Reading Skills

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INTERNATIONAL HOUSE CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING LANGUAGES
Reading
written by Gareth Davies Freelance
Trainers Notes
List of contents of this sessions
Overview of the session and its main aims
Session outline
Page 1
Page 2
Stages
Notes to tutor for stage 1
Materials for stage 1
Answer key for stage 1
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5

Materials for stage 2
Page 6
Page 7

Materials for Stage 3
Page 8
Page 9
Page 11
Page 13
Session handouts
Page 14
Overview of the session and its main aims

By the end of the session the trainees will:
have clear models to follow when planning receptive skills lessons
understand the importance of preparing students to read/listen and of
activating the students schematic knowledge of the topic
be able to differentiate between top-down and bottom-up approaches
be able to differentiate between different types of reading / listening
skills, e.g. gist, skimming, scanning, extensive, intensive.
Further reading:
Learning and teaching English A course for Teachers Cora Lindsay with
Paul Knight. Unit 6 Reading, a good introduction to teaching reading in a EFL
classroom.
Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Christine Nuttall. Unit 1
and 2.
Developing Reading Skills Francoise Grellet. Introduction
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The International House World Organisation www.ihworld,com
Session Outline
Stage 1: What do we read
a. Trainees explore how different reading strategies are
employed.
c.15mins
Stage 2: A model for a typical reading lesson

a. A typical reading lesson
c.40mins
Stage 3: Identifying the main stages in a reading lesson

a. Trainees look at the main and stage aims of a lesson
b. Trainees review reading skills terminology
c.20 mins
Stage 4: The role of teacher in a reading lesson

a. Trainees examine the reading lesson and decide what
the teachers roles are
c. 15mins
Stage 5: Practice (optional)

c. X mins
a. Trainees work in groups to look at course book material
and apply the theory from the session
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NOTES TO TUTOR FOR STAGE 1

Main aims of this stage:
To explore the reason we read things and the different ways we read
things in our own languages
Time:
15-20 minutes
Materials: Materials for stage 1 - Sheets 1-2 and the Answer Key for
stage 1
Procedure:
1. This session is called teaching reading, but surely our students can read
already in their own language, why do they need to be taught how to read.
They can read in their own language but what they dont do is transfer
their reading strategies from their own language into a foreign language.
So maybe this session should be called; Teaching reading strategies in a
foreign language.
2. Ask the trainees to consider what they have read recently, and why they
read it. Did they read everything in the same way? Ask them to discuss
with their partner to see if they have read similar things.
After one or two minutes get one or two trainees to share
3. Ask trainees to consider the different reading texts in handout one (this
can be an OHT or powerpoint slide if you wish. Tell them to discuss what
they would expect to see and why and how they would read them. Do one
as an example. Then give the trainees time to complete the charts.
4. After a few minutes, bring the group back together and get answers from
trainees. Reveal the answer on the slide or on the PowerPoint as your
students give you them using the answer key.
5. Round of this session with a summary, firstly ask trainees read in a foreign
language, is it the same? Do they use the same strategies? (the answer is
probably no). Use this to ask if they think trainees think English Language
students read a text in the same way as they do and then explain that
learners of a language tend to read the language like it is a contract,
reading a small bit and then stopping to look up words they dont
understand putting the meaning together word by word (bottom up
processing) instead of activating their prior world knowledge and
processing the texts from the top down.
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MATERIALS FOR STAGE 1 Sheet 1

What
Expectations
How
Why
A pizza menu
A novel
A newspaper
article
A contract
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A T.V. guide
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MATERIALS FOR STAGE 1 Answer Key
What
Expectations
How
Why
A pizza
menu
You would expect

topping such as ham,
mushrooms etc. Not
banana, strawberry
etc
Scan reading,
reading for
specific
information, non
chronologically.
Hungry, want
something to eat,
want to find out
about the price
etc.
A novel
You know what to

expect, a Grisham
novel will have law
terms, a Rowling
novel will be all about
public school boys.
Chronologically,
For leisure and
probably reading
relaxation,
every word but not enjoyment.
necessarily
needing to
understand every
word.
Receptive reading
A
newspaper
article
The headline and

your knowledge of
what is going on in
the world will give
you a certain
expectation
Usually quite
To get
quickly, not
information about
worrying about
the world.
every word just
trying to build up a
general
understanding of
the text.
Gist reading
A contract
You would expect law

terms and formal
language.
I the undersigned
You would expect

to read this very
carefully making
sure there are no
hidden surprises.
This is called
bottom up or
intensive reading.
To make sure
you know what
you are agree to
or signing for.
A T.V. guide
TV programs words
like comedy, news
sport films etc.
Like a menu
Scan reading
To find out whats

