module 24 tefl notes

Unit 6: Preparation

Before taking up a post as an EYL teacher where the teaching of reading and writing is a requirement of the post, you should explore the writing system in the country where you will be teaching. Some languages use logographic systems/pictorial systems, in which a symbol represents a word/thing. And some use syllabic scripts, which have a different sign for each syllable. Also, there are some languages that read right to left and top to bottom, or both. Where the learners' native language is based on the Roman alphabet and Latin script, as is English, the transition to the letter forms in reading and writing will not present too many challenges. Of course, the words will be different but the form of the letters will be much the same apart from some languages which have accents on some letters. There are a substantial number of languages that use the Roman alphabet and Latin script. You can check these out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_writing_system However, there are native languages that bear no resemblance at all to the Roman alphabet and Latin script, e.g. Greece, the Middle East, China and others, so you will need to spend more time with them to recognise and form letters that are different from their native alphabet. Your best approach is to focus first on helping them to notice key similarities and differences. You don't need to become an expert in their native language. An awareness is sufficient, so that you can identify any challenges that may arise because of the differences in the learners' native language compared to English.

Unit 11:Exercises/Activities

Follow-up exercises take learners beyond the particular reading text in one of two ways: By transferring reading skills and strategies to other texts By integrating reading skills with other language skills Transferable reading strategies are those that readers can assimilate and use with other texts. Exercises that emphasise the transfer of skills include beginning a new text similar to a text for which effective strategies have already been taught. They also include sub-skills learned such as skimming and predicting. There are many integrative activities you could use. Use your imagination! Here are some practical ideas: Matching - e.g. it could involve matching two individuals in the story with similar characteristics Timelines - these lines will help them to understand the way a text is structured with tense changes, linking words and flashbacks Character study - depending on the content, you could make this much more interesting by getting the learners to complete a doctor's report or a police report on the character Writing a short summary of the text Writing new endings Re-enacting the text Dramatising interviews based on the text Carefully listening for key words or phrases from the text which are in authentic video or audio tapes Creating role-play situations or simulations of cultural experiences based on the text True/false questions, factual questions and 'why' questions as a basis for discussing the text (not testing) Gap filling - the gaps might all be factual words from the passage; alternatively they might be linking words that hold the sentences together; they could also be grammatical items Distinguishing fact from opinion Drawing conclusions Relating what they have read to their experiences or to other texts Noting contradictions and inconsistencies, perhaps in what characters say and do Note that the many forms of activities already discussed for speaking, writing and listening can also be used for intensive reading, e.g. identifying mistakes, reordering sentences etc.

Unit 3: Why do we read?

For adults, reading purposes can generally be categorised into: Reading for pleasure: e.g. the next chapter of an exciting novel Reading for information: e.g. a holiday brochure, a business report or a newspaper It is wise to remember this because when children grow up they will do pretty much the same. So, this provides us with a route to follow. Reading for pleasure It's seems to be an indisputable fact that children love stories being read to them, particularly at bedtime. But there's a bit more to this. They recognise that print has meaning and these strange symbols on the pages can be turned into spoken words. And it seems likely that if the young child gets pleasure from stories in her native language, she will also get pleasure from reading stories in her L2. So, your role is to build on this strong foundation of pleasure provided at home and take it to the next step where they can read in their L2 on their own and still get pleasure from it. There's a strong lesson to be gained from this. It's true that young learners have to learn lots of other things, e.g. grammar. But it's important not to overdo activities such as grammar when they are reading a story for pleasure. The story can be used as a vehicle for helping them to notice words and bits of language structure, as we will see later when we explore stories in Module 6. You need to be deft in balancing the pleasure they get from the story and the other activities you set up based on the story they are reading, e.g. word study, comprehension exercises. It is important not to merely adopt a habitual pattern of reading text and following this with comprehension passages, even if this is the dominant pattern in your textbook. It's wise to build in times where a story is read aloud to them, or they eventually read it themselves, for pleasure per se, without the continuity being broken up with other learning points. If, in later years, some of your young learners end up reading stories and novels for pleasure in English, you will have played a substantial part in the learners' success. Reading for information As your young learners progress in your class and their native language classes they will be confronted by more and more information that they need to read. What can you do to play your part in this substantial information-gathering process that awaits them? Well, even at the levels you will be teaching, you can guide them on how best to get information when reading a text. Perhaps they only need some key bits of information, so you can help them to do this by enhancing their skimming skills. You can contribute well to their information-reading activities by ensuring you make the information meaningful and usable. For example: Tell them about shopping lists and help them to gain and read common vocabulary so that they can take part in their parents' shopping trips by reading out bits of the shopping list. The same process would apply to everyday information activities such as reading a recipe with their parents, reading a TV guide etc. Being able to do these things, and getting praise from their parents, will make the learner feel good. She will get pleasure from this. Do a little needs analysis and some detective work to see what interests your learners have. Then gauge the reading activities to their interests. Perhaps for the bulk of them it could be animals, but picking which ones is important. Reading about a cow may be fine for those who are interested in farm animals but others may be interested more in lions and tigers. You need to take care when choosing some subjects, e.g. sports. Generally, the boys will be much more interested in soccer than the girls. So, rearranging groups and getting them reading their main interests is the key. If you make the information meaningful and relevant to their needs, they will not only learn new information and new words but they will also receive pleasure from reading about something that interests them

