TESL-0130 - Unit Three Reflection
Reflecting on the readings for this unit
This
week we were required to read sections from the Brown and Lee (2015) text that
was previously assigned in this course. I have already reflected on this reading,
but I have a few points from these sections that I would like to examine in
this blog entry. As stated in the previous blog entry, simplifying texts can be
difficult because teachers might get rid of features like humour and natural
redundancy. This can make texts less interesting and prevent students from
using natural redundancy as context to increase their understanding of a text.
Instead, the textbook states that teachers can allow students to choose their
own reading material to increase their level of investment in the class.
Teachers can strategically build onto the texts they include in lesson plans so
that students can be aware of their own progress and success throughout the
length of their programs (Brown and Lee, 2015)
This portion of the
chapter has helped me understand the importance of including a variety of
reading texts in classroom teaching. I think that this can be very challenging
for teachers. One thing that puzzles me is the idea of selecting authentic
texts for students who are learning English as a Foreign Language. Is this
still important even though the students are unlikely to encounter the same
variety of texts as students who are immersed in an English-speaking society?
How do the goals of EFL students learning in a society that does not speak
English differ from ESL students learning in a society where they are
surrounded by native English speakers? Does this change the way English
language teachers should teach students how to read?
I think that the
inclusion of a variety of reading texts is especially true for those who are
teaching at the literacy level who need to find and/or modify texts that can be
understood by lower level learners. During my experience volunteering in a
foundations and literacy level classroom, the teacher has used handouts that
look like price tags and posters for a flu shot clinic. Learning about the
reasons behind including different types of texts has made me more aware of the
effort that the teacher has taken, and the levels of creativity and risk
involved in activity planning for students. As a student in the TESL program,
selecting appropriate reading texts feels overwhelming and I hope that it is
something that will be less confusing as I become more experienced as a
language teacher.
Reflecting on the videos for this unit
The first video this
week was called “Reassessing the principles of teaching reading” and was
presented by Dr. Philida Schellekens for the British Council. It was about the
differences between the language that L1 and L2 English speakers use and
approaches to teaching vocabulary to English language learners. The video is
quite long, so I will focus my reflection on a few points that interested me
the most. Schellekens (2011) explains that native English speakers have
language competence that they learned from acquiring language throughout their
childhood development. Language competence is having knowledge about how a
language works and the ability to use it effectively. The presenter says that
native speakers can build upon their language competence and work on their
language skill development. In contrast, English language learners are trying
to build language competence and cannot work on language skill development
until they achieve competence. This means that teaching reading sub-skills like
skimming and scanning are largely unhelpful for students who are still learning
language basics. Students need to understand the tasks that they are doing, as
well as why they are doing them or why they should be doing them. This can be
difficult to explain to lower level learners (Schellekens, 2011).
I ran into a similar
problem when I was volunteering in the ESL classroom. The students were doing
an activity where they added numbers in the tens and hundreds. One of the
students insisted on working left to right and adding the hundreds column
before completing the tens and ones even after the teacher and I showed students
that they should be working from right to left. I found this frustrating
because even though it works on some questions, she will end up running into
problems as she completes more complicated problems and needs to carry over
numbers into higher place values. However, it is difficult to explain to a
student who may have never been exposed to more difficult questions and would
likely end up confusing her even if she understood what I was saying.
Schellekens (2011) said
that the research shows that readers will find it difficult to infer the
meaning of new words even if they know 95% of the words in a text. Readers with
lower vocabularies have even lower rates of comprehending the meaning of words
in texts. This is because students process from word to word. They stop reading
whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word to try to guess its meaning and
resort to re-reading sentences when they forget what they have read. They are
so busy trying to decode individual words that they cannot hold enough
information in their working memories to make sense of what they are reading.
Students also have difficulty determining meaning, even if they are successful
at decoding words. Students who are not literate in their L1 language face
further difficulties learning English because they cannot transfer skills from
their first language into their second. The presenter said that there is strong
evidence that the command of the new language is the key to reading in it and
that one study found that students only developed stronger reading skills when
they reached the higher intermediate level (Schellekens, 2011). This video has
helped me understand how difficult it can be to learn a new language,
particularly when students are not literate in their first language.
