I would like to add one more thing to Krashen’s (2004) discussion on the effect of television, that is, computers. “The Effect of Television and Computers” on second or foreign language learners cannot be ignored while living in this high-tech world. Most people might believe that if one spends most of their time watching TV and surfing on the Internet, one may reduce his or her time reading books. Is it true? Or it depends? Reading might be the best way for us to develop our language skills, but watching TV and surfing on the Internet may be other ways for a second or a foreign language learner to pick up some useful phrases and vocabulary in the target language. For native speakers, maybe it is true that watching TV may not have much effect on their language proficiency and development, but for nonnative speakers, it might have a great impact on motivating them to read in their second language, such as the TV series, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) or movies, such as “Twilight” or “Harry Potter”. For the movie part, one can either choose to read the original copy of the book or go to the theater to enjoy the movie. To my understanding, after watching the movie, Harry Potter, most people suggested others to read the books because lots of details have been eliminated. What I’m trying to say is, for second language learners, watching TV or movies, or surfing on the Internet, might be the conduit for them to really get involved in reading the second language. I believe that as long as learners are “hooked on books”, their language skills can gradually develop without themselves noticing.
Besides reading fluency and accuracy, writing ability can be developed through reading. The main focus in the last part of “The Power of Reading” is writing. Writing style comes from reading; moreover, it is subconsciously acquired from reading. The relationship between reading and writing has been highly emphasized in L1 and L2 research. In the studies, two key issues have been continually investigated: read to write and writing to learn from multiple texts (Grabe, 2003). Some evidence has shown that better readers tend to be better writers. Better readers who have extensive exposure to print become better writers. Furthermore, numerous studies have proved that working with multiple texts make students become more flexible in interpreting the information they read. Some important tasks to promote reading-writing relation have been listed by Grabe (2003): 1. Students need to practice many types of genres and tasks. 2. Students need to develop an awareness of structure itself. 3. Help students become strategic readers and writers. 4. Help students to collect and use feedback from peers and teachers.
In the EFL Reading class, we have been providing and using feedback from peers and our teacher. Through this EFL reading blog, I have learned not only my classmates’ ideas, but also their exquisite writing style!
By the way, I found a website which provides some graded books. You could read them online! ~ http://e-book.webpark.cz/
Part 3 answers my question which I asked in my first reflection. I always know that writing has something to do with reading no matter it is in L1 or L2. However, I don’t know how exactly to build writing skills through reading. On p.132 and p.133 it says that reading a lot can help acquire writing style subconsciously. Then, on pp.136-137, another study finds out “reading anything at all will help all writing.” It means if L2 learners want to improve their L2 writing, they probably need to read in every genre in L2. In other words, if L2 learners hope to be good at academic writing, they must do lots of academic reading. Although reading in other genres can also assist them to write better, reading academic pieces the most is still needed. While reading this, a question comes to my mind: “Doesn’t this finding have the conflict with extensive reading which suggests students to read for fun?”
“The knowledge gained through the first language can make second language input much more comprehensible.” (p.147) According to this, providing adequate background knowledge in L1 to L2 learners is necessary and helpful. Nonetheless, traditional reading classes in Taiwan usually give a rough introduction of reading materials as background information, and explain or translate them after students finish reading. I don’t know which way is better to apply in class. Perhaps both ways are good. Even so, apply these two methods in class may make students confused whether should have enough background knowledge in L1 before reading or wait for explanation or translation after reading. Knowing too many different reading skills sometimes make things complicated…
On Chapter 3, Krashen talks about the limits of reading. He thinks that complete acquisition of the conventions of writing may not take place even with massive free voluntary reading of appropriate texts. We all know that usually when we are reading, we often skim or scam the text very quickly in order to know the information as soon as possible, so we may not attend to all the details of writing rules such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Therefore, he suggests that direct teaching and the use of grammar handbooks and dictionaries can help fill some of the gap. He also reminds us that giving excessive concern with form or correctness while writing can be very disruptive, so it needs to be used with caution. Krashen advises students to join the literacy club because readers will acquire nearly all of the conventions of writing in the club. As Smith (1988) has pointed out that a great deal of learning occurs effortlessly, when learners consider themselves to be potential members of certain groups, or “clubs” and expect to learn. I think it is a good advice for students because they can acquire the huge amount of information that writers possess subconsciously and effortlessly.
