Job Discussion Forums

[Gowump]

Seeing how the Cambridge Exams are fast approaching and it seems that the majority of my students are struggling a bit with the reading sections, are there any tips you can give me to improve their reading skills? Thanks in advance.

[Glenski]

Improve their reading speed. Measure it first for a baseline. Tell them that if they don't read every day, they won't improve. Most Japanese who don't do well on the TOEIC or TOEFL reading sections have their reading speed to blame. Can't get a score if you don't finish the test.

Work on test-taking skills like skimming for the main idea and scanning for various types of detail.

Do lots and lots of extensive reading. Graded readers galore.

[Gowump]

Thanks Glenski. Tried all those things. However, from what I've been told, Polish students aren't taught to read for gist, always for detail, so they have a real problem grasping the concept.

[Glenski]

Japanese students (where I teach) have horrendous reading skills, and I'm very interested in finding ways to improve on that.

Although it's a simple thing to consider, we teachers have to start at the bottom rung when doing this. Teach the very basic stuff first. Teach students to crawl, stagger, walk with help, walk unassisted, then run.

There's lots of literature out there to help teachers.

I prefer to teach something about scanning from day 1 and to continue it throughout the semester. You can scan for more than just one type of information. Do that, if you like. (First lesson, scan an article for all names, all prepositions, all dates, etc. Then have them do it with a phone book for something in alphabetical order, and then switch to something that is NOT in alphabetical order, like a menu or a meeting agenda. Go up from there.)

Skim for the main idea. Do this paragraph by paragraph at first. Have groups work on an article where each student has only one paragraph, then they have to piece the whole topic's main ideas together. BINGO, you have an outline!

Gist. Very tough (unless you consider the previous paragraph to be gist). How much vocabulary do students know or must be pre-taught? Set them up to succeed by giving them words instead of throwing them in the deep end of the pool with a dictionary to keep them afloat. I show students a page from several types of books (made the material myself, or you can copy from real sources), they see it for 5 seconds, and then they have to explain what genre is it (chemistry book, history book, cookbook, thriller novel, newspaper advertisement for job or apartment, etc.). You can have them think of the genre on their own, or give them the answers in multiple choice, but giving them only 5 seconds forces them to skim. Teach them to paraphrase in order to get the gist. They read something and have to retell the story. I rip super-short stories off the Net (half a page long each) and put 5 each on different colored paper. Groups of 5 get a set, and each student has 3 minutes to read one story. Papers turned over, they have to retell the story to the group (their own language or English). Switch papers and do it again, but this time the retelling must have new information for each story. Helps to have a group scribe. Or you can have each member in the group work on the SAME story, and each person has a role (bone up on Reading Circles to learn how this can be done), and after they read it, they each report based on their role (strange fact, main character, new vocabulary, etc.).

[Gowump]

Thanks again Glenski. Very much appreciated. Your ideas seem a little more interesting than constantly doing the exam tasks. The one method I've been working on is practice. I will try out your suggestions.

[Glenski]

I don't believe in drill, drill, drill for exams. Had a TOEIC prep course last semester, and I took a page from another person and changed my tactics.

I taught tactics. Why not, eh? Show the kids how to do the test itself, as one option.

You could, of course, try teaching the material (mostly vocabulary and grammar), but that depends on how much they already know, and how well you can teach them what they DON'T know. Sometimes a teacher in L1 can do a better job of that.

I firmly believe in showing students how to take the tests, but I also believe in getting their head out of drill books (most of which they can just buy and use for self-study anyway). Guide them with lessons and strategies that make them aware of what the heck is in the test.

Got a nifty Jeopardy board game, too, that works on the reading component.