1. Reflecting on the value
of Reading in the EFL
classroom
G. Ledwith

2. Student’s Attitudes to Reading
Students are Associated
reluctant to read in with
mother tongue memorizing &
regurgitating
Reading only
enables them to Passive = Boring
answer
comprehension
tasks
Reading no longer a pleasure
World of reading unaccessible and avoidable

3. Deprives students
of time for grammar
instruction
Feels very little Often a waste of
is accomplished Teacher’s valuable time
Attitudes to
Reading
Limits Provides
student’s narrow range
responses of activities

4. Raise student’s curiosity
Activate background knowledge
Motivate student’s interests
Pre reading
activities Contribute to comprehension *
Provide opportunities for
reflection
help students build up
their expectations and Put into play strategies such as
understandings about a
text before they actually hypothesis, prediction.
begin reading it.
* One type of pre-reading task is to introduce targeted vocabulary.

5. Background information Vocabulary building (ladders)
K-W-L- Chart
Prediction
Pre reading activities
Hypothesis Spot the genre
Anticipation Guides Character anticipation

6. Agree – Disagree: Before and After
Observation Diary
Predictions Cause and Effects
While reading
Dear diary
Sizing up the Setting
Follow the clues
Who said What and Why
Herringbone Technique
Notes and quotes

7. Story Board
Opinion Page Building a Story
Post reading SWBS: Plot Chart
From me to you!
Story Tree
Comic Strip Template

8. Inferring word clues + experience = inferences
Readers who infer…
 Draw conclusions about their reading by connecting the
text with their background knowledge.
 Synthesize new ideas and information.
 Create unique understandings of the text they are reading.
 Make predictions about the text, confirm or disconfirm
those predictions based on textual information, developing
comprehension of the text as they read
 Extend their comprehension beyond literal understandings
of the printed page
[For narrative text] Can you predict what is about to happen?
Why did you make that prediction? Can you point to (or identify) something in the book that
helped you to make that prediction? [Or] What do you already know that helped you to
make that prediction?
What did the author mean by _________? What in the story (text) helped you to know that?
What do you already know that helped you to decide that?

9. It is not enough to know how to read.
If one is to become a lifelong reader,
it is imperative that one has the
desire to read.
Skill makes reading a possibility.
Motivation makes reading a reality.

10. Teachers have the possibility to help students find
Pleasure in reading
Perceive writer’s skills Experience language
Voice one’s ideas in meaningful
context
Picture other lives,
places, times No right / wrong
Enables students
answers
to continue in
Entertainment contact with L2
Sharing with others
While inmersed in wide range of language tasks and
vocabulary building

11. It is in your hands...

12. Bibliography
 Oliver Keene, Mosaic of Thought. The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction.
Heinemann
 Jean Greenwood, Class readers. OUP
 Debbie Miller Comprehension Strategy – Drawing Inferences -
www.readinglady.com/.../Inferences%20handout%20by%20Deb%20Smith.doc
 International Reading Association – Read Write & Think -
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/action-character-exploring-character-175