Teaching Reading Skills to English as a Second-language Learners

https://www.wordsworthelt.com/blog/teaching-reading-skills-to-english-as-a-second-language-learners/
• english as a second language, english reading skills, esl learners, teaching reading skills
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Teaching of reading skills is an important aspect of language learning. The learning of this skill is especially essential for acquiring a second language. This is also so because most of the teaching-learning material is in the written form, either in the form of books or computer based material. Reading and literacy are thus interdependent.

Reading is beyond the mere recognition of words at a glance or of decoding the meaning of letters or words strewn together. It is a conscious and unconscious thinking process whereby the reader applies various strategies to infer the intended meaning of the writer. His prior knowledge and information bank on the given topic, in other words the schemata of the reader is used by him/her to reconstruct the meaning of the text. The support of an English language lab can be garnered for teaching this skill. Words Worth English language lab is one such lab, that have reading exercises for the learners to enhance this skill.

Researchers in text comprehension state that the textual data in the form of shapes and sounds of the letters, the meanings of words or letters and grammatical information is processed by the reader which is then processed in light of his existing schemata.

For the second language reader, the mental schemata are based upon his first language and cultural background. Thus, the interpretation of a text by a first language reader is different than that of the second language. His/her thinking skills and attitude towards language and culture play an important role in determining the meaning of a text.

The English teacher, in order to develop reading skills in second language learners has to ensure that thinking skills about the text and literate behaviour as practiced by native speakers are taught to the learners. In fact, once a learner has acquired effective reading skills in a second language, it results in a change in the learner’s cognitive perception and even alters cultural beliefs and value orientations. This can be easily achieved by practising this skill in the English language lab.

English as a second-language learners hence, need to learn to think in English to be able to effectively read this language. Some reading skills like previewing and predicting the outcome of a text, questioning the intentions of the author or identifying relationships between ideas need to be taught to the learners. While teaching them these reading skills, the teacher should ideally focus on one skill at a time. The learners can be asked to work upon one skill with a partner and discuss their thinking with each other.

The learners should also be made aware of the comprehension processes and strategies being applied by them while reading. This will help them learn better. The teacher may help the learners read better by making them read extensively. Multiple exposures to a same set of words will further enhance their learning. Interactive lessons on specific reading text will provide ample opportunities to the learners to present their thinking upon the text being discussed.

All in all, teaching English reading skills to second-language learners will have to be a conscious activity both for the learner and the teacher for it to have the desired result.