I've got to write an essay on this but I don't teach reading. I only "teach" conversation unfortunately.
Could anybody please outline some essential elements of a good ESL reading program.
Many thanks
Esential Elements of an ESL Reading Program
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
As a VERY brief outline, I'd recommend you think about and do further research on the following:
- Presence in the program of an integration of 'bottom up' (part-centered/phonics) approaches and 'top down' (schema theory/socio-pyscholinguistic) approaches;
- The six general component skills/knowledge areas recommended by Grabe (1991):
* Automatic recognition skills
* Vocabulary and structural knowledge
* Formal discourse structure knowledge
* Content/world background knowledge
* Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies
* Metacognitive knowledge/skills monitoring
- Most lack-lustre ESL reading programs focus on the first two of the above skill/knowledge areas (and include activities such as gap fills, sentence structure and vocabulary development), but miss out on overall comprehension skills. As Ediger points out (2001:154): "for ELLs [English Language Learners] to read fluently, they must develop the ability to bring all of these elements together simultaneously and rapidly. However, sometimes there are gaps in their knowledge of language or culture. Thus, it is the task of an effective reading program to provide information and practice in all of the systems which contribute to making the process work."
Try throwing the names and terms I've mentioned into the Google Search Engine. You're likely to find a lot of very useful and relevant information.
- Presence in the program of an integration of 'bottom up' (part-centered/phonics) approaches and 'top down' (schema theory/socio-pyscholinguistic) approaches;
- The six general component skills/knowledge areas recommended by Grabe (1991):
* Automatic recognition skills
* Vocabulary and structural knowledge
* Formal discourse structure knowledge
* Content/world background knowledge
* Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies
* Metacognitive knowledge/skills monitoring
- Most lack-lustre ESL reading programs focus on the first two of the above skill/knowledge areas (and include activities such as gap fills, sentence structure and vocabulary development), but miss out on overall comprehension skills. As Ediger points out (2001:154): "for ELLs [English Language Learners] to read fluently, they must develop the ability to bring all of these elements together simultaneously and rapidly. However, sometimes there are gaps in their knowledge of language or culture. Thus, it is the task of an effective reading program to provide information and practice in all of the systems which contribute to making the process work."
Try throwing the names and terms I've mentioned into the Google Search Engine. You're likely to find a lot of very useful and relevant information.