Job Discussion Forums

[wonderingjoesmith]

I told my students to read quietly and at their own speed but some confronted me that they wouldn’t be able to “pronounce” the words and that it is a common practice to read loudly in their country.

It seems most Chinese primary and secondary schools have “morning reading” classes. All students in classes read the same thing at loud together.

Spooked they were when I mentioned quiet reading is faster, everyone’s reading speed may be different and that it isn’t necessary to read everything.

[A593186]

Quiet reading has nothing to do with being faster (in a practical learning sense). It's been well proven by researchers that it's more efficient to read quietly, not even moving your lips to mouth words silently, and so on as the speaking, reading, memorization areas of the brain are in different locations and it's not the proper way to learn. Explain to your students - in other words, be their teacher and teach them (as that's your job) the correct way to study and learn. "Crazy English" is one of the most useless things there is. Teach them, teacher, how to properly learn and demand they follow your instructions.

[Bud Powell]

It seems most Chinese primary and secondary schools have “morning reading” classes. All students in classes read the same thing at loud together.

They do it in pretty good universities before class starts. It seems not to matter what subject it is if it is taught in English.

I knew a 55 year-old FAO who admitted to me that she still reads aloud in English every day for the purposes of pronunciation. The best speakers in my classes often go to the edge of campus to read aloud. Their comprehension is good and so is their pronunciation.

There are those who don't do this, and it seems that it takes them a little longer to be responsive, but this could be a function of personality as much as anything.

I don't know what research proves that reading aloud does not facilitate the learning process. My courses in educational psychology explain that the act of saying something reinforces the learning process.

I am back in the states now and I am working with a kid who has a learning disability. We are using index cards for learning vocabulary. On one side is the word to be learned. On the other side is the definition. The student looks at the word, then reads the definition aloud. He is encouraged to use his own words or to explain the meaning of the word by example. I've been working with him for nine months, and he has acquired about 900 new words. I can take cards displaying the words that he hasn't seen in months, and it appears that he has retained almost 90% of the definitions. In his case, the acts of repetition and speech have facilitated his learning because he is required to process the information twice. Hearing himself say the word is a third reinforcer.

[chinatimes]

Either they are reading something short and need to speak or they are reading a longer passage and need to speak 10% of the words.

I randomly pick students and look for words which might be within "arm's reach" to pronounce. It's better to repeat that word a few times than reading a sentence out loud using that word only once.

You can also give them similar words which have the same sound and similar spelling pattern to help them remember.

If everyone just reads, it becomes more of a chant style version of learning a language. I don't know how helpful that will be later on. At a language school it might convince parents their child is learning, but does the student actually understand what they said?

When I read out loud something, I don't often think of the meaning and only work on pronouncing each word. I have to go back and silently read to get the meaning. You could easily mark off the words you don't understand or can't pronounce and work on them later.

[Denim-Maniac]

[chinatimes]

[wonderingjoesmith]

[Sashadroogie]

Is the confusing of pronunciation exercises with reading skills typical in Chinese classrooms, would you say?

[wonderingjoesmith]

Sasha, I believe there are educators that see/use reading just like they practice on mainland China, however, I am not sure about such a uniformity of their systems compared to this country. I'd say confucianism may have something to do with the attitude to morning reading here.

[wangdaning]

Reading out loud seems like it would only assist if someone was their to correct pronunciation.

I remember reading out loud in my Chinese classes at uni, but the teacher would randomly pick a student to read out a few lines while giving help with pronunciation or when the student got stuck.

Simply reading out loud with no direction seems more annoying than anything else.