Unit 10: Structuring a Lesson

Here are practical guidelines to ensure an effective reading lesson: 1. Pre-reading Pre-reading activities introduce learners to a particular text. Elicit and provide appropriate background knowledge, and allow learners to identify what kind of text it is. This should arouse their interest and help them approach the text in a more meaningful and purposeful manner as the discussion compels them to think about the situation or points raised in a text. The pre-reading phase helps learners define selection criteria for the central theme of a story or the major argument of an essay. Pre-reading activities can include: discussing text type; brainstorming; reviewing familiar vocabulary; considering titles or illustrations; and skimming and scanning for structure, main points, and future directions. 2. During-reading Exercises during reading can help learners develop reading strategies, improve their control of the second language, and decode problematic text passages. Helping learners to employ strategies while reading can be difficult, because individual learners control and need different strategies. Nevertheless, you can pinpoint valuable strategies, explain which strategies individuals most need to practise, and offer concrete exercises in the form of guided-reading activity sheets. Such strategy practice exercises might include: Guessing word meanings by using context clues Word formation clues Considering syntax and sentence structure by noting the grammatical functions of unknown words Analysing reference words Predicting text content Reading for specific pieces of information Learning to use the dictionary effectively 3. Post-reading Post-reading exercises first check learners' comprehension and then lead learners to a deeper analysis of the text, when warranted. Different strategies will differ with different text types. For example, scanning is an appropriate strategy to use with newspaper advertisements.Predicting and following text cohesion are effective strategies to use with short stories. By discussing in groups what they have understood, learners focus on information they did not comprehend, or did not comprehend correctly. Discussions of this nature can lead the learner directly to text analysis as class discussion proceeds from determining facts to exploring deeper ramifications of the texts.

Unit 2: Reading Sub-Skills

Here are the key reading skills a learner needs to develop: Silent reading This is a skill that everyone needs to adopt in order to be able to read quickly and effectively. It enables the reader's eyes to flow quickly and freely across the page, recognising the individual words and internalising the meaning, but not actually pronouncing them. Discourage lip movements which lead to staccato reading. Skimming This involves the reader in letting his eyes run rapidly over the text in order to discover what the text is about in general. It does not require the learner to understand every word that he reads. Learners need to be taught and accept that unknown words will be present in a text, and that it's a good skill to be able to deduce the meaning of a new word from the context. Scanning This is when they quickly search through a text looking for specific pieces of information

Unit 5: Choosing a Class Book

In some situations, teachers will want to use a class readerwhere all of the learners have the same book and work on it together. If you have the choice to select the class reader, think about these points: Subject matter: make sure that the content is likely to interest all of the learners in your classes Level: make sure that a range of different levels are chosen for the different classes Illustrations: try to choose books that have an attractive cover as well as illustrations that you can use for language work Binding: make sure the books are well bound and will put up with some battering; this is particularly important in schools Check it carefully: check the level given by the publisher, but then read through the book yourself and ensure that it is the right level for your learners It is very important to read through the whole book before you use it with the learners in order to ensure that it is the right level, but also to ensure that you know the book yourself and you're not going to get caught out at a later stage.