Aaron’s 6th reflection One point I think might lead to a good discussion is the point Frances brought up regarding television, movies, and computers. While I can agree that under certain conditions all of these resources can be useful in language acquisition or learning, but I do not think they can easily be compared to books. Reading a book is more than just about passively acquiring language skills. It’s about the relationship between the text and the reader. It activates the reader’s imagination to visualize the printed words on the pages. Therefore, a large part of the input entering the learner is actually coming through their own imagination and based-upon their own previous learning. I would argue that this element of reading is probably one of the reasons why reading is so effective. If the input of the language is coming through another medium, especially a visual medium like TV or movies, the input has already been decided and created by someone else, and not the reader. Usually, people will say they enjoyed reading the book more than watching the movie, if they read the book first, and I believe this is due to the individual’s imagination and relationship with the text. To give an analogy of my point, many people feel that MTV has destroyed the music industry because the main purpose of MTV is to create a successful video, or entertainment. Often times the viewer is so stimulated by what their eyes are seeing that they cannot fully intake the music that they are hearing. Their brains are being distracted by the storyline, or perhaps by beautiful people dancing around half naked.
How a person receives input is vital for many reasons, and it is important to realize that we all have different preferences and learning styles, not too mention multiple intelligences. I have no doubt that watching TV can have a positive influence on an English learner, I grew up watching TV shows like Sesame Street that probably helped me a lot. However, I also grew up reading with my mother at bedtime and joining the summer reading programs at our local library. I had many friends who grew up watching TV every day and not reading, and as the years went on, I believe there was a noticeable difference in their academic performance. Usually in the US this type of situation happens with single parent families.
While one might argue that reading on a computer screen should be equal to reading a book, I would beg to differ. The reader can interact very differently with a book than they can with a computer, not to mention that staring at a computer screen is very dangerous and damaging to a person’s eyes. Books can go anywhere with the reader and can therefore be a part of the reader’s leisure time activities. In this way, the reader’s affective filter is lowered and they can associate reading with pleasure. Computers are usually associated with multitasking activities which divide a person’s attention or as a tool to quickly find what a person is looking for.
I think Frances makes a good point, that a good movie may lead a person to want to read the same story in a book. However, I do not think that this would happen very frequently. Yes, if someone watches a movie based-upon a three book series they might be inspired to read the other two books prior to another movie release, but again, this is probably not the norm. IMO, anything that motivates a person to want to read is probably a good thing, but at the same time, I would be fairly sure that a beginner or intermediate ESL learner would have quite a bit of trouble trying to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in it’s original English version. I think would not be classified as I -1, but rather intensive reading.
Krash (2004) pointed out that “numerous studies show that increasing writing quantity does not affect writing quality.” Also, in Mason’s study (2003), she found there was no correlation between devoting extra hours to write in English and increasing participants’ English proficiency. Both of them gained the same results, but how do we improve students’ writing skills? One of my teachers told me “the only way to improve students’ writing skills is to correct and revise.” I am wondering if we have another ways to improve students’ writing.
However, many people like doing extensive reading from the net or download thousands of reading materials into their e-books and they can go anywhere to read. At some of elementary schools in Taiwan, it is popular to use e-books to be their textbooks. Reading becomes accessible and easier. Let’s start to read today
I want to share a nice website:http://www.kizclub.com/reading3.htm There are three different levels of English story books on line and they are designed as books. The book are read automatically when they are turned over. I have known this website for several years which was introduced by my English teacher. We even imitated and had a play what the story books presented. Each group chose one of them to play for everyone in class. We were asked to present it as our Midterm exam. At that time, we could learn and review the story books by ourselves because they are on-line and with sounds. Until now, I even introduce this website to my students.
As to the television issue,I agree with what Krashen mentioned "The Effect of Television and Computers”. I am the one who has been influenced by computers and television now but I enjoyed reading when I was a little girl. However, if there are movie version and book version of story, I would like to choose movies because I can absorb what it talks about much easier than reading it. I don't think it is a good sign for me since I can't sit at the desk and read a novel for a long time. However, as a EFL learner, I could learn how to pronounce the words through watching TV or movies. If there's any different ways between reading English books and Chinese books? If it is easier for an EFL learner to learn target language through multi-media since the learner is not in an English environment?
