, they should be enthusiastic and passionate in their attitude towards teaching. In the aspect of teaching extensive reading, a teacher should be a role model, a guide and a counselor. He/she reads while asking students doing sustained silent reading during class. He/she guides students to get rid of bad reading habit and get involved in extensive reading to become fluent readers with a view to broadening their vision of the world. A teacher sometimes helps those students who may lag behind in reading to provide them with i-minus-1 and interesting materials, which will in a sense improve students’ sight vocabulary as well as their general vocabulary; to a certain extent, students’ knowledge of the world will be expanded, which will lead to a fluent reading. In a word, teachers should sometimes bear in mind to adopt the less taken approach—extensive reading, for it can bring students to read for pleasure and read for information.
Questions:
1. How do we build a classroom library in a university?
2. How can students improve their vocabulary power by way of extensive reading, which are mainly i-minus-1 materials?
I think the authors point out Dictionaries-or rather " no dictionaries"-can powerfully symbolize the differences between extensive and other approaches to reading in the minds of the students. As to my learning experiences, my teachers mentioned we marked the words that we did not know as we encountered these words without interrupting our reading to check the meaning. At the end of chapter, we went back and looked up some of the words. In my opinion, does this approach suit for every student? The author mentioned the Extensive reading is" I minus 1.” If our students are advanced-level or novice, all they need to do is to understand the meaning of context. If our students are novice learners, do they acquire any knowledge of vocabulary? These questions should be discussed by educators and teachers.
ReplyDeleteAfter implementing the Extensive reading approach, we need to evaluate whether a program has achieved its goals, what other results a program might have had, apart from the intended ones, identify aspects of a program that might need change or improvement. Stakeholders such as teachers, students, administrators, or funding agencies concern if the program is suitable for all students.
"For the purpose of developing reading fluency, and confidence second language students need to read interesting, understandable materials that are basically at the i minus 1 level." (p.53)
ReplyDeleteChapter 6 discusses the 'cult of authenticity' and the 'myth of simplification'. I think most of us, in our previous TESOL studies have come across numerous readings outlining the benefits of using authentic materials, supporting the idea of the 'cult of authenticity'.
Without taking away from the importance of authenticity, I'm pleased to see support for simplified texts. Most of us aren't just learning about SLA, we are also SL learners ourselves. In my experience, I have noticed that I was only able to read authentic SL materials once I achieved a certain level of SL proficiency. Attempting to read authentic materials at too early a stage in my SL learning resulted in me giving up or spending too much time using a dictionary.
However, simplified texts at the i minus 1 level allowed me to read something confidently. With increased confidence comes increased motivation and with increased motivation, I would inevitably end up reading more, thus the point of extended reading.
The cult of authenticity assumes that authentic materials are superior to simplified materials for SL learners. However, according to Henry Widowson (p. 54), "authenticity....is achieved when the reader realizes the intentions of the writer."
I agree with this and don't think that "realizing the intentions of the writer" automatically excludes simplified materials. For it is equally easy to realize the intentions of a writer who writes simplified materials.
If an authentic text is too difficult, students are likely to spend more time deciphering words than meanings and this can set students back.
It is my opinion that beginner and intermediate students would get great use out of using simplified materials as opposed to authentic ones, mostly because authentic materials are not always at the required i minus 1 level whereas simplified materials are.
I also belive that i minus 1 is more important than authenticity (if our purpose is comprehension and/or extended reading). However, ideally the best materials for beginners and intermediates would be both authentic and simple.
Emily
I like the part that Day & Bamford explain about student orientation. It’s important for students to understand how the extensive reading program works. The authors are great in explaining the goals, procedures, reading requirements, and reading materials of the extensive reading program. The procedures are written clearly and in detail so teachers are easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteOn page 122, the authors mention “no dictionaries” in the extensive reading program. Most of our students are used to consult dictionaries while encounter unknown words. I think it’s not easy for our students to break the habit of using dictionaries. Therefore, I think it is important for teachers to remind students constantly at the beginning stage.