Unit 8: Reading Activities with Younger Learners

Manage your expectations! There's a lot of work to be done before they can read or write a particular word or sentence. You can't just launch into reading. Your focus at first is on a whole range of sub-skills, e.g. decoding and matching spoken and written forms. In the early stages, your focus will usually remain for some time at the letter and word level, where letters and words can be reinforced by some of the activities/games mentioned below, such as SNAP and other word pairing games. 1. Print awareness Spend the necessary time to help them with their print awareness. This is not as easy as it sounds. For example, let's imagine you are about to make young Thai learners aware of print features. It would be wise to do your Thai language research first. You would find that, generally: There are no spaces between words There are no capital letters There are no punctuation marks Proper nouns do not require a capital letter Of course, at the early stages you wouldn't be covering all of these points but, certainly, spaces between words would be a priority. 2. Highlight the written forms of words they can speak Show them written words representing words they can already speak. This will achieve two aims. It will: Demonstrate that words they can already speak can be represented in writing Widen their knowledge of printed materials An excellent way to demonstrate that words they speak can be represented in writing is by labelling objects in the classroom, e.g. desk, table, board, door etc. They will be curious about these labels and this will be the start of you helping them to understand the link between speaking and writing and, later, the link to reading what has been written. This tactic can also continue with new words. You could add new labels every now and again and to make it fun and interesting you could challenge them to find your new label as quickly as they can. Another good idea is to use your class puppet. Before they come in, you hide, say, the elephant beside your new label. Challenge them to find Ellie the Elephant and wherever she is, there's a new label. You'll remember that we said that the best words to use when learning speaking are familiar and repetitive words and chunks that you use, e.g. sit down. To help them make the link between the spoken and written word, you could have laminated cards with your common phrases written on them. Once they have grasped the spoken word, you can start to hold up the written words, e.g. sit down. You can also deliberately introduce word card activities, where the young learners match a picture with the word on a card. 3. Introduce the English alphabet Learning the English alphabet opens up lots of opportunities for them to get used to written words which will match the spoken words they can say and read, e.g.: Spelling their own name Spelling out mum, dad etc. and their friends' names Playing games like Hangman Matching letters Working out missing letters 4. Phonological and phonemic awareness At the same time, through rhymes, songs and chants, you will introduce concepts such as rhyme and syllables. Also, you'll be introducing some language awareness work, e.g. categorising words in line with the sounds they begin with. Your intention will be to get them to grasp the regular patterns in words they already know. The more words they already know, the easier it will be to recognise the patterns. Familiar songs and rhymes that you have already been using to enhance their listening and speaking skills will provide many opportunities for awareness work. 5. Letter and word level reading Again, at the same time, you will help them to recognise letter forms, letter combinations and whole words. You can use lots of activities to enhance word recognition: Memory games: e.g. matching a word with a flashcard. A flashcard is a laminated picture of, say, a house with the word 'house' below it or on the back of the picture, that you can hold up for all to see. You could make these A4 size. You could also make smaller versions so that, say, each pair can have their own to look at. Gradually, through time, you'll be able to miss out the picture and just show the word. It's good to intersperse showing the word with also writing it on the board, to get their minds thinking further that spoken words can be written down and can be read. It's a good idea to colour your flashcards from the start, e.g. nouns in pink, adjectives in blue, verbs in green etc. You would typically start with nouns. Of course, you won't use the metalanguage with them. You would just call it a thing or animal etc. When you move on to say, adjectives, you'd point out that this card is not in pink like the other card (nouns) and this will help them a bit to understand categories and differences through time. With 'showing' activities like holding up flashcards, always plan to do some other activity after this to consolidate the learning. For example, once they have learned some simple words, they can practise in pairs, reading words to their partners. Concentration-type games: where learners pick up two cards from a pile to see if they match SNAP: where the aim again is to spot two word cards that are the same Simple teacher-made cards: for matching, categorising etc. Who can find?