Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

Possible answers:
1-a, 2-a, 3-b

• 
  Tell participants that each of the given options describes one of the reading sub-skills. Ask participants the following question:
  

~ What kind of reading sub-skills do you know?
Suggested answers:
Scanning, skimming and reading intensively.

• 
  (2 min) Ask participants to write down the appropriate skill for each of the answers (1-a, 2-a, 3-b) Check the answers.
  

Answer key:
1a – skimming; 2a – reading intensively; 3b – scanning

• 
  (3 min) Elicit definitions for each skill and provide more examples from real life.
  

Possible answers:
Skimming involves looking through a text to understand the gist (the general idea). We usually skim newspaper articles, announcements, etc. People usually read legal contracts intensively, i.e. paying attention to the exact words which are used.
Scanning is looking through the text quickly in order to find some specific information, e.g. dates, names, etc. We usually scan the TV guide to find out when our favourite film starts. We can scan air tickets to find out the time of the departure or our seat number.

• 
  (5 min) Ask participants what kind of reading sub-skills other common text-based classroom activities (translation, memorization, reading aloud) try to develop.
  
• 
  Establish that translation, memorization and reading aloud are not normally targeted at developing reading skills.* Teachers should try to develop such reading skills as scanning, skimming and reading intensively through different tasks like reading articles quickly to get the main idea or looking for specific information in the TV guide.
  

*NB Make sure participants understand that translation and memorization must not be totally ignored because translation is a real-life skill which learners are likely to need at some point. Certain texts are meant to be read aloud while others are not - so tasks including them may be seen as authentic, depending on a reader’s or a writer’s purpose.
Activity 3. Case study(20 min)

• 
  Ask students which of the following seem to be useful reading activities and which not? Why?
  
• 
  Ask them briefly work out an alternative procedure for the less satisfactory ones.
  

Summary
Make the following points:
• Authentic texts have an important place in the teaching of English as supplements to the language often found in course books
• They confront learners with real language used for real purposes
• Tasks should as far as possible be authentic too – they should replicate real processes used by readers/ listeners when they deal with texts

Literature

1. 
   Liz Driscoll, Reading Extra, Cambridge University Press 2004. P-67.
   

Web sites

2. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Book_Encyclopedia
   
3. 
   R. Tanner & C. Green. Tasks for Teacher Education.
   
4. 
   Jeremy Harmer. How to teach English.
   

MODULE1. TEACHING AND INTEGRATING SKILLS
LESSON 16
Theme: Writing as an interactive process