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Society and innovations
Journal home page:
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Improving expressive reading skills through selecting
teaching materials
Makhbubakhon YAKUBOVA
Andijan State Institute of Foreign Languages
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received March 2024
Received in revised form
15 April 2024
Accepted 25 April 2024
Available online
25 May 2024
This article presents potential problems in choosing
materials to improve the expressive reading skills of pupils. We
can use teacher's books, pupil's books, visual materials, audio
materials, and audio-visual materials to develop the reading
skills of pupils.
2181-
1415/©
2024 in Science LLC.
https://doi.org/10.47689/2181-1415-vol5-iss4/S-pp174-179
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Keywords:
language,
material,
reading,
textbook,
knowledge,
vocabulary.
O‘quv materiallarini tanlash orqali ifodali o‘qish
malakalarini oshirish
ANNOTATSIYA
Kalit so‘zlar
:
til, material,
o
‘
qish,
darslik,
bilim,
so
‘
z boyligi.
Ushbu
maqolada
o
‘
quvchilarning
ifodali
o
‘
qish
ko
‘
nikmalarini oshirish uchun material tanlashning mumkin
bo
‘
lgan muammolari
keltirilgan. O‘quvchilarning o‘qish
ko‘nikmalarini rivojlantirish uchun o‘qituvchi kitoblari,
o‘quvchilar kitoblari, ko‘rgazmali materiallar, audiomateriallar,
audiovizual materiallardan foydalanishimiz mumkin.
1
Teacher, Andijan State Institute of Foreign Languages.
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175
Совершенствование навыков выразительного чтения
посредством подбора учебных материалов
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
язык,
материал,
чтение,
учебник,
знания,
словарный запас.
В данной статье представлены потенциальные
проблемы выбора материалов для совершенствования
навыков выразительного чтения учащихся. Мы можем
использовать
учебные
и
наглядные
материалы,
аудиоматериалы и аудиовизуальные материалы для
развития навыков чтения у учеников.
Interest is important because of its relation to motivation. When the topic of a
passage is not of interest to students, their motivation to read is substantially lessened.
Without this motivation, it is exceedingly difficult to meet one of the generally accepted
aims of a reading program: to help get the learners to read in English on their own,
outside the reading classroom.
In looking for readings that will interest their students, teachers should try to find
those that have a reasonable amount of new information. Too much new information in a
story makes it difficult to read, regardless of the interest level; a passage that contains
relatively little new information can be boring.
There are several approaches to determining learners’ interests, including
ranking
and
open-ended
. A ranking questionnaire asks students to rank their preferences; an
open-ended questionnaire has students respond to such questions as "What type of
books do you read in your first language?" and "What do you do on the weekend?" Nuttall
suggests paying attention to the materials students read in their first language. Williams
recommends a similar strategy; he also suggests asking learners to evaluate current
reading materials as "interesting," "all right," or "boring." [5, 53]
Exploitability, which Nuttall defines as the facilitation of learning, is a key factor in
selecting a reading passage. Simply put, will the passage allow the teacher to accomplish
the objectives of the reading lesson? [4, 239]
One way teachers can determine the exploitability of a passage is to do the
exercises and activities in the reading lesson. If, for example, one of the objectives is to
have students discover the author's point of view, the teacher could do that activity to see
if the reading passage allows the students to discover the author's point of view.
A descriptive article might not be amenable to that type of activity.
The factor of readability ranks with interest and exploitability as one of the most
important considerations in selecting a reading passage. Carrell uses the term to refer to
the following phenomena: syntactic appropriateness; logical/rhetorical ordering of ideas;
textual phenomena at the discourse level; lexical appropriateness; and background
knowledge of the reader. [1, 333] Nuttall reserves this term only for syntactic and lexical
considerations. Readability is used here to include the phenomena mentioned by Carrell,
plus the length of the passage.
One way of treating the problem of background knowledge is to select passages on
three or four themes throughout the reading program. This issue is explored in detail
later in this article.
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Syntactic Appropriateness. Syntactic constructions in a passage affect its
readability. If a passage contains grammatical constructions that the learners do not
know, they might have a hard time reading it. Readability formulas are used frequently in
first-language reading, and less often in foreign- or second-language reading, as a way of
determining the level of syntactic complexity of a reading. Carrell provides an insightful
summary of such formulas, and concludes that readability formulas fail for a variety of
reasons, including a failure to take into account "the interactive nature of the reading
process the interaction of the reader with the text". [1, 335] Moreover, EFL reading
teachers often do not have the time, resources, or appropriate information to utilize
readability formulas, even if the formulas do what they are purported to do.