-type games: such as spotting specific letters or small words in a storybook or other simple text. Listen and identify: with this, you could hand out a list of familiar words. In pairs, they have to read through the list and tick off each word when they hear it. Read and draw: very simple instructions are given at the top of their work sheet. They need to read these and, if understood, they will be able to draw what's required. Stick-drawing is a great tool for this kind of exercise and is a bit more cognitively challenging than just Colour the ball in blue. Let's assume you have already covered parts of the body. You could hand out a worksheet with a partial stick man/woman and the instruction to read could be: Draw an arm.You can then return to this later with other instructions:Draw a shoe. Eventually, the stick man should be complete. You can have lots of fun in class comparing the stick men drawings at the end, with some arms different sizes and shoes in the wrong place. Then you can use their own stick men in future for the labelling exercise mentioned above. Read and sequence: a typical example of this would be to give them cards or labels with numbers on them. They have to read the cards/labels and put them in sequence, say, 1-5. Again, though, always think of how you can take an activity to the next level. If they are ready for the concept of size, you could have a size sequence. So, here they are not just putting them in a sequence which they have memorised, e.g. as with numbers. Here you are getting them to read and asking them to use their cognitive ability. Assuming the words and the 'things' are familiar you could have, say, these words on a sheet that they need to read and put in sequence: mouse, chair, man. Through time, you could make the list a bit longer. Read and do/perform: this can be great fun. You could start with everyone doing the same thing. You could give out a worksheet with, say, four actions. They need to read the simple instructions in order and do what they say. These could be, say: stand up; sit down; shout Ok, OK, OK, OK; laugh out loud. This will be good for a start but you can see there is a bit of a flaw in this. More able readers will already be performing the commands before the less able readers. The less able readers could just copy the more able ones or there's a possibility that the less able readers may get a bit embarrassed still doing their actions when others have completed. The way to solve this is to give different commands per pair or group. So, while Pair/Group 1 are patting their heads, Group 2 could be making a bird sound. There'll be a bit of havoc but it will be very good fun. Labelling: labelling lots of objects in the room, as mentioned previously. You can advance this through time by given them sets of labels (later removable) which can be attached to laminated worksheets you hand out. For example, you could hand out a laminated worksheet with illustrations of familiar objects in a classroom or familiar objects in their homes. They then have to read the labels you have given them, pick them off their sheet and stick them beside the illustration. Classifying (categorising) words into word families: when they are ready for this. These could be, say, classifying familiar fruits and vegetables, familiar sports activities, familiar objects from a particular area (e.g. the classroom, their bedroom). It's best to start this with 'Odd one out' type activities, so that they can identify that, say, an apple doesn't go with the other illustrations, e.g. dog, cat, mouse. Then you could make it more challenging with them having to read more examples for two categories and, later, three categories. Even with a simple activity like this, take care not to confuse them. For example, your aim may be to get them to classify living things and inanimate objects. You choose to illustrate this with familiar words: living things - man, lion, goldfish; inanimate things- chair, table, cup but you don't tell them what you are looking for. Most young learners will categorise them as you have done. However, a few children may not see it your way. They may see 'goldfish' as a separate category as it lives in water. So, take care. Pronunciation practice Using SNAP or Rhyming Dominoes to practise rhyming words Matching two halves of a sentence, or whole sentences, which both have a rhyming word at the end Simple reading aloud activity, using familiar and meaningful text, e.g. short lines from a story 6. Sentence level reading Through time, they will be ready for sentence level reading to different degrees. Again, stick with common words in English which are meaningful to them. If you don't, you may spend more time on explaining new words than it takes for them to do a sentence activity. First use chunks of language and patterns they are familiar with in making sentences, e.g. chunks from songs and rhymes they have learned in the classroom. For reading practice: Jumble up the words in a simple sentence and see if they can put them back together in the right order, e.g. a mouse small is With familiar songs and rhymes, jumble the words up and also omit words to see if they can guess what's missing, for it to make sense. For reading (and writing) practice there are lots of tried and tested exercises: Gap-fill activities Matching words Copying a short personal sentence and reading it aloud, e.g. my name is lucy (no capitals, at this stage) and gradually you can build this up toi like ... where they fill in the blank and copy the whole sentence out again. 7. Ensure it's a multi-sensory process They and you will have greater success if you ensure that the activities you do with them relate to all their senses. For example, whilst or after learning to read bits of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', you should involve them in speaking, listening and writing activities where these are possible.