on TV.
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To provide a model for a typical reading lesson
Time:
40 minutes
Materials: There are materials suggested below so you will either need
to download and copy for the trainees or find your own text for use
Procedure:
1. Tell trainees that you are going to demonstrate a reading lesson.
2. Ask them to think of what they would expect to see in a reading lesson
based on the answers to stage 1. After a few minutes get some ideas and
maybe put them on the board.
3. Teach the lesson as laid out in the lesson plan below.
Point out it is an hour lesson for Upper Intermediate class / B2 (you might
need to check that trainees understand what this means). Also point out you
will do a full lesson in about 30 minutes.
Make sure you;
set clear tasks before the students read
set a clear time limit
give instructions that help the students decide which strategy to
choose.
NB: You may not have time to do the final three tasks, but set them up
as you would in a class but then dont actually carry out the task.
(The lesson plan is based on a reading from the OUP website, please go to
the following website for the materials. http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/
elt/teachersclub/busresult/upintreadingfile2.pdf)
To get this text you need to be a member of the OUP teachers club which is
free to join but does take a few minutes to register.
Feel free to use your own reading task but try to follow the same procedure
and if you do use your own you will need to adjust the lesson plan
accordingly.
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Lesson Plan
Stage Aim
Procedure
To create interest
and personal the
lesson.
Ask students to answer the three questions in section

1. Give them 2-3 minutes to discuss and then get some
examples in feedback. It is a good idea to board the
answers.
To provide gist
reading practice.
Tell students that they are going to read an article

about what motivates people to go to work. They have
2 minutes to read it. Tell them to read it quickly not
worrying about any words they are not sure of. Tell
them to see if any of their ideas are in the text.
When the 2 minutes in up tell them to stop reading and
compare their answers with their partner.
Monitor to hear if they have a good general
understanding of the text.
Get feedback using the ideas on the board.
To provide scan
reading practice.
Give students the true or false questions and ask them

to read again and try to find the answers. Tell them
they have a little longer this time but not too long.
Advise them not to read the whole article but to read
the questions first and then look for the parts of the text
that will answer the question.
After about three minutes get their answers to discuss
in pairs.
Monitor to check they are getting the correct answers,
you can guide and help at this point.
Get feedback as a class.
To provide
intensive reading
practice.
Tell the students to read the text again this time more
carefully, ask them to try to answer the questions in
their own words.
Give them longer for this but again after the time is up
put them in pairs to discuss their answers.
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To provide
intensive and scan
reading practice.
To provide follow
up practice/
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Ask trainees to find the words in the text and read
around them and work out their meaning. Work in pairs
Get students in pairs to think of new ways to motivate
employees.
Change the groups and get students to share answers.

To identify the main stages in a typical reading lesson
Time:
Materials:
20 minutes
Materials for stage 3 Sheet 3 and sheet 4
Procedure:
1. Ask the trainees to reflect on the lesson and think about what they think
the main aim of the lesson. After a couple of minutes of pairwork, elicit
some answers. Note: Trainees might not have now the words skim,
scan and intensive reading so in the pair work stage you could
decide to feed in these terms if you think they are struggling.
Key
By the end of the lesson the students will have practised skim, scan and
intensive reading skills.
2. Before moving on to the stage aims, now is probably a good time to clarify
the key reading strategy terms from the main aim. Use the aim to elicit
what the terms mean
Key
Skimming reading a text quickly in order to get the main idea e.g.
reading a restaurant review to see if it is recommended or not.
Scanning reading a text (usually quickly) for specific information e.g.
reading a train timetable to find out what time the next train leaves.
Intensive reading aka detailed reading. Reading a text to get as much
information as possible from it
Also: gist a term for reading quickly to get the main points.
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3. Now give out sheet 3 and ask the trainees to think about the reasons for
each stage, (the stage aim). Ask them to consider the way they had to
read to do each task. Give them about five minutes to answer this, before
giving out sheet 4 and asking them to check their answers. For feedback
talk through the main stages but dont go into too much detail at this
stage.

Overall Aim
Stage Aim !
Procedure
answers.
to read again and try to find the answers. Tell them they
have a little longer this time but not too long.
in pairs.
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their own words.
employees.

Overall Aim
By the end of the lesson the students will have practised skim, scan
and intensive reading skills. They will have processed information in
different ways.
Stage Aim !
Procedure
To create interest
and personal the
lesson.

answers.
To provide gist
reading practice.

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To provide scan
reading practice.
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to read again and try to find the answers. Tell them
they have a little longer this time but not too long.
in pairs.
To provide
intensive reading
practice.
their own words.
To provide
intensive and
scan reading
practice.

you can guide and help at thispoint.
To provide follow
up practice/

employees.

