Learning English through short stories

2.6. Effective Reading Strategies in EFL Classroom

Researchers in first language acquisition have contributed much to the understanding of how the reading process develops. First language research has found that readers' purposes and approaches to texts differ not only by text, but by the individual reader. Second language researchers have drawn upon this information and have found similarities between the reading strategies of first and second language readers.
At the intermediate stage, Brown (2001) argues some 'automatic' processing has taken hold and as phrases, sentences, structures and rules are practiced they increase in number, forcing the mental process to automatize. At this stage of learning, techniques can increase in complexity in terms of length, grammar and discourses now characterizes reading material as students read paragraphs and short simple stories and are gradually learning to apply skimming and scanning skills. The EFL teacher can encourage students to be efficient readers by introducing effective strategies when reading in a second language. The learner no doubt, brings with him strategies which are purposeful of procedures to facilitate deeper and better understanding (Alexander & Jettson, 2000). For example, pointing out the differences between a fairy tale and a newspaper articles helps the reader to recognize the different text types and to prepare for the uncomplicated ending that
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typically characterizes a fairy tale. On other hand, the same reader would need to prepare very differently to read a newspaper article about the technicalities involved in a disarmament treaty. In this case, if the reader is aware of the genre he will also see that the vocabulary would be very specialized and the sentence structure more complicated.
When teachers of second language reading recognize that each reader brings to the reading process a unique set of past experiences, emotional and mental processes, level of cognitive development and interest level in the topic, they also recognize that not all teaching strategies will be effective for all students. Dubin & Bycina (1991), argue that academic reading is a cover term for a variety of strategies that bring together advanced study skills, vocabulary building and even writing activities such as note-taking, summarizing and underlining. Teaching a L2 classroom is totally different from native born students (cited in Celce-Murcia, 1991).
The efficient teacher can divide his reading into three parts so as to enable the EFL reader to understand what he is reading. For example, the eclectic teacher will introduce "prereading" activities to a particular text, elicit or provide appropriate background knowledge, and activate necessary schemata. Previewing a text with the students should arouse their interest and help them approach the text in a more meaningful and purposeful manner as the discussions will compel them to think about the situation or points raised in the text. The prereading phase helps students define selection criteria for the central theme of story or the major argument of an essay. Prereading activities include: discussing author or text type, brainstorming, reviewing familiar stories, considering illustrations and titles, skimming and scanning (for structure main points and future directions).

"While reading" exercises help students develop reading strategies, improve their control of the second language, and decode problematic text passages. Some timely explanations will help the student comprehend the writer's intention and also to make inferences while the text is being read. No doubt, this strategy could be difficult to handle since different students need different strategies. But the teacher can help the student by guiding the student to make use of those strategies and offer concrete exercises in the form of activity sheets. The teacher can help the student to identify the different techniques of writing employed by the author and also pinpoint the effects of guessing the meaning of words from the context. The teacher can consider syntax and sentence structure by noting grammatical functions of unknown words, make a reference to the type of writing by pointing out the transitional expressions used by the writer to emphasize changes of thought expressions, analyzing reference words, predicting text content and gradually introduce to the students the idea of using the dictionary effectively.
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"Post reading" exercises first check students' comprehension and then lead students to a deeper analysis of the text, when warranted. Because the goals of most real world reading are not to memorize the author's point of view or to summarize text content, but rather to see into another mind, or to mesh new information into what one already knows, second language reading must go beyond detail-eliciting comprehension drills to help students recognize that different strategies are appropriate with different text types. For example, scanning is appropriate strategy to use with newspaper advertisements whereas predicting and following text cohesion are effective strategies to use with short stories. By discussing in groups what they have understood, students focus on information they did not comprehend correctly.


Rivers (1981) believes that ability to read in another language with direct comprehension and with fluency should be cultivated in progressive stages, and practiced at first with carefully selected material which students can read with ease and enjoyment. She further argues that rushing students too soon into reading material beyond their present capacity for fluent comprehension with occasional contextual guessing will destroy the students' confidence and the student will gradually loose all interest to read further. If they are forced to read complicated material in the language too early in the course, they find themselves adrift in a flood of words and expressions they may never before have encountered. The choice of textbooks within a suitable genre is more applicable because they will reinforce the notion that texts should be attacked in meaningful chunks, rather than word by word. However, too often foreign and second language reading instruction has simply been used as a vehicle through which to teach structure and lexis of the language rather than the skill of reading (Celce-Murcia, 1991).
Since communication in the second language is an important factor the student must be continually provided with opportunities to read material in an active interchange of communication while their books remain closed.