SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES SEMESTER 2, ACADEMIC SESSION 2011/2012

PET 101

Effective Reading Skills for TESOL

TITLE:

Pre-Reading
GROUP MEMBERS : WONG SIEW WERN SITI NUR BAHIRAH BT KHALID COURSE COORDINATOR TUTORIAL : EDUCATION (TESOL) : DR. LIN SIEW ENG : MONDAY , 1.00-2.00PM (113443) (113441)

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 12/3/2012

CONTENT
TOPIC 1.0 What is Pre-reading? 2.0 The Purpose or Pre-reading 3.0 Pre-reading Strategies 3.1 Skimming 3.2 Scanning 3.3 K-W-L Chart 3.4 SQ3R 3.5 Visual Aid 3.6 Pre-Question 3.7 Vocabulary Preview 3.8 Brainstorming 3.9 Semantic Mapping 3.10 Word Splash Reference PAGE 1 2 3 3-4 4-5 5 6-7 7 7 8 8-10 10 11 12-13

1.0 What is Pre-reading? PRE-READING. It is a combination of the prefix pre- and the word reading. Pre- is a Latin word. It is a prefix used to describe before, prior to, in advance of, early, beforehand and other figurative meanings. Meanwhile, reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Or in simpler words, reading is an action of looking at and understanding something written or printed. Therefore, pre-reading is an action (activities, exercises, etcetera) done before reading. Pre-reading can be divided into two types; in-text pre-reading and out-of-text pre-reading. In-text pre-reading focuses more on activities or exercises which can be done inside of the text. For instance, scanning the title or chapters and analyzing the pictures. Out-of-text pre-reading is more towards activities and exercises which are done outside of the text. For example, conduction interviews or doing surveys. Notice the difference between the two; both types still serve the purpose of pre-reading, however, in-text prereading is more direct, it focuses on the direct usage of the text, whereas, out-of-text prereading is more on the application side of the text. Therefore, once the teacher has selected the text to be used with the students, he or she must decide whether to use in-text activities or out-of-text activities.

2.0 The Purpose of Pre-reading There are many purpose of pre-reading. Pre-reading activities are mainly conducted to prepare the readers for the text they are going to read. Since readers mind are usually distracted by other events and also their surroundings, it is important for teachers to prepare the readers before they start reading. Besides, pre-reading activities are also done to develop readers interest towards the text. Teachers can conduct activities which could take the readers mind away from other distractions and focus their interest towards the text. For example, teachers can explain about the culture in the text. Moreover, pre-reading activities are able to help readers understand the text better. Good and well-prepared pre-reading activities will be able to help readers engage their own knowledge and experience into the text. This will ensure a deeper understanding of the text. Furthermore, pre-reading activities help readers to understand the reasons for reading the text. A successful pre-reading activity will be able to build knowledge and elicit emotional response to the text from the readers. Pre-reading activities also allow readers to decide whether they would like to read more of the text or find other works by the author. It represents the first impression of the text. If the pre-reading activities failed, readers are less likely to read the text. In addition, pre-reading activities are also done to provide information about the text to the readers. During pre-reading, teachers should explain about the author; the background, style and common themes. Teachers should also discuss the titles, chapter titles and divisions with the readers. These will help readers to understand the characters and emotions conveyed by the text.

3.0 Pre-reading Strategies Speed Reading Skills: Scanning vs Skimming Skimming and scanning are two accelerated reading skills which help readers gain information rapidly from a book, newspaper, magazine or website without the need to read through every word. Readers read only selected parts of the material to give them the required ideas or information. Both skimming and scanning let the readers study a long text in relatively short time. 3.1 Skimming: For Getting the Gist Skimming is a technique to get a quick overview to recognize the main ideas that sum up the contents. The ultimate goal is just to get an overall impression of the text through alternate read and glance. When skimming, the readers will often leave out words, sentences, and paragraphs. The readers are not keen in every detail, getting the gist is sufficient. It is not important to comprehend each word when skimming.

How to Skim? First, read the title. After that, read the introduction. Read all the subheadings and think about the association between each other and the title. Next, read the first sentence in each paragraph. Then, run through the text again searching for hints to content such as graphs, tables, proper nouns, numbers, adjectives (such as best, worst, most, least) and font changes (italics, underlining, boldface). Finally, read the last paragraph

Advantages of Skimming Skimming is crucial give the readers a quick preview so that they can judge the value of the long piece of writing and decides if it is worth the readers time and energy to read on. Skimming can also be an effective way for reader to refresh the most significant parts of something that has been read previously.