To get trainees to consider the role of the teacher in setting up a
reading lesson and why the teacher does what they do.
Time:
Materials:
15 minutes
See Sheet 4
Procedure:
1. Tell the trainees they are going to consider some important aspects of the
teachers role. Either dictate or display the questions below:
a. Why was there a speaking task before the students started reading?
What other ways could we start a reading lesson?
b. Why did we have pairwork after each reading stage?
c. Why were the reading tasks set before the students started reading?
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d. What instructions were given before the reading tasks? How did they
differ? Why?
e. Why was there a follow up task?
2. Ask the trainees to work in pairs to think about the questions.
3. When everyone has finished then bring the class back together to get some
feedback to each answer.
Key:
Why was there a speaking task before the students started reading?
What other ways could we start a reading lesson?
We usually have an idea of what we are going to read
before we read it. A speaking task before we start the
students reading will help them to prepare an expectation
of what the text will be about and get them to think about
words and phrases that might appear.
Other ways could be a brainstorm of vocabulary the
students might expect in the text, responding to a picture
that accompanies the text, predicting the story from a
series of pictures or the headline, etc.
Why did we have pairwork after each reading stage?

We get the students to work in pairs because it gives them
confidence before feedback because they can check their
answers with a partner, filling in any gaps in knowledge, we
all tend to glean different things when we read something
so this allows students to help each other. After all this is
not a test. Secondly, it is a natural thing to do; we often talk
about something we read to someone else. .
Why were the reading tasks set before the students started reading?
The task is always set before the reading because the
students need to know what they are looking for in the text
and the task will help them. It might be an idea to point out
that we usually know what we are looking for when we read
a text in our own language. If the task is set afterwards it
becomes a memory test.
What instructions were given before the reading tasks? How did they
differ? Why?
The teacher should always give instructions that guide the
reading process. They should include;
- a time limit - so the students know how long they
have and do not try to process the text from the
bottom up
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a clear task so the students know exactly what they
are looking for.
guidance e.g. read quickly, read the questions first,
just look for the parts that will help you answer the
question this helps the students develop the
reading skill the teacher want them to.
advice e.g. dont worry about words you dont
understand...- this puts students minds at rest and
encourages students to read in the manner you want
them too.
Why was there a follow up task?

This is a natural thing to do in our own language. We often
talk about things we have read to someone else we suspect
has read it or might be interested in it. Also it demonstrates
to the students that they have processed the information
sufficiently to be able to respond to it.

Note: This is an optional stage if you have enough time.
To look at course book material and apply the theory from the
session
Time:
Materials:
15 minutes
Readings from course books of your choice.
Procedure:
1. Put the trainees into small groups and give out the coursebook
material. Note using the coursebooks that the trainees are using
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for teaching practice could be used but bear in mind this may give
some trainees an advantage if material they are to teach is
explored.
2. Ask the trainees to look at the course book and choose a reading text
Ask trainees to discuss:
- What reading skills the students will have to use to do the reading
tasks
- How much the lesson conforms to the plan from stage 3.
- How they could create interest in the text.
- What instructions they would have to give to get students reading in
the correct way.
Give them a few minutes to discuss, trainees do not have to plan the
lesson, simply gather ideas.
3. For feedback, regroup the groups and get them to share ideas.
4. Round off the session by clarifying any points that come up.
Checklist Stages for a reading skills lesson

