Topic – Teaching Reading Pitfalls
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To help you avoid common mistakes newly qualified teachers often make when planning and teaching reading skills, you first need to understand what these mistakes are.
Look at the ten tips below and decide what common teaching mistake each tip is highlighting.
For example, Tip 1 ‘Choose a text your students will be interested in’ is indicating that trainee teachers often do not take their students’ needs and interests into consideration when choosing a reading text for teaching purposes.
- Choose a text your students will be interested in.
- Design tasks that reflect the way we would read the text in real life.
- Check that coursebook readings have all the stages.
- Grade the task rather than the text.
- Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits!
- Encourage students to deduce meaning from context.
- Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do.
- Do not race along at the speed of your best students during feedback.
- Pre-teach lexis will help students’ comprehension, but do not go overboard.
- Never ask your students to read out loud in class!
Post your ideas about three tips you find most useful. Clarify what mistake is highlighted in each tip you choose.
These are my ideas about these useful tips:
Tip 1 “Choose a text your students will be interested in” highlights if the text doesn’t match the students’ interests, it decreases the chance of a successful and satisfying reading experience.
Tip 5 “Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits!” means that poor instructions or too difficult tasks cause the activity to become chaotic and fails because the students don’t understand what they are supposed to do. If the time limits are not set, the focus might decrease with the consequence of not completing the task.
Tip 6 “Encourage students to deduce meaning from context” it suggests the trainee teachers must encourage students to use context to deduce meaning, rather than translating or relying on dictionaries.
Tip 7 “Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do”, the trainee teachers may check each task individually, probably with the intention to assess each student’s performance, and not considering the embarrassment and frustration for some of them. Instead, pair checks after each task allow students to correct, change, complete their own answers before a whole-class check. This puts students in a position to reflect upon their own and each other’s answers with a greater degree of learner autonomy.
Tip 9 “Pre-teach lexis will help students” comprehension, but do not go overboard” it is indicating that trainee teachers may ignore the fact the is essential to provide the key vocabulary to help to generate interest, build confidence and facilitate comprehension. If too much lexis is given, the activity might
become too easy and not challenging.Thank you for this Elizabetta!
Tip 9- this is true- pre-teaching too many words before the text will not encourage students to deduce meaning from the context; therefore, we are not helping them to develop reading skills. Not going overboard with the number of lexical items for pre-teaching, will also help you manage time better. The pre-teach stage is an auxiliary stage in a reading lesson and not the main aim, so shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes.Yess I agree because it is not a lexis course, it is a reading course.
I consider the following tips to be the most useful:
Tip 2. Design tasks that reflect the way we would read the text in real life. Students need English for real-life communication. Reading texts which are not connected with reality can’t help them to communicate and solve problems in the future. Moreover, students may even become bored which may lead to the lack of motivation.
Tip 5. Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits! Students are not able to be successful if they do not know what they are supposed to do. Clear instructions and manageable tasks help the students to progress. Setting time limits contributes to developing self-control as well as rsponsibility for their own learning.
Tip 6. Encourage students to deduce meaning from context. Sometimes students try to learn the meaning of every word in the text instead of deducing meaning from the context. It is up to the teacher to explain that it is not necessary to understand everything in order to solve the task and get the idea of the text.Personally, the tips I found most useful are:
2) “Design tasks that reflect the way we would read the text in real life.” It is important to make students realise that the skills they need to learn a foreign language are not different from the skills they need to do different things in their mother tongue. In the EFL class, they often become too anxious about the knowledge they lack that they overlook the knowledge and skills they already have and how they can benefit from them.
5) “Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits!” As clear as instructions may be, setting a time limit is also helpful for students because it forces them to stay focused on the task they are working on at the moment. Besides, it can also help them to become more aware and fluent in different types of readings, so that they advance through texts more quickly.
7) “Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do.” This might look unnecessary, but being able to check their answers with someone else before the whole class’s feedback grants them the opportunity to skim the text again, looking for specific information and considering different interpretations of a paragraph. This process makes them more confident, since have had time to discuss their answers with another person and reassures them of their choices.
A tip with which I don’t entirely agree is:
10) “Never ask your students to read out loud in class!” From my experience I have seen that on some occasions students want (prefer, even) to read aloud in order to check the pronunciation and intonation. It is my view that, as long as students feel comfortable in the group, the fact of asking them of read aloud isn’t necessarily a negative way to proceed.
I agree with Noemi especially on her last tip — reading out loud is that important, too! I do believe setting the right welcoming environment is essential, too!
I agree with Tip 7 that being able to check their answers with someone else before the whole class’s feedback grants the students the opportunity to skim the text again, looking for specific information and considering different interpretations of a paragraph. Which will make students feel more confident about their choice in answers.
I find the following tips useful
5.Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits!
Clearinstructions will serve as a guide for the students. When you set time limits, you will be able to manage your time effectively and not spend too much time on a particular task.
7. Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do: This helps them to learn from each other and also build their confidence.