Reading books can be a great way to pick up new vocabulary, see grammar in
action, and develop your understanding of a language. The key to success is choosing the
right book for you.
For beginners, we would recommend starting with something short and simple.
Avoid the classics for now
–
they often use archaic, very old! English words and can
involve complex themes. Children's books are a great place to start. Roald Dahl has
written many superb books and Dr Seuss's books are guaranteed to make you laugh. Dr
Seuss writes his books in rhyme and they are all very funny
–
The Cat in the Hat
is
probably his most well-known book. Starting with something like this means you are
more likely to finish the book and want to read more.
For more advanced learners, you could try
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book
isn't too long and if you've seen the film it may be easier to follow. If you like reading
about historical events, Anne Holm's
I am David
is a short story about a boy trying to find
his mother during World War 2.
Holes
by Louis Sachar is also a great read.
If you're not quite ready to read a full book, why not try Roald Dahl's
Revolting
Rhymes
? This book contains lots of short stories, based on fairy tales, all written in
rhyme. Or, try a very short book
–
like one from Roger Hargreaves's
Mr. Men and Little
Miss
series. Although they are intended for young children, they are a good way to pick up
some more basic vocabulary.
Our final piece of advice would be to read something that interests you. Look at the
blurb, the summary of the book, found on the back cover, and see if it looks like
something that you would enjoy. Think about the genres that you enjoy in your language
and find an equivalent in English. This way, you're more likely to enjoy reading, rather
than see it as a chore.
For well-resourced schools with adequately trained teachers, enough time, and
small class sizes, the teaching of English, or any additional language, to young learners is
possible and undoubtedly beneficial. In such environments, teachers can dedicate ample
time to developing all four skills through several different approaches. However, such
schools are in the minority, and the teaching of English as a second or foreign language in
schools in acquisition-poor contexts may be viewed by teachers and learners alike as an
unnecessary burden. This is particularly relevant in countries such as Japan, where
English is rarely spoken outside of the classroom or beyond the boardrooms of
multinational companies. How then, can such schools attempt to provide an English
education to their young learners with realistic expectations and attainable pedagogical
objectives? In this article, we will discuss strategies that can be employed to do so in
elementary schools, through an approach that focuses predominantly on developing
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reading skills, with an emphasis on the informal and enjoyable aspects of the process.
The recommendations are based on the positive effects that were observed using this
approach while teaching such learners in Japan. We will also discuss some further
implications for teachers.
Often with extracts or poems, we like to read the whole thing to our students so
that they can get more of a "feel" for the text. With very evocative pieces of literature or
poetry, this can be quite powerful. Then we let students read it to themselves. It is
important to let students approach a piece of literature for the first time without giving
them any specific task other than simply reading it. One of the aims of teaching literature
is to evoke interest and pleasure from the language. If students have to do a task at every
stage of a literature lesson, the pleasure can be lost.
Once students have read it once, you can set comprehension questions or ask them
to explain the significance of certain keywords of the text. Another way of checking
comprehension is to ask students to explain to each other, in pairs what they have
understood. This could be followed up by more subjective questions.
Give them clues. You could also look at certain elements of style that the author has
used. Remember that there is some use in looking at non-standard forms of language to
understand the standard.
If appropriate to the text, look at the connotation of words that the author has
chosen. For example, if the text says "She had long skinny arms," what does that say
about the author's impression of the woman? Would it be different if the author had
written "She had long slender arms"?
Follow-up activities. Once you have read and worked with your piece of literature
it might naturally lead on to one or more follow-up activities. Here are some ideas:
Using poems have students read each other the poem aloud at the same time,
checking for each other's pronunciation and rhythm. Do a whole class choral reading at
the end.
Ask students to rewrite the poem, changing the meaning but not the structure.
Ask students to write or discuss the possible story behind the poem. Who was it
for? What led to the writing of this poem?
Have a discussion on issues the poem raised and how they relate to the student's
lives.
Using extracts from stories or short stories.
Ask students to write what they think will happen next, or what they think
happened just before.
Ask students to write a background character description of one of the characters
which explains why they are the way they are.
Ask students to imagine they are working for a big Hollywood studio who wants to
make a movie from the book. They must decide the location and casting of the movie.
