Job Discussion Forums

[frigginhippie]

[tarzaninchina]

Since I don't believe in killing books, my arguement may be somewhat weak, but here goes.

- improve vocabulary
- improve sentence structure and grammar usage
- improve writing style (or the development thereof)
- experience dealing in high-level English (loads of tangibles there)
- encouragement to speak/write with idioms and imagery
- foreigners will notice HUGE (i.e. help with rapport)
- depending on literature studied, can provide insight to western cultures (but that's a very big DEPENDING)
- provide different ways of tackling problems, a department in which Chinese students tend to fall short
- why foreigners speak in the order of speaking that they do

These traits are directly transferrable to various jobs, although I won't list them all here.

[NorbertRadd]

If students could learn to emulate the simple style of Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway, and Ray Carver, we'd all be without jobs.
No one here seems to understand the active voice in writing here.
Studying the trio above can help students learn many good sentence patterns.

[burnsie]

English literature to me is the study of expression and being able to express one's self is one of the basics of communication so if they are learning english to pass exams then learning english literature will enable them to express their ideas in english far above those stupid CET certificates they dole out.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

kRASHEN has researched/written extensively on the benefits of FVR...Free Voluntary Reading

[Paul Barufaldi]

The benefits of reading are clear and obvious. I tell my students that the benefits they receive from my course will be doubled if they do the assigned reading at home �and that is no exaggeration. I encounter a lot resistance, though, for the very reason stated earlier in this thread: How will this help my exam scores?

Well, can correct use of verb tense and preposition improve exam scores?

Of course it can. By reading, the student passively learns grammar, as every sentence read is an example of correct grammar and common phrasing. It is really the only way to learn collocation, which can't be effectively taught through a textbook. With a strict daily reading regime, they�ll soon be correcting their own grammar without being able to cite a specific rule, just like most native speakers.

Will fluency in a language improve scores on exams based on that language?

One would certainly think so! Line by line the student reads, and thought by thought the their mind works in the English language, hour after hour and day after day. By having seen thousands of examples of proper grammar usage, both their oral and written sentences will become more complex, and they�ll begin to actually think in clauses and conditionals and do things like split verbs and add grammatical structures like prepositions onto their senteces as they're speaking, without having planned them out beforehand. If they begin writing on a daily basis as well, they�ll soon realize how malleable the language is and that grammar is a tool to help them express themselves rather than just some painful course of study. Such practice and exposure is the only road to fluency.

Will an increased vocabulary (and the ability to use it) increase exam scores?

By reading, the students begin to deduce the meanings of new words from the context of the sentences they�re in. The word �exaggerate� in its various tenses and forms may be encountered eight times over the course of a few short novels. Having been exposed to the word in context enough times, they�ll know more than just its literal meaning; they'll have a sense of how to use it properly �all without ever having picked up a dictionary.

I push reading hard, and encounter no small amount of resistance. There are two main arguments. First, they�ll say it�s not useful, a myth that should be easily dispelled. But they'll also say it�s too difficult, which is entirely legitimate. Their reading material is almost never gauged to their level. It must be frustrating to try and read Darwin�s Origin of Species when you�re at a 2nd grade reading level. A typical CNN article will have them plugging away at their dictionaries 2-4 times per sentence. The books I assign are engaging stories written with limited vocabulary, books they can understand the first time through. (Finishing their first one is a real confidence booster.) By reading the appropriate material, they can relax and get into the story itself. You can actually improve your exam score, I tell them, by forgetting about it for a while and just enjoying a good story. And the few that actually take this advice to heart really do see significant results.

[writpetition]

Frigginhippie,

Tell your students to study literature, simply because it is much more enjoyable and enriching than reading/studying technical papers, treatises on various subjects etc. However, if they feel they can gain more out of reading technical papers, treatises etc., please let them try that!!!

My two cents!

[Roger]

The essential has already been said; if I were to put it in a nutshell, I would say: Students who read on their own develop a feel for the language, and eventually they will stop translating each and every single word!

It reverses a trend they pick up in their elementary classes: to memorise words they never use. Reading forces them to use words, even new words, or words that come as a new kind (like when "like" becomes a verb).

My university English majors find new words in their CHinese-made textbooks (with simple English texts revolving around environmental pollution or women's role) to the tune of 20 to 30 for every full page (maybe 250 words). These words totally stump them because this book, unlike so many others, is monolingual.
They should have had literature at high school!

[ChinaMovieMagic]

NOTE: Wikipedia has a version in Simple English...along w/all the other language options

Why read?
Why eat vegetables?
(1)"Because they're good for you"...says the US unculinary mother to the child.

In China, kids eat vegetables...even tho' there's no Exam.

FVR---Free Voluntary Reading
FVE---Free Voluntary Eating

You are what you Eat.
You are what you Read.

[wonderd]

I've had the same question from my university students. There's quite a few answers, most of which I've seen here. But I ask them the same question back... "What should I do to learn Chinese?" and usually one of the answers is to read books.

To read literature does two big things. It helps improve vocabulary and understanding sentence structure.

The most important thing it does it helps teach and understand creative thinking and creative writing... but I've always had a little trouble selling that part of it to students, so I just tell them the first two.