EDU516 Midterm Preparation Highlighted Handouts by Muhammad

Teaching of English (EDU516) · Lecture 1 · Topic 1: Reading Skills - Silent Reading

The habit of silent reading is very important as the student gets familiar with the language, understands the words and letters of the language, mostly, students are visual learners and silent reading helps them. Silent Reading does not embarrass the child as the child reads by himself, the children become used to looking at the articles, words and letters of the language, they learn independently, the teacher just supervises the students.

To help them learn the skill of Silent Reading, we can ask them to underline the words according to their level. In mixed ability class the task can be given according to the ability of students. Silent Reading helps them to develop concepts as students concentrate on the language and its formation rather than just finishing reading and becoming conscious in front of other students.

Topic 2: Loud Reading

It has more disadvantages than advantages.

The advantage is that the teacher gets to know the level of familiarization of the students with the language. However, the disadvantages are that it does not engage other students at all. Usually, the best student is asked to read, who is already at an advantage, and the rest of the class can‟t follow him, they become disinterested. Even the one who is reading does not concentrate on the content but is pressurized to read correctly, well with proper pronunciation so, in fact he does not benefit much either. It is merely a waste of time however; it can benefit if it is timed correctly and carried out at the end of the lesson when everyone has become familiar with the content. It is better if loud reading is done in pairs or groups rather than one student reading and the rest of them getting disengaged. Maybe one student can be asked to read while the others repeat after him.

Topic 3: Skimming

Skimming is done when we just want to get a gist of what is going on, for example we skim through the newspaper to see the headlines or read the news lines on the TV screen. It is not done for any exam preparation or to comprehend any sort of content.

We need to inculcate the skill of skimming in our students so that they know how to go through a content when they do not have enough time to read it thoroughly. It gives students a good idea what they are going to read. It is also called pre-reading. It is also done in brain storming sessions. Some students create new words and ideas come to their mind, it boosts creativity, they make conclusions of what they are reading. An example activity is to give them words and they can go through the words for vocabulary building exercise.

Topic 4: Scanning

When scanning takes place, everything comes in a detailed form. The primary school children can be given to recognize the letters, words, the meaning of the word. Maybe give them words in colours, e.g. R in red colour, E in blue and D in black and ask them to look at the words and tell where they can find R and likewise. Guidance and clear instructions are very important for scanning. Whereas for secondary school students it can be the use of words, meaning of it, spelling of it for even higher level students they may be asked to look for the meaning of words in context, for high achievers it can be to read between the lines. Thus there are levels of scanning according to the level of the students.

Lecture 2

Topic 5: Close Reading

Close reading is related to the development of writing skills. A particular text is given to them and no other choice is given to them. For example, if we want them to develop the skill of report writing thus give them to read lots of reports in the newspapers. The teacher needs to let them know the objectives of close reading. Let them know that they are supposed to read the features of that writing and then design a similar text. The students should sequence the features; for example the incident, title, date and the timing, venue, relate the incident and in the end they should relate what is going to happen. The teachers should also put these features on the board so that the students know what they are going to observe in the given text.

Topic 6: Problems in Close Reading

The students might come across the following problems while doing close reading, they could encounter difficult words, grammar and the teacher might have to translate the text to students if they are familiar with translation method of teaching, it would also take more time in doing so. Otherwise, direct method can be used. Some dictionary can be used, maybe in a group work to maximize time management and efficiency. Translation method is not a very good approach to teach a second language.

Topic 7: Close Reading (Continued)

The three important factors in Close Reading are Literal Meaning, Inferences and Contextual Meaning. Close reading is very limited and for a particular topic. For primary level, we would ask them for literal meaning in the text, otherwise if the level of the student is advanced then