More ideas from Aaron:
ReplyDeleteChapter 10 offers some very real and practical suggestions for creating an ER program. However, I think an important area for discussion would be in Chapter 11, discussing “Student Orientation”. I believe this can be directly related to the information presented in the previous chapters regarding “L2 Reading Attitudes”. Teachers need to be aware of cultural issues and how they might affect the learners. However, I believe it’s also extremely important for teacher not to allow these cultural differences to interfere with what has been established as successful practice. By this I mean that just because something is viewed as different, and perhaps more difficult, it should not be dismissed. Over the years I’ve heard several NET and NNET state that “there is no way the students can do that”, and yet at the same time there are several teachers who have students who are doing it, and doing it successfully. Perhaps, if a teacher is new to ER, or if the concept is new or different in a particular culture, the teacher could start slowly and limit the amount of program goals.
One concept mentioned in the book that I agree with is the idea of not allowing students to use a dictionary. This concept may seem scary to both students and some teachers, but I feel it is an important skill for students to be able to negotiate the word meanings from the book themselves or develop communication skills that allow them to work with others to find the answers to their questions. Inference is a highly valuable skill in any language and is one that I have been teaching in my classrooms for my entire career. For most EFL students here in Taiwan, with exception of children, the use of a dictionary is not to learn the definition of a word, it is the find out the Mandarin translation of the English word. It is this exact reason why many students here in Taiwan find it difficult to remember vocabulary words when it comes time to take an exam. The use of a dictionary in this situation eliminates one of the most important processes in learning, the moment of discovery where there is a connection between the input and the individual. There are just too many reasons why students shouldn’t be using dictionaries in EFL classrooms here to discuss in this post.
I completely agree with the authors that “the most essential prerequisite for developing effective, efficient, and independent second language readers through extensive reading has always been the individual, committed teacher.” Although some teachers may argue that they cannot do ER because they don’t have enough money/resources, the reality is that if they are committed to providing ER, there are always ways to make it happen, as discussed in earlier chapters.
I have the same experience as Day and Bamford suggested in the book:" at the end of the year, the class can be asked to donate the books to the library.” I have done this activity when I was a kindergarten teacher. The children were just starting to learn Bopomofo so that I built a class library for my students. Here were some procedures I did: first, I asked the children to bring their favorite five books to class and I also made a list to mark who had brought books for class. Then I asked every child to borrow two or three books home on every Fridays for reading those books with their parents. At the same time, the children had to note what they have borrowed on the list what I gave it to them. Therefore, every Friday was the day they brought different books home and shared with their parents. They might read those books during the weekends.
ReplyDeleteThat was the first time I tried to build a class library for my students and happily the parents supported me and provided a lot of children books for our class. This activity created great opportunities for children to read many books without paying extra money and of course, they had a great extensive reading while they were learning Bopomofo. They applied their prior knowledge immediately through reading those interesting books which brought them into wonderful word world. The parents’ reactions were so positive due to the activity increasing the opportunities for them to read with their children. After a few years, I happened to meet Krashen in person and I shared this experience to him. He encouraged me to keep doing it.
However, it’s hard for me to build a class library for my students in a university because they do not stay in a same class for a long time. Furthermore, it’s the goal to read English books for my students so that it’s more difficult for me to do the same thing for my college students. However, I believe that we may utilize some other strategies to encourage students to read more books. For instance, as a teacher, students may be curious about the books what teachers recommend. If teachers introduce some interesting or meaningful books for students, they may be motivated to read those books. Take me for an example, my teacher encouraged us to compare the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and it’s novel due to there were numerous differences between the movie and the book. I was a super fan of Audrey Hepburn so that I read the book and compared the movie and the book by myself. That was an amazing experience for me to read a novel. Now I am reading some feminism novels for my passion on sexual discrimination which was inspired by my teacher. Therefore, teacher is really a crucial role for leading students to walk into books’ world.