The second video this week was called “Which words are worth the
worry?” The video featured several language experts and will be abbreviated as
Schmitt et al (2011) in this blog post. It was about the process of learning
vocabulary and how teachers and students should approach this aspect of
language learning. One of the points that was raised in the discussion was how
much vocabulary is required for comprehension and completing language tasks. It
was argued that some people might be able to understand basic instructions and
what is expected of them with minimal vocabulary knowledge if they were
familiar with what they were being asked to do. The example given was soccer
players who have years of practice and experience behind them and who
understand basic English language instruction. However, the speaker stated that
very rudimentary vocabulary knowledge would not be sufficient if a teacher needed
to teach new concepts and ideas or to give detailed instructions (Schmitt et
al., 2011).
This topic can be applied to my experience volunteering in the ESL
classroom. It is difficult to explain to the students how to do class activities
when they have very little English language knowledge. Many students have not
been in school for a long time and be unsure of what they are being asked to
do. Together with the teacher and other volunteers, I have tried to model what
is supposed to happen during different class activities. This has been
challenging, especially at the beginning of the school year before students
have become familiar with verbal instructions. However, the teacher still has a
limited ability to teach new concepts and ideas or instruct students how to do
tasks that are more complicated because of the level of the class he is
teaching. Instead, he has compensated by introducing simple verbs associated
with learning (e.g. listen, speak, read, write, etc.). These verbs can be
easily integrated into activities and lesson plans.
Like the first video, Schmitt et al (2011) discussed the level of
vocabulary knowledge that is required to understand various types of discourse.
One of the speakers said that many language experts agree that learners need to
have 95% to 98% comprehension in order for it to be possible and to ensure that
most of the information in everyday written discourse and conversations is
understood. As such, the speaker said that it is important for teachers to
consider how they are teaching language and more specifically, teaching for the
purpose of improving their students’ levels of comprehension. Without
appropriate reflection and consideration, teachers may spend too much time
trying to set up engaging activities for their students without focusing on how
teaching vocabulary fits into their lesson plans. The speaker advocated for
spending less time teaching and more time preparing and designing activities
that increase vocabulary and reflect the needs of their students (Schmitt et
al., 2011).
This attitude towards creating lesson plans with learning tasks
that are applicable to real-life situations fits well with teaching approaches
like the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLBs). Especially at the lower levels,
the CLBs instruct teachers to provide students with vocabulary that can be used
in a variety of situations that newcomers can expect to encounter in their
daily lives. Teachers who are required to use this approach typically spend a
lot of time considering what types of vocabulary words would be helpful and
useful for students and how to incorporate it into their activities and lesson
plans.
Schmitt et al (2011) explains that teaching plays a
limited role in the language acquisition process. It is not feasible for teachers
to teach learners every word that they need to know in the classroom. As a
result, a balanced approach is needed to make sure that teachers make good use
of their time and resources. They can do this by ensuring there are
opportunities for students to learn through developing the four language skills
and by providing deliberate studying opportunities. Teachers need to be aware
of their students’ levels of vocabulary comprehension before they can provide
the necessary instruction. The speaker suggested several strategies to improve
vocabulary, including finding reading material and recordings that are
appropriate for the language level of their students, providing students with
opportunities to improve their writing, and facilitating deliberate vocabulary
studying (Schmitt et al., 2011).
Schmitt et al (2011) says that another consideration
that should be factored in is that learners may not know how to study efficiently
and effectively on their own. As such, teachers need to take the time to
prepare and equip students for individual study. Afterwards, teachers can help
students learn that there are some words that they should prioritize and that
they can learn the less important words later. Teachers can direct students to
the words that they should be studying. However, it is important for teachers
to keep in mind that students do not retain vocabulary that they have learned
if they do not encounter it repeatedly. Consequently, teachers should reuse
vocabulary in different lessons and refer to it in future classes. One
suggestion that is given is for teachers to list vocabulary from a lesson on
the whiteboard and then ask students what types of words they are and how they
connect with other lessons and vocabulary (Schmitt et al., 2011).