I would like to add one more thing to Krashen’s (2004) discussion on the effect of television, that is, computers. “The Effect of Television and Computers” on second or foreign language learners cannot be ignored while living in this high-tech world. Most people might believe that if one spends most of their time watching TV and surfing on the Internet, one may reduce his or her time reading books. Is it true? Or it depends? Reading might be the best way for us to develop our language skills, but watching TV and surfing on the Internet may be other ways for a second or a foreign language learner to pick up some useful phrases and vocabulary in the target language. For native speakers, maybe it is true that watching TV may not have much effect on their language proficiency and development, but for nonnative speakers, it might have a great impact on motivating them to read in their second language, such as the TV series, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) or movies, such as “Twilight” or “Harry Potter”. For the movie part, one can either choose to read the original copy of the book or go to the theater to enjoy the movie. To my understanding, after watching the movie, Harry Potter, most people suggested others to read the books because lots of details have been eliminated. What I’m trying to say is, for second language learners, watching TV or movies, or surfing on the Internet, might be the conduit for them to really get involved in reading the second language. I believe that as long as learners are “hooked on books”, their language skills can gradually develop without themselves noticing.
ReplyDeleteBesides reading fluency and accuracy, writing ability can be developed through reading. The main focus in the last part of “The Power of Reading” is writing. Writing style comes from reading; moreover, it is subconsciously acquired from reading. The relationship between reading and writing has been highly emphasized in L1 and L2 research. In the studies, two key issues have been continually investigated: read to write and writing to learn from multiple texts (Grabe, 2003). Some evidence has shown that better readers tend to be better writers. Better readers who have extensive exposure to print become better writers. Furthermore, numerous studies have proved that working with multiple texts make students become more flexible in interpreting the information they read. Some important tasks to promote reading-writing relation have been listed by Grabe (2003):
ReplyDelete1. Students need to practice many types of genres and tasks.
2. Students need to develop an awareness of structure itself.
3. Help students become strategic readers and writers.
4. Help students to collect and use feedback from peers and teachers.
In the EFL Reading class, we have been providing and using feedback from peers and our teacher. Through this EFL reading blog, I have learned not only my classmates’ ideas, but also their exquisite writing style!
By the way, I found a website which provides some graded books. You could read them online! ~
http://e-book.webpark.cz/
Part 3 answers my question which I asked in my first reflection. I always know that writing has something to do with reading no matter it is in L1 or L2. However, I don’t know how exactly to build writing skills through reading. On p.132 and p.133 it says that reading a lot can help acquire writing style subconsciously. Then, on pp.136-137, another study finds out “reading anything at all will help all writing.” It means if L2 learners want to improve their L2 writing, they probably need to read in every genre in L2. In other words, if L2 learners hope to be good at academic writing, they must do lots of academic reading. Although reading in other genres can also assist them to write better, reading academic pieces the most is still needed. While reading this, a question comes to my mind: “Doesn’t this finding have the conflict with extensive reading which suggests students to read for fun?”
ReplyDelete“The knowledge gained through the first language can make second language input much more comprehensible.” (p.147) According to this, providing adequate background knowledge in L1 to L2 learners is necessary and helpful. Nonetheless, traditional reading classes in Taiwan usually give a rough introduction of reading materials as background information, and explain or translate them after students finish reading. I don’t know which way is better to apply in class. Perhaps both ways are good. Even so, apply these two methods in class may make students confused whether should have enough background knowledge in L1 before reading or wait for explanation or translation after reading. Knowing too many different reading skills sometimes make things complicated…
On Chapter 3, Krashen talks about the limits of reading. He thinks that complete acquisition of the conventions of writing may not take place even with massive free voluntary reading of appropriate texts. We all know that usually when we are reading, we often skim or scam the text very quickly in order to know the information as soon as possible, so we may not attend to all the details of writing rules such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Therefore, he suggests that direct teaching and the use of grammar handbooks and dictionaries can help fill some of the gap. He also reminds us that giving excessive concern with form or correctness while writing can be very disruptive, so it needs to be used with caution. Krashen advises students to join the literacy club because readers will acquire nearly all of the conventions of writing in the club. As Smith (1988) has pointed out that a great deal of learning occurs effortlessly, when learners consider themselves to be potential members of certain groups, or “clubs” and expect to learn. I think it is a good advice for students because they can acquire the huge amount of information that writers possess subconsciously and effortlessly.