Ask students to personalize the text by talking about if anything similar has
happened to them.
Ask students to improvise a role play between two characters in the book.
Using extracts from plays
Most of the ideas from stories could be applied here, but obviously, this medium
gives plenty of opportunity for students to do some drama in the classroom. Here are
some possibilities:
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Ask students to act out a part of the scene in groups.
Ask students to make a radio play recording of the scene. They must record this
onto cassette. Listen to the different recordings in the last five minutes of future classes.
Whose was the best?
Ask students to read out the dialogue but to give the characters special accents,
very "foreign" or very "American" or "British". This works on different aspects of
pronunciation, individual sounds and sentence rhythm.
Ask students to write stage directions, including how to deliver lines, e.g. angrily,
breathlessly, etc, next to each character's line of dialogue. Then they read it out loud.
Ask students to re-write the scene. They could either modernise it, this has been
often done with Shakespeare, or imagine that it is set in a completely different location, in
space for example. Then they read out the new version.
Potential problems
Problem 1: Where do I find material?
Of course, you may have a novel or book of poetry that you have been dying to use
with your students for a long time. But where can you get more material? Easy! The
internet brings you instant access to many works of literature. Use a search engine.
Usually, it is enough to key in the name of the author or the book you are looking for.
Older books and plays can sometimes be found entirely online.
The following sites are excellent for book excerpts and stories:
–
a great site that allows you to read an excerpt from a multitude of recently
published books. You can search by author, book title, or genre!
–
brings you the first chapter of many recently published books.
Try the following two sites for poetry:
–
a site collecting America's favorite poems. You can also read comments about
why people like them and hear them being read aloud.
–
an archive of classical poetry, easy to browse through by poet. Has a top ten list
of favorite poems (chosen by visitors to the site) made an interesting starting point?
Problem 2: How do I choose material?
Think about the following factors when you choose a piece of literature to use with
learners:
Do you understand enough about the text to feel comfortable using it?
Is there enough time to work on the text in class?
Is there enough time to work on the text in class?
Does it fit with the rest of your syllabus?
Is it something that could be relevant to the learners?
Will it be motivating for them?
How much cultural or literary background do the learners need to be able to deal
with the tasks?
Is the level of language in the text too difficult?
Problem 3: Is the text too difficult?
A teacher would not want to use a text that is completely beyond their learners.
This would ultimately be frustrating for everyone involved. However, the immediate
difficulty with vocabulary in a text might not be an obstacle to its comprehension.
Learners can be trained to infer the meaning of difficult words from context. The
selection of a text must be given careful thought, but also the treatment of the text by the
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teacher (this means thinking about the tasks you set for a reading of a piece of literature,
not just the text). You may also be interested in the literature postcards we made for
extensive reading involve learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general
reading skills. It can be compared with intensive reading, which means reading in detail
with specific learning aims and tasks.
REFERENCES:
1.
Carrell, P. L. 1984. Schema theory and ESL reading: Classroom implications and
applications. The Modern Language Journal, 68, 4, pp. 332- 43.
2.
Dubin, F. 1986. Dealing with texts. In teaching second language reading for
academic purposes, ed. F. Dubin, D. E. Eskey and W. Grabe. Reading, Mass.: Addison-
Wesley.
3.
Johnson, P. 1981. Effects on reading comprehension of language complexity and
cultural background of a text. TESOL Quarterly, 15, 1, pp. 169 81.
4.
Nuttall, C. 1982. Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. London:
Heinemann Educational Books.
5.
Williams, R. 1983. Teaching the recognition of cohesive ties in reading a foreign
language. Reading in a Foreign Language, 1, 1, pp. 35-53.
6.
Yakubova, M. (2023). EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING ALDOUS
HUXLEY’S LIFE AND LITERARY ACTIVITY.
SCHOLAR
,
1
(31), 64-70.
7.
Yaqubova, M., & Abduvaliyeva, H. (2021). SOME METHODS FOR TEACHING
LITERARY ACTIVITY OF MARGARET FULLER.
Интернаука
, (19-5), 28-29.
8.
Teshaboyeva, B., & Yaqubova, M. (2020). USING VOCABULARY GAMES IN
TEACHING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. In
МОЛОДОЙ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬ: ВЫЗОВЫ И
ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ
(pp. 134-139).
9.
Yaqubova, M. (2024). The Content of Teaching Speaking in English.
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