In EFL reading classes, learners usually do tasks that only test their comprehension of the text. While it is helpful that learners maintain the habit of reading by doing a variety of comprehension tasks, we should also make sure that reading strategies are not overlooked. That is, instructors should not set learners to read just for the sake of reading, but rather to gain experience that will help them in the next readings. When students are equipped with necessary reading strategies, they are most likely to be autonomous, and by extension, become fluent readers as well as find reading more enjoyable.
Reading strategies include, for instance:
- setting a purpose for reading;
- previewing (getting an idea of what the text is going to be about);
- skimming (cursory look at the text to answer a general question)
- scanning (looking for details in the text);
- predicting (using textual cues or background knowledge to anticipate what is coming in the text);
- etc.
In this post, EFL Collective suggests a demonstration lesson for teaching one of the crucial reading strategies: Guessing the Meaning of New Words. This strategy urges students not to check a dictionary every time they stumble upon an unfamiliar word. Looking up new words all the time in a dictionary can be exhausting and frustrating. As such, guessing boosts reading fluency.
It is worth noting that instructors can cover a number of reading strategies in one lesson, but it is recommended that they mainly focus on one and consider the rest as sub-skills. Put differently, up to 70% of the devised activities should target the new strategy you are teaching, whereas the remaining tasks consolidate the strategies you already taught.
Suggested Procedure:
Pre-reading stage:
The teacher sets out the lesson by asking 2 leading questions in order to introduce students to this strategy:
1. When you have a reading comprehension test, do you happen to know all the words you encounter in the text?
2. If not, how can you know the meaning of those words, considering that you can not use a dictionary or ask anyone?
Then, using a PPT, the teacher models four clues students can use to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in a text (see the picture below).
Additionally, the teacher models how students should think when they come across a new word. To this end, the teacher uses the think-aloud strategy in the following excerpt:
“(a) Mary realized that Mr. Robinson was a misogynist soon after she started working as his secretary. (b) It is difficult for a woman to work for a misogynist. She is never sure if his criticism is based on her work or on the fact that she is a woman. (c) Mary knew that no woman would ever get a good job in a company headed by a misogynist.”
The teacher first asks a student to read out the excerpt, then invites the class to listen to him/her think aloud, trying to guess the meaning of the word: misogynist. He, therefore, says, "From (a) I understand that a misogynist is a man (Mr Robinson), and from (b) I know that a misogynist may criticize a woman only because she is a woman. And finally from (c) I am certain that a misogynist is a man that hates women."
Before they resettle to reading, the students are asked to guess what the captions will be about by studying commonalities between all these words: Marriage – puking – career woman – nanny – company – potential – fulfilled – staying at home.
While-reading stage:
In the first reading, the students skim through the captions to check their guesses then give them an appropriate title. They also do exercise C where they try to guess the meaning of two phrases.
In groups of three or four, the students read the captions again to complete the table in exercise D.
It is also helpful if the groups draw the table on their respective flip charts to be posted later on the board for the class. When everyone is done, spokespersons from each group present the final outcome, followed by a whole-class discussion to negotiate any "wrong" meanings of the new words. Concerning the last column in the table (Type of the clue), the students can choose from the clues they have already seen in the PPT (i.e., definition, illustration, contrast, relationship between two words, or word attack strategy).
Post-reading stage:
Students are encouraged to write sentences or short paragraphs using the vocabulary they learn in this class.
Great job but it works depending on the level of the grade
You can teach reading strategies to any level.
Efficient work. Much respect dada Mourad!
Thank you so much, dadda Mourad. Glad you liked it.