This consideration relates to my own language learning
experience. I took an introductory Spanish course this summer in order to
fulfil my language requirement for my bachelor’s degree. Prior to doing so, I
had very little experience trying to learn a new language. I, along with some
of my classmates, were interested in using language learning applications like
Duolingo and Babbel to help with our studying. However, our instructor advised
against it because she thought it was not an efficient way to study. She
explained that the apps focus on aspects of the language that we were not
required to study as part of the class outline and that it was important to
prioritize what we covered in class and in the textbook. I was very confused
about what methods to use while studying and how to make the most use of my
time. I spent a lot of time completing homework sheets and copying out my notes
and lessons from the class textbook. This was very time consuming and did not
properly prepare me for my exams and written tests.
The frustration that I experienced trying to learn
Spanish has helped me empathize with other students who have experienced
similar difficulties. One interesting thing that I noticed was that the
international students who were in my class seemed to have more effective ways
of studying. They had learned English as a Foreign language in their home
countries. I think that their success in learning English provided a good
foundation for learning Spanish. They were familiar with the language
acquisition process and could utilize previously learned strategies.
Reflecting on the activities for this unit
The
activities for this unit included group work and creating a post-reading
activity, which I have already reflected on in my forum posts. It has been
several weeks since I did those activities and so I will focus this refection
on the activities involving using reading strategies and arranging information
into a graphic organizer, as this will probably make this unit’s blog entry a more
thoughtful exercise.
When
reading the blog article about reading comprehension earlier in this course, I
utilized the following strategies that were provided in this unit’s outline:
- I looked at the title of the article.
- I examined the accompanying image.
- I looked at the author of the article and the date.
- I quickly glanced over the article to get a feel for what it might contain.
- I looked through the article for words I did not understand.
- I stopped each time I encountered a word I didn't know, and tried to guess what that word meant, based on what I had just read and understood; the placement of the word in the sentence; and/or part of speech.
- I went back to re-read the text because guessing at unknown words was not successful anymore.
- I tried to connect what you were reading to a context that is familiar to you.
I
think that the list of reading strategies is helpful in creating awareness
about what native speakers do when they read something that is new or
unfamiliar. The process of reading can seem automatic or instinctual and so it
can be difficult to develop awareness about the micro-tasks that are involved
in the reading process and the strategies that we have learned to use. In my
experience working with newcomers who are learning English, they look for a lot
of visual clues to help them read. Pictures and illustrations have been key in
helping them retain vocabulary that they have learned. I have also noticed that
some learners will scan a text for familiar words so that they can try to
understand the task at hand. Working with teenagers has been different because
they tend to focus more on words that they do not know. I have tried to get
some students to scan the text for important information with differing amounts
of success. Most students find reading difficult and they do not want to do
what they perceive to be “extra” work to assist them in learning and improving
their reading skills and comprehension over time.
- I did not utilize the following strategies:
- I did not obsessively count the number of words in the text and the number of unknown words in the text to make sure that 80% was an accurate number.
- I did not try reading the unknown words out loud to see if they sound like other words that I know.
- I did not think about Japan and what I know about the country, such as emergency phone numbers.
I
did not use these strategies when trying to read the blog article. I trusted
that the author and the writer who she referred to in the article had
calculated the numbers correctly. I also prefer to read silently and did not consider
reading aloud to try to figure out the meaning of words that I know. I am
curious about whether this actually works. I also did not think about my
background knowledge about Japan and its customs because I do not know much
about it. However, it is common for me to use this approach for new information
that I encounter about people, places, and events that I am familiar with. In
summary, I do not think that the other two strategies are particularly useful
for me when I am reading.
As
mentioned earlier, this unit required us to create graphic organizers to
arrange information from a section of Chapter 17 in our class textbook. My graphic
organize can be accessed here. I found this activity to be useful since it
helped me narrow down the section into key terms and answering basic questions
about teaching reading skills.
Reflecting on the effects of pre-reading on comprehension
One
of the ideas that I found interesting in this unit is teaching pre-reading exercises.
The idea was discussed in one of the Brown and Lee (2015) readings where the
authors explain how to create lesson plans that centre around developing reading
and comprehension skills. Pre-reading activities help prepare learners for
completing the reading activities, which form the crux of the lesson. This type
of learning exercise interests me because it can be difficult to introduce new
and unfamiliar topics to learners at any level. Due to the way that information
is taught in the ESL classroom that I volunteer in, I am most familiar with
teaching new vocabulary using illustrations and asking questions prior to using
the new words in other activities. I decided to research this topic so that I
can reflect on it further in this unit.
