Learning English through short stories

2.5. Textual Information and the EFL Reader/Learner
Reading is often the chief goal of learners in countries where English is taught as a foreign language. Attention to academic reading or reading-for-the-purpose-of-learning, therefore, has come to be one of the most important methodological topics in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages. The main function of language instruction is to enable students to
50 Ashraf Haji Maibodi

learn academic subject content, typically through reading textbooks and similar materials. In modern classrooms, the teachers' and learners' attention is centered as much on the skills for deriving meaning from texts as it is on the meaning which resides in those texts. The field of ESL/EFL recognizes that learners need to have control of basic patterns of the language in order to learn new subject content.

The most obvious and most common form of material support for language instruction comes through text books and teaching beginners is considered by many to be the most challenging level of language instruction. Textbooks evoke a variety of emotions in their users. No teacher is entirely satisfied with the text used, yet very few manage to teach without one. Especially, in EFL classes where the students have a limited exposure to the language, their proficiency growth is apparent in a matter of a few weeks, since the ultimate goal of all learning a language is to be able to comprehend and produce it in unrehearsed situations which demands both receptive and productive creativity, and the selection of an appropriate textbook becomes a crucial process.

An important criterion for text selection for a beginning graduate program is that the texts somehow translated into the student's L1 would be comprehensible. There must be a good match between features and content of the text and the needs and competencies of the learner (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). If the author provides too much information there is a risk for the learner to become disinterested. If there is not enough information given to scaffold and fill in the blanks, the learner may make incorrect inferences, become frustrated and comprehension may suffer (Adams & Bruce, 1982; Bovair & Kieras, 1991; Gordon, 1992: Norris & Phillips, 1994).

The pleasure that many learners experience when reading a whole text is an important factor to consider, since ideally, it creates the motivation to read more. Reading comprehension begins with the author (Adams & Bruce, 1982). Because texts are never completely explicit, the reader must rely on preexisting schemata to provide plausible interpretations. The author must anticipate the prior knowledge that the learner will bring to the text, and based on that knowledge he must fill in gaps, correct misinformation, and add new information so that the learner can grasp the intended meaning of the text (Just & Carpenter, 1987a).
When faced with unfamiliar topics, some students may overcompensate for absent schemata by reading in a slow, text bound manner while other students may overcompensate by wild guessing (Carrell, 1988a). For learners reading at the limits of their linguistic abilities, "If the topic is outside of their experience or base of knowledge, they are adrift on an unknown sea" (Aebersold and Field, 1997). Both strategies will inevitably result in
Iranian Journal of Language Studies (IJLS), Vol. 2(1), 2008 51

comprehension difficulties. Research by Johnson (in Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983) suggested a text on a familiar topic is better recalled than a similar text on an unfamiliar topic. Swales (1990), believes that this and other research, "supports the common sense expectancies that when the content and form are familiar the texts will be relatively accessible."
Although our understanding of the nature of the reading critically influences the instructional practices which teachers provide, there is far more to reading than its psycholinguistic aspect alone. As with all literacy uses, there is a significant cultural side as well, that is central in second and foreign classrooms. Since learners in an EFL/ESL context come to the learning situation with their own beliefs and cultural values that reflect their own native patterns and introduce textbooks that will allow the EFL learner to get acquainted with the new culture as well as helping them to live in harmony with their own native born culture. The new words, phrases and cultural aspects of the second language culture is normally presented through simple short stories that will motivate the young readers to analyze ideas and thoughts without getting biased. When learners/ readers are made aware of the significant sub-cultural differences that exist among disciplines it will make the academic reading and learning easier to cope with. The language differences written in particular formats and the specialized vocabulary used to present information could make the learning process tiring if the student is totally unaware of the text genre that he is reading. As already mentioned, in the beginning stages of academic reading, the process has to be motivating so that people learn to read by reading and that good readers are people who read a lot (Smith, 1978b).
Most foreign language reading specialists view reading as interactive. The reader interacts with the text to create meaning as the reader's mental processes work together at different levels (Bernhardt, 1986; Carrell, Devine & Eskey, 1988; Rumelhart, 1977). The level of reader comprehension of the text is determined by how well the reader variables (interest level in the text, purpose for reading the text, knowledge of the topic, foreign language abilities, awareness of the reading process, and level of willingness to take risks) interact with the text variables like text type, structure, syntax and vocabulary (Hosenfeld, 1979).

There are also many other factors involved in selecting an appropriate EFL textbook. They are interest, exploitability, readability which includes lexical knowledge, background knowledge, syntactic appropriateness, organization, discourse phenomena and length, also the topic, political appropriateness, cultural suitability, and appearance of the textbook as far as the lay out, type size and font is considered as being important.
52 Ashraf Haji Maibodi

Rivers (1981) puts forward some suggestions that could be effective for evaluating a textbook before it is selected for a reading (pp. 475-482).

a. Appropriateness for local situation: Purposes of the course in relation to content of textbook; age and abilities of students; length and intensity of course.
b. Appropriateness for the teacher and students: Method and techniques; supplementary aids; teacher's manual and students' workbook; convenience.
c. Language and ideational content
d. Linguistic coverage and organization e. Types of activities
f. Practical considerations
g. Enjoyment index (for students and teachers)


Textbooks may then be compared, category by category, and an overall rating established for each. Teachers who remain alert professionally, evaluating carefully in the light of practical experience what they have heard and read, and contributing their own insights to the fund of professional knowledge, remain vital and interesting in the classroom even after years of teaching the same subject. The eclectic teacher knows that each class is different. (Rivers, 1981).