The role of techniques and strategies in teaching reading



It is known that four integrated skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking are very important in mastering the English language. So, a teacher should improve these skills in their students if he/she wants them to achieve this aim. This article reveals some methods, strategies of teaching reading which can be very helpful for teachers.

In Uzbekistan the 21^st century started as a century of culture, economy, scientific and technical innovations. Innovation factor is one of the peculiarities of modern educational system. Starting from the first years of independence, legal bases of preparing youth as harmonious persons were elaborated. Here, official acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan, decrees, enactments and social-political ideas of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, State Programs, decrees of Cabinet of Ministers, and other legislative and legal documents define the essence and significance of reforms in education.

In connection with this, huge tasks are set before teachers of English language; teachers became one of the main subjects of educational reforms. Therefore, if a teacher is open to welcome new pedagogical innovations, he or she can provide goal-oriented introduction of innovative ideas into educational process. Lately, range of significant official acts was issued on accelerating and developing the foreign languages teaching; as such they define the state policy towards teaching foreign languages. From the knowledge, experience and skills’ standpoint student’s listening, speaking, reading and writing comprehension levels are defined. As we know, four integrated skills are speaking listening, writing and reading are linked which each other. In modern teaching these four skills are integrated.

So, what is reading? If we see the definition of reading there are a lot of points of view concerning it?

Among the many definitions of reading that have arisen in recent decades, three prominent ideas emerge as most critical for understanding what «learning to read» means:

‒ Reading is a process undertaken to reduce uncertainty about meanings a text conveys.

‒ The process results from a negotiation of meaning between the text and its reader.

‒ The knowledge, expectations, and strategies a reader uses to uncover textual meaning all play decisive roles way the reader negotiates with the text's meaning.

We also can consider reading as an activity with a purpose. It is an important educational goal. For everyone no matter children or adults the ability to read opens up new world and opportunities. It enables us to enrich our knowledge, enjoy masterpieces of world literature and do everyday things which are parts of our everyday life such as reading magazines, journals, newspapers, instruction manuals, maps and etc. According to these aims a reader chooses a text. Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. (“Reading in the beginning and intermediate college foreign language class” by Heidi Byrnes, inModules for the professional preparation of teaching assistants in foreign languages(Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)).

The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

So, reading is a dynamic process which includes various types of knowledge or competence.

Between 1969 and to about 2000 a number of «strategies» were devised for teaching students to employ self-guided methods for improving reading comprehension. Since the turn of the 21st century, comprehension lessons usually consist of students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or both. It was traditional to use "Round-robin reading», where individual students were involved in reading a portion of the text. In the last quarter of the 20^th century, the results showed that the read-test methods were more successful assessing rather than teaching comprehension. Instead of using this method, research studies came to conclusion that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching beginner readers a bank of «reading strategies», or tools to interpret and analyze text.

I would like to point several techniques (Francisca Sánchez. 2010 Interactive Classroom Strategies & Structures for Success. Focus on English Learners) which are very efficient in teaching reading suggested by Francisca Sánchez.All of the given techniques have following specific objectives and procedures:

TECHNIQUE TAG THE GAP

Objectives:

‒ To develop strategic reading skills

‒ To be intentional about comprehension

‒ Target Content Standards

‒ Target Language/Culture Standards

Procedures:

‒ Students work individually with their assigned text/reading material.

‒ After reading their text, students use one color of post-its to mark what they don’t understand. Students use a second color to mark what they need/would like more information on.

‒ The teacher can see where the gaps in understanding are and adjust teaching accordingly.

‒ Students can be strategically paired to help each other with what they don’t understand. Center activities can be planned to allow students to research areas where they need / would like more information.

TECHNIQUE SQP2RS — survey, question, predict, read, respond, summarize

Objectives:

‒ To develop strategic reading skills

‒ To be intentional about comprehension

‒ To develop capacity as an independent learner

Procedures:

‒ SURVEY: Students preview the assigned text: Title, Headings, Picture/Photo Descriptions, Captions, and Italicized Words.

‒ QUESTION: Students turn the heading into a question before reading the selection. They generate questions that can be answered after reading.

‒ PREDICT: Students predict one to three things they expect to learn from reading the text.

‒ READ: Students read the selection, looking for answers to their questions.

‒ RESPOND: Students respond to the questions they initially generated. They determine which were answered in the text. They develop new questions. They continue surveying.

‒ SUMMARY: After finishing the entire reading assignment, students summarize the selection orally and in writing.

T-CHART TECHNIQUE

Objectives

‒ To develop organization skills

‒ To organize new information

‒ To use literacy skills for real purposes

‒ To reconstruct information already introduced

Procedures:

‒ Students use a T-Chart to capture two dimensions of a topic; compare/contrast aspects of a topic; relationships between aspects of a topic; etc.

‒ To construct the T-Chart, students write the name of the topic and draw a large T underneath.

‒ They title the left side of the T with one aspect or dimension, and the right side of the T with the other aspect or dimension to be explored.

‒ Under each title, students write a number of items which operationalize or explain or represent the title.

‒ Pairs share their T-Charts, comparing/contrasting their results with the results obtained by other pairs.

‒ Pairs return to their own T-Charts and revise/modify them based on what they learned from the sharing.

JIGSAW READING TECHNIQUE

Objectives:

‒ To develop cooperative and organizational skills

‒ To build group inclusion and team cohesiveness

‒ To use communication and listening skills

‒ To develop oral language and critical thinking skills

‒ To structure learning/review about specific topics

‒ To organize information for presentation

Procedures:

‒ The teacher identifies an article or other reading related to the topic under study. This selection should have delineated sections, chapters, or natural breakpoints that would allow for sectioning the reading.

‒ Students work in groups of four.

‒ Each group receives one portion of the class reading selection. The group is responsible for reading that portion and then teaching it to the class.

‒ The group reads its selection, either by having each member read individually, by doing paired reading, or by selecting a group reader.

‒ Following the reading, the group engages in a discussion of the reading. As part of the group discussion, the group identifies the main points (3–5 key ideas) of the reading.

‒ The group then uses a graphic organizer to chart their selection, including the following:

• the key ideas;
• a graphic representation of the ideas;
• an indication of how the information confirms, illustrates, or contradicts some personal experience of the group;
• a suggestion for how the group will be able to apply these leanings.

SUMMARY BALL TECHNIQUE

Objectives:

‒ To create a group summary

‒ To encourage sharing of information

‒ To encourage reflection

‒ To review a specific text or narrative

Procedures:

‒ After reading a narrative, the teacher or group leader writes the questions WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW on an inflated beach ball, using a permanent marker.

‒ The students then toss around the ball in a small group.

‒ Each student who catches the ball looks to see which word is closest to his/her right thumb and answers that question with regard to the text just read.

‒ If more than one student gets the same question, the first student answers the question, and subsequent students elaborate on what the first student said about that topic.

‒ The teacher or the recorder records the students’ responses on chart paper in list format, to provide a group story summary.

‒ Now, students re-read the text and reflect on the summary created. The teacher can prompt the group by asking, “How did creating a group summary support your understanding of the story we read?”

So, summing up I can say that each technique which was observed above has its objectives, procedures and stages which help us to make boring reading process more motivated and interesting for students besides due to these techniques reading procedure will be more effective and challenging.

References:

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