Disadvantages of Skimming Skimming only provides the readers a general view of its contents. Some vital details are easily overlooked. This can create a puzzled or ambiguous impression. Skimming is ineffectual in making sense of detailed discussions or arguments.

3.2 Scanning: For a Specific Purpose

Scanning is when readers run their eyes over a text to extract specific words, phrases, or data quickly. During scanning, the readers do not read from the beginning till the end. In scanning, the readers usually have a question in mind, or something specific to look for thus the unrelated information is ignored. When they scan, the readers aim is just to find the needed information. When they have found it, they are done with reading.

How to Scan? The readers must keep in mind what it is they are searching for so they will not be distracted by other unrelated information. Predict how the information looks through the identification by numbers, italics, proper nouns, etc. Run a quick preview over a few lines at once. When the readers find the information they are looking for, they focus their eyes and read the whole sentence. Nonetheless, they may also need to read the sentence before and after.

Scanning Advantages Scanning allows the reader to capably collect information, which may be scattered throughout a long piece of writing. It encourages a purposeful way of reading and prevent distractions, Scanning Disadvantages Scanning can be quite dull and the technique cannot be used for a long period of reading as the reader might lose concentration. Scanning is not thorough reading and a key fact may be overlooked. The meaning of a fact depends on its context. If the surrounding text is not read, it is easy to misinterpret the true meaning of the fact.

3.3 KWL Chart

KWL chart is a good way to encourage students to engage with a text. K-W-L is created by Donna Ogle and it is a 3-column chart that covers the Before, During, and After components of reading an assigned text.

Before the reading, let the students think about facts which fall into the first and second of the three KWL columns: (K) 'Know,' (W) 'Want to Know.' Ask the students to fill the (L) 'Learned' section after they finish reading the text.

K (Know) This is the prior knowledge activation question.

W (Want to know) What do I want to know about this topic?

L (Learned) What have I learned about this topic?

3.4 SQ3R SQ3R OR SQRRR is a reading comprehension method. It is named based on its five steps; Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. This method was first introduced in 1946, by Francis Pleasant Robinson in his book titles Effective Study. It was created for college students. However, later it has been adapted into elementary schools reading as well. Elementary school readers, usually starting in fourth grade, are able to practice all of the steps once they have begun reading longer and more complex text. The first step is SURVEY. Readers should resist the temptation to read the text or book right away. Instead, they should glance through the chapters in order to identify the headings, subheadings and other features. This will help them to identify the ideas and formulate question about the content of the text or book. The second step is QUESTION. Readers should formulate questions about the contents of the text. Readers can formulate general questions such as what is this chapter about? or how does this information help me? Readers can also formulate more specific questions by converting the headings or sub-headings into question, and then look for answers in the content. The third step is READ. Readers will be able to start reading the text actively by using the work done in the first two steps; Survey and Question. The fourth step is RECITE. This step is also known as Rewrite and Recall. Readers must identify major points and answer the questions from the Q step. This may be done through oral or written format. But keep in mind, readers must use his or her own words while answering in order to evoke the active listening quality.

The fifth and final step is REVIEW. For this step, readers must have a study sheet. Readers must be tested by recalling key phrases of the text. this step will ensure that readers will review all sections to identify all the key phrases.

3.5 Visual Aid

Visual materials such as pictures and video can trigger a students' prior knowledge. Based on the visual materials, have students make two or three predictions as to what the text they are going to read is about. Ask them to include reasons as to why they made the prediction.

The students will become more aware of what to be expected in their reading, Students will remember and comprehend a text better if they visualize what they read. Teachers should permit the students to express their thoughts and talk about their visualizations aloud in class so to promote learning between the students.

3.6 Pre-question

A pre-reading strategy where the teacher prepares questions for the students in advance of reading. This will help to guide students towards the completion of their reading assignment. Nonetheless, the students can also skim through the reading text and write down own questions they expect to answer. The questions functions to converge attention and establish a purposeful reading.