Unit 1: Key Points

Reading is a vitally important skill because it has the most potential to open up a new world of individual learning for the young learners, distinct from the classroom. Reading is a multifaceted activity involving a number of different skills, and it needs to be addressed in a number of different ways; skilled teachers will ensure that they both challenge and interest their learners. We always read for a purpose, so ensure there is a real purpose in what they are asked to read. Remember! The focus of all of the reading in an EYL class is the acquisition, understanding and manipulation of their new language, and not the enjoyment of literature per se and its ideas and interpretation. Of course, it's not always that easy. Learners' attitudes to reading range widely from total indifference to avid interest and excitement. Make the reading enjoyable - choose or create passages, topics and exercises that are meaningful, interesting and topical and which will result in fun. Don't stick to the 'past its sell-by date' structure of them reading a boring passage and answering dull multiple choice questions. Think interesting, challenging, meaningful, topical and humorous whenever you can. As a teacher, your job is to ensure as far as you can that your learners become independent readers who can both understand and enjoy the pleasures of reading. This takes time, and it takes resources, but it can be done.

Unit 7: Teaching Reading

Teaching Reading in the EYL Classroom Second language literacy is a complex area and there is much that is unknown about how young learners read and write in an L2. The following points are based on our classroom experiences and clear thinking. Even where there is a true drive in the school environment to teach reading to non-native young learners, some key factors that you and the administration need to consider include: The age of the young learners. Are they ready for reading and writing? What experience have they gained and absorbed from the world around them? The degree of exposure they have had to English as a foreign or second language. In many cases, there will have been little or no oral exposure. Exposure may have been through games via a console or IPad but the language used (and the speed, accent etc.) in these situations may be of little help. Their first language background. How proficient and literate are they in their first language? Clearly, if a young learner has difficulty at present with reading in her first language, she is unlikely to progress proficiently with reading in a second language. What support will your young learners have? The support they will have outside of school from parents is critical but parents may have no knowledge of English. It's unlikely that your learners will be familiar with the wide range of rhymes, songs and stories in English which are intentionally constructed with everyday words and phrases which are useful for guessing words and doing phonological/phonemic awareness work. Young learners can only benefit from phonological/phonemic awareness activities if the meaning of the words and phrases makes sense to them. Avoid asking young learners to sound out words they are not familiar with. You need to be fully cognisant of how your young learners read and write in their first language (i.e. the mechanics of it), before tackling this in your classroom. The young learners' first language may also affect progress. But all is not lost. Remember this: Young learners will bring their experience of reading in their first language to the EYL classroom. They have some understanding of what reading is. Depending on some of the factors above (e.g. their present proficiency and literacy), they will hopefully have picked up some reading strategies from their first language reading, e.g. guessing and predicting, spelling, trying to sound the words out, comparing sounds and letters, guessing and predicting. Reading and writing can help to reinforce their oral proficiency, so there is solid reasoning for introducing them to these new skills. Once literacy in their first language has been achieved, young learners often expect to learn to read in the second language. These new skills in English open up new opportunities to them, e.g. the 'careful' use of the Internet. Reading and writing provides good support for those young learners who are predominantly visual learners who like to see words and phrases written down. You will find that young learners often approach second language reading and writing with great interest and enthusiasm. Learning these new skills can provide a sense of achievement that they want to share with their parents, their peers and you.

Unit 4: Who does the Reading?

Unprepared reading aloud is a not a great idea unless your learners are advanced and fluent, although even then it is best done on a one-to-one basis. If you do want your learners to read a short section aloud in class, it is a good idea to give them some time to prepare so that when they come into the classroom they know what they have to do, and are confident that they can do it well. This will also be a much more enjoyable experience for the rest of the class. Silent reading is the best alternative and is likely to be the most common approach. You can give the learners a key passage to read to themselves and follow this up with activities. The learners can read at their own pace and you can follow this up with factual questions and 'why' questions on the text. Some reading can also be set for homework and then followed up the next day in class. What about you reading aloud? This is a good idea, now and again in short spurts, because you can put tone and meaning into the reading so that it will be more interesting for the learners.

Unit 9: Reading Activities with Older Learners

With older learners, it will be more of the above but with more complex activity. The more complex the task, the more preparation will be required. Older learners are likely to be involved in: 1. Further word and sentence level practice, depending on their proficiency 2. Reading for meaning Introduceactivities which encourage them to skim and scan texts to get at the meaning. You'll recall that skimming involves the reader in letting their eyes run rapidly over the text in order to discover what the text is about, in general. Scanning is when the reader quickly searches through a text looking for specific pieces of information. 3. Older learners can be taught to search for cues (help, clues) Research has shown that learners can use meaning or context cues to help them work out words and chunks of language. Here are some examples: 1. Semantic cues Semantic cues are meaning cues. For example, when reading a story about lions, good readers develop the expectation that it will contain words associated with lions, such as attack, pounce, eat, roar, king(of the jungle), den In the sentence A lion likes to _____ , given the sentence context and what most of us know about lions, words likeroar, attack, pounceandeat seem reasonable possibilities. 2. Syntactic or word order cues Using the same example, A lion likes to _____ , the order of the words in the sentence and knowledge of what an infinitive is indicates that the missing word must be a verb, e.g. roar, attack, pounce and eat. Other word classes, such as nouns or adjectives make no sense in this example and won't result in a meaningful sentence. 3. Picture/illustration cues Illustrations can often help with the identification of a word. In the example, if there is a picture of a lion moving through the air towards an impala, attack, and pounceand eatseem good possibilities. 4. Word structure cues There are many groups of letters that occur frequently in words, for example: prefixes (un-, dis-, in-, im-, il-, ir-) suffixes (-ful, -less, -ness, -est) inflectional endings (-ed, -ing, -es) As mentioned before, the ability to associate sounds with a cluster of letters leads to quicker identification of words 4. Older learners can be taught the benefits of dictionary work This could be for: Checking important, new words Checking spelling Finding synonyms and antonyms - thesaurus-type activities Finding native language equivalents In addition to helping them comprehend new words and chunks, dictionary work lends itself to lots of tasks which will benefit their reading in the long run, e.g. team competitions choosing a correct definition for a given word, selecting the correct synonyms and antonyms for a given word etc.