Theme: Working with texts

Strategy 5: Creating Mental Images of What Is Read

Readers who create visual images while reading enhance their comprehension. While reading challenging texts, such as the Harry Potter novels, learners at the beginning level do not generally engage in image creation, whereas intermediate- and advanced-level learners form mental images spontaneously and purposefully.
Task: Evoking images while reading. The teacher could model this process by demonstrating image making in a short text. Then students could read poems or short stories, such as What Does Peace Feel Like? (Radunsky, 2004), and draw
images of what they read. Students could also create mental images; for example, they might imagine that peace looks like a baby sleeping in a crib. Further, read- ing picture books can help beginning-level students form mental images while reading. Using nonfiction texts could help with mental images based on size, space, time, and other relevant factors. Possible questions to consider include “While reading the story, what pictures or images come to mind?”, “What images or pictures did you see?”, and “Do the pictures help you understand the story?
Why or why not?” The answers that students offer might begin with “I see ,”
“I hear . . . ,” “I feel . . . ,” “I smell . . . ,” and “I taste ”
Strategy 6: Transferring L1 Rhetorical Skills to L2 Text Interpretation Rhetorical skills are more pronounced with intermediate- and advanced-level learners who extended their understanding of L2 texts by applying literacy skills
that they mastered in L1 reading. For example, students in my classes applied
their awareness of the author’s intention and purpose, and of genre and setting characteristics. Even beginning-level learners with strong L1 literacy skills trans- ferred those to enhance their L2 reading comprehension by making short, often single-word character descriptions (e.g., nice, good, happy).
Task: Transferring L1 rhetorical skills in interpreting L2 films. The teacher encourages students to use L1 literacy skills to interpret films on familiar topics. To prepare for this, they may be asked to read relevant content in their L1 first. As they watch the film, they consider questions such as “Does this story remind you of what you read in your native language?” Their guided responses may begin with “This reminds me of . . .” or “I can think of ”
Working With Texts to Develop ESOL Reading Strategies