ReplyDeleteAaron’s 6th reflection
ReplyDeleteOne point I think might lead to a good discussion is the point Frances brought up regarding television, movies, and computers. While I can agree that under certain conditions all of these resources can be useful in language acquisition or learning, but I do not think they can easily be compared to books. Reading a book is more than just about passively acquiring language skills. It’s about the relationship between the text and the reader. It activates the reader’s imagination to visualize the printed words on the pages. Therefore, a large part of the input entering the learner is actually coming through their own imagination and based-upon their own previous learning. I would argue that this element of reading is probably one of the reasons why reading is so effective. If the input of the language is coming through another medium, especially a visual medium like TV or movies, the input has already been decided and created by someone else, and not the reader. Usually, people will say they enjoyed reading the book more than watching the movie, if they read the book first, and I believe this is due to the individual’s imagination and relationship with the text. To give an analogy of my point, many people feel that MTV has destroyed the music industry because the main purpose of MTV is to create a successful video, or entertainment. Often times the viewer is so stimulated by what their eyes are seeing that they cannot fully intake the music that they are hearing. Their brains are being distracted by the storyline, or perhaps by beautiful people dancing around half naked.
How a person receives input is vital for many reasons, and it is important to realize that we all have different preferences and learning styles, not too mention multiple intelligences. I have no doubt that watching TV can have a positive influence on an English learner, I grew up watching TV shows like Sesame Street that probably helped me a lot. However, I also grew up reading with my mother at bedtime and joining the summer reading programs at our local library. I had many friends who grew up watching TV every day and not reading, and as the years went on, I believe there was a noticeable difference in their academic performance. Usually in the US this type of situation happens with single parent families.
While one might argue that reading on a computer screen should be equal to reading a book, I would beg to differ. The reader can interact very differently with a book than they can with a computer, not to mention that staring at a computer screen is very dangerous and damaging to a person’s eyes. Books can go anywhere with the reader and can therefore be a part of the reader’s leisure time activities. In this way, the reader’s affective filter is lowered and they can associate reading with pleasure. Computers are usually associated with multitasking activities which divide a person’s attention or as a tool to quickly find what a person is looking for.
I think Frances makes a good point, that a good movie may lead a person to want to read the same story in a book. However, I do not think that this would happen very frequently. Yes, if someone watches a movie based-upon a three book series they might be inspired to read the other two books prior to another movie release, but again, this is probably not the norm. IMO, anything that motivates a person to want to read is probably a good thing, but at the same time, I would be fairly sure that a beginner or intermediate ESL learner would have quite a bit of trouble trying to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in it’s original English version. I think would not be classified as I -1, but rather intensive reading.
Krash (2004) pointed out that “numerous studies show that increasing writing quantity does not affect writing quality.” Also, in Mason’s study (2003), she found there was no correlation between devoting extra hours to write in English and increasing participants’ English proficiency. Both of them gained the same results, but how do we improve students’ writing skills? One of my teachers told me “the only way to improve students’ writing skills is to correct and revise.” I am wondering if we have another ways to improve students’ writing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, many people like doing extensive reading from the net or download thousands of reading materials into their e-books and they can go anywhere to read. At some of elementary schools in Taiwan, it is popular to use e-books to be their textbooks. Reading becomes accessible and easier. Let’s start to read today
Thanks for your sharing, Mandy. It's really helpful for our novice learners.
ReplyDeleteI want to share a nice website:http://www.kizclub.com/reading3.htm
ReplyDeleteThere are three different levels of English story books on line and they are designed as books. The book are read automatically when they are turned over. I have known this website for several years which was introduced by my English teacher. We even imitated and had a play what the story books presented. Each group chose one of them to play for everyone in class. We were asked to present it as our Midterm exam. At that time, we could learn and review the story books by ourselves because they are on-line and with sounds. Until now, I even introduce this website to my students.
As to the television issue,I agree with what Krashen mentioned "The Effect of Television and Computers”. I am the one who has been influenced by computers and television now but I enjoyed reading when I was a little girl. However, if there are movie version and book version of story, I would like to choose movies because I can absorb what it talks about much easier than reading it. I don't think it is a good sign for me since I can't sit at the desk and read a novel for a long time. However, as a EFL learner, I could learn how to pronounce the words through watching TV or movies. If there's any different ways between reading English books and Chinese books? If it is easier for an EFL learner to learn target language through multi-media since the learner is not in an English environment?