The book provides some practical tips administrating Extensive Reading in future experiments.
ReplyDeleteQuestions to ask(personal counseling): Do you enjoy reading? What kind of books do you like? What books have you enjoyed recently? Do you have any problems with or worries about reading? About how long does it usually take you to finish reading a library book? (p128, Bamford & Day, 2002)
The mentioned method “teachers read aloud to students” (p129, Bamford & Day, 2002) could be worth trying, recalling the experiment that one of the Japanese professors used this method, reading “little red riding hood” to her students and won a praising rewards.
“Students follow the example of people they respect, and above all that of their teacher. If the teacher is seen to read with concentration, to enjoy reading and to make use of books, newspapers and so on, the students are more likely to take notice of her when she urges them to do the same.” (p136, Bamford & Day, 2002) Remaining interests in reading may not be an easy task for most English teachers due to the loads of teaching jobs and administration work. However, I approve of it.
The book also provides varying evaluation methods for post test, including “mixed summary/ reaction reports”(p148), in-book opinion forms (p151), questionnaires (p160), which are helpful for our future experiments on extensive reading.
After finishing from chapter 6 to chapter 9, I clearly realize the issues about materials and how to set up an extensive reading program. General speaking, reading materials should be at the level “i minus 1” so that we can be encouraged by our confidence in order to read more; should be authentic that those are considered interesting, culturally enlightening, motivating. When it comes to curricular decisions, they are suggested that teacher should guide or offer requirement depend on the size of programs. Teachers should evaluate students in a flexible way and break down the myth of using dictionary while reading. Moreover, extensive reading is associated to individual choice, so reading should not be limited by rules, time or space. In other words, reading in one’s own time and on one’s own terms is the only way to begin to do this. (p.91)
ReplyDeleteBy knowing these principles, I reviewed my extensive reading process before, and I found out that I had a bad experience. Because I wanted to improve my English proficiency, I chose NEWS magazine to be my materials; however, I was struggled by the hard and uninteresting context. Obviously, it was failed. The best way to solve this problem, one is like Christine Nuttall writes, “Authentic material is the ideal, but if you cannot find enough at the right level, you will have to use simplified or specially written materials to begin with” (1996, p.178) This means I should pick the “i minus 1” materials to replace NEWS magazine. And the other way is to find the material you are really into it so that can sustain the extensive reading. Take me as an example, I can read the romances novel for my own at any place or any time until now. And this is the real extensive reading.
From Alice:
ReplyDeleteIn my tutorial experiences,I found that extensive reading (or free voluntary reading) is a key to student gains in reading ability,linguistic competence, vocabulary,spelling,and writing. I still remember one of my students comes from 格自 junior high school, he prefers reading to watching television.For him,reading is a pleasant ,meaning-centered activity.I finally realized that reading for pleasure and reading without looking up all the unknown words were both highly correlated with overall language proficiency.The "love"of reading has propelled a learner to successful acquisition of reading skills. Other affective factors just as language ego,empathy,self-esteem and mitivation also undergird the acquisition of reading.
From Vincent:
ReplyDeleteAs I have mentioned in the class, what used to change in 60 years,
now changes every six years due to the advancement of technology.
With the invention of personal computers, pocket pc, laptops, and
other devices such as ipad, iphone, or smart phone, students nowadays
can get access to Internet easily, and they lead a very different
kind of lifestyle compare with those of their parents in the past.
For instance, I no longer subscribe to regular copies of newspapers
and magazines anymore because they are all available on the net.
This leads to the question of whether it is still practical to set
up individual classroom library when budgets are limited and when
paperback books are now considered environmentally unfriendly
(not to mention how my students are unwilling to buy even textbooks).
My main concern (as I have suggested in reflection #1) is how we can
provide student with useful information on articles, ebooks, or
resources appropriate for L2 readers to read extensively on the net.
Information overload (reading without knowing the validity of the
content and the risk of misinformation) has become a kind of obstacle
for teachers to promote extensive reading to L2 readers.