3.7 Vocabulary Preview

List all words in the text that may be essential for students to understand. Unfamiliar key words should be taught to students before allowing them read so that new vocabulary, schema, and comprehension of the text can progress simultaneously. Give a verbal quiz to them on the unfamiliar words before reading begins.

3.8 Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group or individual technique by which efforts are made to find a solution, answer, etcetera for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its member(s). The term brainstorming was popularized in 1953 by Alex Faickney Osborn in his book titled Applied Imagination. Osborn believed that this method is more effective than individuals working alone in generating ideas. According to Osborn, there are two principles in brainstorming; defer judgement and reach for quantity. Based on these two principles, four general rules of brainstorming are created. The first rule is to focus on quantity. Osborn believed that the greater number of ideas produced, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution. Hence, teachers should encourage every student to give their ideas about the text. Teachers can ask about students about their opinions on the expected plot of the story, or the themes, values or characters. The second rule is with hold criticism. In brainstorming, criticism and judgement should be put on hold. This will help participants to feel free in generating ideas. Therefore, teachers should not criticize or judge any of the ideas given by the students even though it is wrong.

The third rule is welcome unusual ideas. In order to get a long list of ideas, unusual ideas must be welcomed. These kinds of ideas can be generated by looking from a new perspective. This way may provide better answers. Teachers should not ridiculed any of the ideas given by the students even if the teacher knows that it is far from the truth. The fourth and last rule is combine and improve ideas. This rule suggests that many good ideas should be combined to produce a better idea. Teachers should help in combining the ideas given by the students. By combining the ideas, students will have a rough outline of the text and this will help them understand the text better. Brainstorming can be done individually or in groups. If the teacher prefer to conduct the session individually, the teacher can used the nominal technique in which students can write down their ideas anonymously. Then the papers will be collected and the group votes for the ideas. Another way is idea mapping method. In this technique, each student brainstorm individually, then the ideas are merged onto one large idea map. Teachers can also used the guided brainstorming technique in which students are asked to brainstorm on a particular topic under the constraints of perspective and time. Students can be asked to brainstorm before entering the class. They should also be asked to brainstorm from a different mindset and perspective. Question brainstorming can also be done individually. In this techniques, students will have to brainstorm for questions instead of answers. Once the list of questions is done, they can start reading. Brainstorming can also be conducted in groups. In group passing technique, each student will write down their idea, then the paper is passed to the next person and the next person will further develop the idea. This continues until everybody has written down their ideas. Another technique

is directed brainstorming. In this technique, each students will write down their ideas in a piece of paper. Then, the paper is randomly swapped and the students will have to improve on the ideas. Then, the paper is swapped again. This process can be repeated for three or four times.

3.9 Semantic Mapping Semantic is related to the different meanings of words and symbols mainly in languages. Semantic mapping is a technique used to explain various concepts behind words, because, for any word, usually there are at least three associations. Details, minor details, trivial details and meaningless unrelated details. These are some of the things that readers have problems associating. In order to help readers understand the text better, teachers should help them link the information by using semantic mapping. Before readers start reading the text, teachers should provide them with a semantic map. It can be drawn on the whiteboard or on a transparency or mahjong paper. The map must be consisted by a primary bubble (main idea) and secondary bubbles (details). The secondary bubbles can later be branched out in order to add in more details. Ask the readers for their opinions on the themes, settings, characters, values, and etcetera and put them on the map. As they start reading the text, erase the wrong ideas and replace it with the correct ones. This strategy helps the readers to link the new information to their schemata or past knowledge. They will be able to mentally organize the details into different categories and notice how much they have learnt from the before and after semantic maps.

3.10 Word Splash Word splash is an activity where readers are asked to simply splash or jot down all the words which they think are related to the topic of the text. This activity helps to provide purposes of reading. By making a word splash, students can easily refer to it while reading the text to check whether the word splash they made are correct. Word splash helps the brain to organize and understand the content of the text better. Readers will have to brainstorm the words which are associated with the topic of the article. This can be done individually or in groups. Then, the teacher will review the words with the class by asking the students to write a sentence by using the words. Teachers can also review the words orally by asking the students how the words are related to the content. After reviewing the words, the class can begin reading the text. With the word splash, the readers will have recently activated schemata or background knowledge of the topic and this will help them to understand the text.

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