9.Pre-teach lexis will help students comprehension, but do not go overboard: provuding key vocabulary is good. But when it’s too much, the students will find the task very easy. As teachers, we are to guide and elicit information, not to give answers.I like your third point, teachers are to elicit and not feed students with answers.
All the tips are useful, however, the below three tips are my choices.
1. Choose a text your students will be interested in: This means students needs are taken into consideration. and it results in a satisfying and successful reading experience.
2. Encourage students to deduce meaning from texts: This reduces boredom and delay in reading a simple texts as it encourages students to avoid the use of dictionaries to check up meanings of texts rather than figuring them out from the context.
3. Use pair checks after each task you ask students to do: This helps students to learn from each other and correct mistakes. Students confidence level is boosted before facing the whole class to answer questions.
The first point is also so important because students will be more focus on what they are doing and will also enjoy it.
Th e following three tips are my choice:
Tip 5: Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits: This will avoid that one task takes too much time over other tasks which are also important to develop the students’reading skills. And also if the task given is not clear and easy for the students, they finally will not enjoy it. The tasks should match the students’level for them to understand what they should do.Tip 6: Encourage students to deduce meaning from context: It can be frustrating for students to focus on the meaning of all the words they do not know, because at the end they will not have a better understanding of the text as a whole and will not be able to perform the task well.
Tip 7: Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do: It really helps students to be more confident and also create a good energy in the class. It also helps students to communicate more among themselves.
My top tips are
5. Always remember to give students a clear manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits! I think this tip is really important as it allows your lesson not to run over and allows the students to read for gist and understanding
10. Never ask students to read out loud in class! I think this is an important tip as being asked to read out loud in a classroom setting can be quite nerve wracking and we discourage the student.
7. Use pair checks after each task you ask students to do. This is important as it encourages students to speak with each other and brainstorm ideas and it may also be easier to go through your answers with the student rather than a teacher.I liked all the tips, the ones I’ve found to be more useful are:
‘Choose a text your students will be interested in.’ – Choosing a text that gets the interest of the students it’s quite important. Knowing what could get the students attention is already a winning way of starting a reading lesson.
‘Pre-teach lexis will help students’ comprehension, but do not go overboard.’ – Knowing in advance the meaning of the words gives the student the needed confidence to approach the reading task. If we give too much information, or too many explanations , there’s the risk the student will get bored and confused, losing interest on the task.
‘Encourage students to deduce meaning from context.’ – Instead of offering the answers straightaway, we engage the student in order for them to arrive to a conclusion by themselves. This way the learning process becomes active too, maintaining the level of interest high.Students from translated learning , the one national class is not considered…in pair or group work..
How to have english articulated not translation etc…How about lexis pre or after…some effort to understand or effortless attempt..
Goal in life and goal in the class …skills for what ??…bring the life to class then class to life…
1. Choose a text your students will be interested in. – I believe it is important to keep the text as interesting, engaging and personalised as possible for our students. Learning a second language isn’t easy, but it can be fun.
8. Do not race along at the speed of your best students during feedback. – Nobody should be left behind. We should ensure that every student is on the same page during feedback, before moving on.
10. Never ask your students to read out loud in class! – I don’t think anyone should be put on the spot, however if there is a student who would like to give it a go, we should encourage them and build their confidence. It might inspire other students to try.
1.Choose a text your students will be interested in. Motivation is the clue
5. Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits! The task must be clear, then they can feel more self-confident and will work faster and more efficient.
10. Never ask your students to read out loud in class! The main mistake most of the teachers make, including me.These are the tips I find the most “interesting” ones: 2-6-9.
I believe that while teaching we should always keep in mind what actually takes place outside our classroom. As for n.6, inferring is really important, especially as time goes by and the level of difficulty increases. Last but not least, a bit of pre-teaching (without exaggerating) is a sort of guide, especially for weaker pupils.Never ask your students to read out loud in class!
this is the mistake that I used to make. my reason for having learners read the text out loud was to put pronunciation as a sub-aim.I’d have chosen the following three tips:
Tip 5. Always remember to give students a clear, manageable task before they read! Do not forget to set time limits!
Clear explanations of the task will assure that student know what to do and there won’t be any chaos during the work on the task. If not to set the time limits then the students may loose the focus of the task.
Tip 7. Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do. This task enables students to practice with each other and check their answers before presenting in front of the whole class. This is also a good way train their language skills by listenning to each other and correcting any lexis mistakes.
Tip 10. Never ask your students to read out loud in class! This may cause student’s embarrassment when one is not so strong in pronunciation.Tip 7: Use pair checks after EACH task you ask students to do. If the teacher marks all tasks themselves, or goes straight to full-class feedback, the students lose the opportunity to discuss and compare their answers.
Tip 1: Choose a text that your students will be interested in. If the students enjoy the process of reading they will engage more fully with the text and the class.
Tip 9: Pre-teach lexis will help students’ comprehension, but do not go overboard. Trainee teachers may either forget to pre-teach difficult/key words, making it difficult for students to engage with the text, or over-explain vocabulary which would waste lesson time and distract from the main purpose of the class.
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