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55FUNDAMENTAL POINTS OF TEACHING READING
Jo'rayeva Zulayhoxon Shamshiddinovna, Xoshimova Dilso^zxon Rasuljon qizi
KSPI, teachers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages
ABSTRACT
Reading is an activity and one of the essential skills with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the type of texts that can be used in instruction.
Keywords: Reading, Texts, comprehend, Process, Authentic Material.
INTRODUCTION
Reading is a complex "cognitive process" of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Reading is a means of language acquisition, communication and of sharing information and ideas. The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that use, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.
Why teach reading?
• EFL teachers in Uzbekistan don't have enough time to teach reading.
• Reading is about so much more than comprehension questions.
• Reading is a chance to learn a language the way all languages are learned in the beginning.
Reading research shows that good readers
• Read extensively
• Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
• Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
• Are motivated
• Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
• Read for a purpose; reading serves a function
Reading as a process-
Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills and strategies to determine what that meaning is.
Reader's knowledge, skills and strategies include-
Linguistic competence- ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary and how words are structured into sentences.
Discourse competence- knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the texts to one another.
Sociolinguistics competence- knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content.
Strategic competence-the ability to use top-down strategies as well as knowledge of the language. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skill and strategies are appropriate for the type of texts, and understand how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.
Reading is a source of input
There are few people who argue more in favor of using reading to learn a language than Stephen Krashen. His theory of second language acquisition is centered around the input hypothesis: that acquisition of a language occurs primarily through masses of input and exposure.
Using Authentic Material and Approach-
For students to develop communicative competence in reading, classroom and homework reading activities must resemble real-life reading tasks that involve meaningful communication.
The reading material must be authentic. It must be the kind of material that students will need and want to be able to read when travelling, studying abroad, or using the language in other contexts outside the classroom.
Rather than simplifying a text by changing its language, make it more approachable by eliciting student's existing knowledge in pre-reading discussion,
reviewing new vocabulary before reading and asking students to perform tasks that are within their competence, such as skimming to get the main idea or scanning for specific information, before they begin intensive reading.
2. The reading purpose must be authentic. Students must be reading for reasons that make sense and relevance to them.
3. The reading approach must also be authentic. Students should read the text in such a way that matches the reading purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally read.
Strategies for developing reading skills
Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include
• Previewing : reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
• Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension ; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure ; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing , vocabulary and content.
• Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of text to get the main idea, identifying text structure , conform or question predictions
• Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words , instead of stopping
to look them up.
• Paraphrasing : stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text.
Teachers can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in several ways.
• By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of reviewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.
• By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in- class or out of class reading.
• By using cloze (fill in the blanks) exercises to review vocabulary items. This help students learn to guess meaning from context.
• By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used.
Reading to Learn
Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in multiple ways.
• Reading to learn the language: Reading material is language input. By giving students a variety of materials to read, instructors provide multiple opportunities for students to absorb vocabulary , grammar ,sentence structure and discourse structure as they occur in authentic contexts.
• Reading for content information: Reading for content information in the language classroom gives students both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading.
• Reading for cultural knowledge and awareness: Reading everyday materials that are designed for native speakers can give students insight into the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying.
• When students have access to newspapers , magazines, and Web sites, they are exposed to culture in all its variety, and monolithic cultural stereotypes begin to break down.
When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:
1. Figure out the purpose for reading.
2. Attend to the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short term memory.
3. Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively.
4. Check comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed.
Printed texts are permanent
In addition to providing natural and authentic language models of language, reading texts have one huge advantage over other texts: they are printed.
Consider what a learner encounters when listening to a passage:
• The speaker articulates their ides
• The sounds from speaker's mouth move through the air and reach the ear of listener
• The sound waves enter the listener's ear
• If any of this process interrupted the source of information is gone. The only option the listener has to ask the speaker to repeat something or ask the teacher to replay the text
• In contrast to this, when a reader encounters difficulties with a reading text, they typically go back to the start of the phrases or section that cause difficulty, and read it again. As many times as they like
Reading aloud
A student's performance when reading aloud is not a reliable indicator of that student's reading ability. A student who is perfectly capable of understanding a given text when reading it silently with word recognition and speaking ability in the way that reading aloud requires. However, reading aloud can help a teacher assess whether a student "seeing" word endings and other grammatical features when reading. Ask the student to read a sentence silently one or more times, until comfortable with the content .This procedure allow the student to process the text , and let you see the results of that processing.
Reading texts are great tools for vocabulary development
Just imagine if you could prepare your students to deal with unfamiliar words so that when they encounter them outside of class, they have the skills to achieve greater levels of comprehension. Well, using reading texts can allow you to all of these things, with a bit of planning and practice. First of all, helping your students to deal with unfamiliar words is a key skill
CONCLUSION
For many years, comprehension is the only reason for reading. Without comprehension , reading is a frustrating, pointless exercise in word calling. It is no exaggeration to say that how well students develop the ability to comprehend what they read has a profound effect on their entire lives. Comprehension instruction followed what the study called mentioning, practicing and assessing procedure where teachers mentioned a specific skill by completing work book pages. It is plausible that preparation in the nature of the foundational reading skills and research- based instructional approaches would improve teacher's practice to a degree that would be evident in earning outcomes for their students.
REFERENCES
1. Allington, R. L. (2001). What really matters for struggling readers. New York: Longman
2. Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom strategies for interactive learning (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association
3. Durkin, D. (2004). Teaching them to read (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
4. Harvey, S., &Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
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