Create an interest (pre-reading tasks)
Try to create an interest/motivation to read.
Does this stage get them thinking about the topic what they know/expect
about it / predicting what they might read about?
Reading for gist
Does this allow them to get a general understanding of the text and do they
have a clear task which does this?
Have I considered which particular reading sub-skill it encourages (e.g.
skimming, scanning)
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Main reading task
Does this further their understanding of the text, or focus them on specific
information within the text?
Am I aware of which reading sub-skill it employs (could be skimming again,
scanning for specific info, detailed reading, reading for inference)
Is it necessary to have two readings? (it is usual to do so but not always
necessary)
Post reading task
Discussion of the topic
Continue the story (what happens next)
Role play of the characters involved
Etc.
*Language review reading and listening texts provide ideal contexts for
analysing grammar or focusing on vocabulary (during the course, it may be
that one trainee focuses on a reading/listening text and another trainee deals
with a grammar point based on that text. Make sure you are aware of what
your partner is teaching and how the lesson fits together).
Other points
Make sure you have established the task clearly BEFORE they read.
Remember TASK BEFORE TEXT
Do I need to pre-teach any vocabulary prior to them reading? This should be
based on whether it is difficult AND related to their task.
When should I pre-teach it and how?
Although students cant physically read together, they can work together to
discuss questions, or at least to compare answers. Get them to compare in
pairs before you get feedback, this allows you to monitor and identify and help
with problems. It may be that you have to prompt them with where to look in
the text to find the answers, for example.
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Reading Skills some key considerations
According to Greenall and Swan (1986), effective reading is understanding
as much of a text as one needs in order to achieve ones purpose. This
means the reader needs to focus on the part(s) of the text likely to contain the
information they are looking for (this is their purpose for reading) and needs to
be able to ignore information which is superfluous to their purpose.
Students can easily lose their focus by being too concerned and panicking if
they meet an unfamiliar word. As long as they get the overall understanding of
a text or extract the required information from a text, their reading was
successful. Difficult vocabulary can be dealt with later (see below) although it
is necessary sometimes to deal with difficult vocabulary related to their
reading purpose.
There are different sub-skills of reading, which we need to use accordingly to
make us more effective readers. Grellet (1981) points out that by reading all
texts in the same way students would waste time and fail to remember points
of importance to them because they would absorb too much non-essential
information.
Receptive reading for enjoyment (e.g. reading a short story or a
newspaper editorial).
Skim reading to get a global impression of the content of the text
(e.g. skimming through a magazine article to see if it looks interesting
enough to read more thoroughly).
Scanning searching rapidly through a text to find a specific piece of
information (e.g. a shops opening time, reading a TV guide, a student
finding true/false answers, etc.).
Intensive reading looking carefully and analytically at a text (e.g. a
solicitor studying the precise wording of a legal document, a student
looking at the grammar of a sentence).
Most readers will have some kind of expectation about a written text and will
have an idea about what information it might contain and this influences how
we read. For example, when picking up a TV guide, one would expect to find
programme names and the genre (news, soap opera, film, documentary, etc.)
and a brief description of the programme.
Such knowledge of what to expect is an example of the readers schema
(plural = schemata) regarding the topic. In other words they have a
background knowledge of the topic or prior experience of the topic, which
helps the reader to form assumptions which help to interpret the text. For
example, with the TV guide, if the reader wanted to watch a film, he/she would
scan quickly to find a listed film and then read more carefully to find out what
its about. It is unlikely that he/she would need or want to read all the
information about the soap operas/documentaries etc.
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Grellet points out that this expectation is inherent in the process of reading
and provides a permanent interrelationship between the reader and the text.
Therefore, our schematic knowledge and subsequent expectations from a text
is key to how we approach reading a text and means we tend to adopt a topdown process to reading.
Top-down processing means that the reader is concerned with the global
meaning of the text (this could be the text as a whole, or, in the case of
scanning, the meaning/message of a section of the text) as opposed to
concentrating on linguistic elements of the text, which uses a bottom-up
process. Bottom-up processing might involve analysing, for example, the
syntactical, morphological, lexical aspects of a text step-by-step so that it
builds up into a complete unit of meaningful text.
Often the two work hand-in-hand. We usually employ a top-down approach to
reading but when students are faced with a language problem related to their
purpose form reading, they will employ a bottom-up approach to extract the
meaning.
Problems and how to deal with them:
Students expect to read thoroughly and, therefore, slowly: Make sure the task
is clear, reinforce this with a time limit and asking the students how they will
read.
Problems with vocabulary: Pre-teach it if relevant to the task. Otherwise, it
could be dealt with later. Difficult vocab in a text provides an ideal opportunity
for students to deduce meaning for from context.
Authentic texts difficult for low level students: Yes, but this does not mean that
authentic texts can only be used with higher levels. It is the task that should
be graded, not necessarily the text.
References:
Greenall, S & Swan, M. (1986) Effective Reading (Teachers Book)
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Grellet, F. (1981) Developing Reading Skills Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge
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INTERNATIONAL HOUSE CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING LANGUAGES

Notes to tutor for stage 2

Notes to tutor for stage 3

Notes to tutor for stage 4

Notes to tutor for stage 5

Overview of the session and its main aims

Stage 2: A model for a typical reading lesson

Stage 3: Identifying the main stages in a reading lesson

Stage 4: The role of teacher in a reading lesson

Stage 5: Practice (optional)

NOTES TO TUTOR FOR STAGE 1

MATERIALS FOR STAGE 1 Sheet 1

You would expect

You know what to

The headline and

You would expect law

You would expect

To find out whats

NOTES TO TUTOR FOR STAGE 2

Ask students to answer the three questions in section

Tell students that they are going to read an article

Give students the true or false questions and ask them

NOTES TO TUTOR FOR STAGE 3

MATERIALS FOR STAGE 3 Sheet 3

MATERIALS FOR STAGE 3 Sheet 4

Ask students to answer the three questions in section

Tell students that they are going to read an article

Ask trainees to find the words in the text and read

Get students in pairs to think of new ways to motivate

Main aims of this stage:

Why did we have pairwork after each reading stage?

The International House World Organisation www.ihworld,com

Why was there a follow up task?

NOTES TO TUTOR FOR STAGE 5

Checklist Stages for a reading skills lesson

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