Reading strategies for teachers and students of the new millennium

Reading strategies for teachers and students in the new millennium

The following was written in preparation for a presentation in Arequipa, Peru in October of 2009, at the Universidad de Santa Maria. It appeared on the CESL website at http://cesl.siuc.edu/teachers/pd/rs.html, but was restored here in 2011. -Thomas Leverett, CESL, Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale IL USA 62901-4518.

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Summary

This workshop stresses clear elaboration of the tools and strategies ESL/EFL readers will need on their way to fluency, along with the conditions and environment that can make this possible; it then focuses on the tools and strategies teachers can use to make this possible and measure student progress. Ideally good teachers can use their time effectively to the best benefit of any group of students, while students know they also are using their time in ways that will most effectively teach them while encouraging their independence along with improving their reading skills.

The workshop reviews traditional strategies taught by teachers, and forms of assessment used to measure them; however, it stresses an approach based on student interest and involvement, and stresses the way readings and accompanying exercises and assessments appear to students in terms of what motivates them to read more, read faster, and read better. Given the new environment of instant access to internet and oversupply of sources, it helps both teachers and students evaluate what they find and helps both groups manage their involvement in the information age.


Bibliography

Farhady, H. and Fard, P.D. (2007). On the scalability of the components of the reading comprehension ability: A progress report. SCALAR 2007. Abstract online.

Folse, K. (2004). "Myths about Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary: What Recent Research Says." TESL Reporter 37 (2), 1-13.

Folse, K. (2004). "Limitation of Context Clues in Real-World Comprehension: A Case Study" Nexus: A Journal for Teachers in Development 7, 1.

Llinares, G., Leiva, B., Cartaya, N., & St. Louis, R. (2008, September). Acquisition of L2 vocabulary for effective reading: Testing teachers; classroom practice. The Reading Matrix, 8, 2. http://readingmatrix.com/journal.html.

Mikulecky, B. (2009, Mar./Apr.). Teaching Reading in a Second Language. ESL Magazine.

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