Alemi and Ebadi (2010)
is written within the context of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP),
but it provides a brief review of the literature that is available on the
subject of pre-reading activities and their effects on reading comprehension. The
authors conducted a study to determine whether students who were engaged in
pre-reading activities had better reading comprehension than those who did not.
The students who participated in the pre-reading activities were part of the
experimental group while those who did not were part of the control group. The results
found that pre-reading activities did improve reading comprehension. The
authors state that pre-reading activities help connect new concepts to former
knowledge and provide language learners with the foundation required to learn
new language. However, background information should be given to students who
lack sufficient prior knowledge to help them understand and interpret the text
(Alemi and Ebadi, 2010).
Language researchers and
other experts have different views of what makes an effective pre-reading
activity and how they should be used in the classroom. Tudor (1989) describes
pre-reading activities as “enabling activities” since they enable the reader to
interact with texts by providing them with the necessary background to complete
an activity and comprehend the material. They also elicit prior knowledge and
focus attention (as quoted in Alemi and Ebadi, 2010, p. 570). Celce-Murcia
(1991) states that other goals of the pre-reading stage are to provide any
language preparation that might be needed for working with the passage and to
motivate the learners to want to read the text. The author suggests the use of
word association, discussion, and text surveys as pre-reading activities (as
quoted in Alemi and Ebadi, 2010, p. 570). Tudor (1989) also lists several categories
of pre-reading activities, including pre-questions that are to be answered
after reading the text; pre-questions that activate the reader’s knowledge of
the topic; content organizers; predictions based on the title, subheadings,
illustrations, or skimming of the text; and a combination of the above.
Regarding the use of
these reading strategies, Taglieber (1988) found that using illustrations to
make predictions and formulating questions were more effective at improving
reading comprehension than vocabulary pre-teaching. The author indicated that a
lack of vocabulary, problems using language cues to determine meaning, and a
lack of conceptual knowledge interfere with readers’ comprehension. However,
activities that include pictorial context, pre-questioning, and vocabulary
pre-teaching can help to address these problems (as quoted in Alemi and Ebadi,
2010, p. 571). The effectiveness of providing illustrations to teach vocabulary
and other aspects of language depends on what type of information it is being
used to convey. McDaniel and Waddill (1994) conducted research on the extent to
which pictures can improve the recall of information presented through text.
The study focused on detailed and relational information. They found that the
use of pictures helped students with extracting and decoding information from a
text when they provided readers with the necessary comprehension abilities at
the start of the reading task (as quoted in Alemi and Ebadi, 2010, p. 571). Pre-questioning
occurs when instructors ask questions about a text for students to answer in
order to help students establish and understand the purpose of the reading
activity. Nuttall (1982) suggests that signpost questions can be utilized for
pre-questioning and would be useful in a pre-reading activity. Signpost
questions are questions that direct readers to important parts of a text that
they should focus on while they are reading in order to improve reading
comprehension. They may relate to the text as a whole or to different sections of
the text (as quoted in Alemi and Ebadi, 2010, p. 571).
References
Alemi, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010). The Effects of Pre-reading Activities on ESP Reading Comprehension. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(5), 569-577. doi:10.4304/jltr.1.5.569-577
Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching grammar and vocabulary. In Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed., pp. 462-486). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching reading. In Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed., pp. 389-425). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Martin, P. (n.d.). Math book [Digital image].
Retrieved November 24, 2018, from
http://math.phillipmartin.info/math_book.htm
McDaniel, M. A., & Waddill, P. I. (1994).
The benefit of pictures in text. In W. Schontz & R. W.
Kulhavy
(Eds.), Comprehension of graphics (pp. 82-99). North Holland: Elsevier Science B. V.
Nuttall, C. E. (1982). Teaching reading skills
in a foreign language. Oxford: Macmilan Publishers.
Tagliebar, K. L. (1988). The effect of pre-reading activities on EFL reading comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 22, 455-472.
Tudor, I. (1989). Pre-reading: A categorization of formats. System, 17(3), 323-338. doi:10.1016/0346-251x(89)90005-5
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