Enseñanza de la lectura en inglés y tipos textuales

Class 5

Objectives

● To analyze two sample teaching sequences based on texts

● To learn how to plan post-reading tasks and how to relate them with
lexico-grammatical resources.

Contents

● Post-reading tasks. Problem-solving tasks.

● Teaching grammar and lexis with texts. Integration of lexico-grammatical resources in
the task-based reading teaching sequence.

Introduction

The following questions will guide this class:

● What post-reading tasks can we design?

● How can we integrate reading and writing?

● How can we relate reading to speaking and listening?

● What is the role of grammar and lexis when planning post-reading tasks?

There is a clear relationship between the development of reading skills and the other
macroskills. Well-planned language classes will integrate reading and writing, speaking and
listening.

Reading can be integrated with writing by providing the opportunity to read and analyse the
language features and structures of a range of texts to use as models for students’ own
writing.

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Researchers advocate the explicit teaching of grammar as part of a genre- or text-based
approach to reading and writing.

L1 and L2 research suggests that extensive reading develops language knowledge (vocabulary,
fluency, syntactic knowledge, semantic memory, metalinguistic awareness, general
knowledge) that supports writing ability.

Reading can be integrated with the development of speaking and listening skills (e.g. in a
text-based approach, the context of a text can be explored through a range of speaking and
listening activities)

A written text can be used to provide content and vocabulary for speaking activities such
as discussions and role plays.

(Sources: Callaghan et al 1993; Day and Bamford 1998; Feez 1998; Butt et al
2000; Grabe 2001)

Practical applications: the teaching-learning cycle

The Teaching Learning cycle is a systematic approach to the process of teaching students to
engage with and create texts. It is based primarily on the work of Halliday and Painter, who
presented the fundamental essence of successful language learning as requiring “guidance
through interaction in the context of shared experience” (Martin & Rose, 2012, p. 58). It is also
based heavily on the work of Vygotsky, whose theory of the Zone of Proximal Development
features extensively in the Teaching Learning Cycle. In the Teaching Learning cycle, teachers
play a predominant role in the dissemination of knowledge, particularly through the strategy of
scaffolding. The Teaching Learning cycle’s purpose is to enable teachers to systematically and
effectively build students meaning-making ability and potential to mean through the
deconstruction of the texts, creation of joint texts together with the teacher, which then
enables the student to create a text independently. The combination of a strong theoretical
base, as well as a distinct set of stages to be carried through by the teacher, means that the
Teaching Learning cycle is an effective and systematic approach to teaching students to
engage with and create texts.

The Teaching Learning cycle has three stages, each with their own distinct purpose, but
working towards the common goal of language learning, which is defined by Halliday as ability
to make meaning (Derewianka & Jones, 2013, p. 4). In our context, we can use this cycle
first for reading comprehension, situating the text in a strong context and then, we
can proceed to the other stages to link the reading task with writing tasks as follow -
up. The following Figure shows the stages in the cycle:

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The first stage is deconstruction, in which a teacher presents an ideal model of a text for
the students, and then discusses the features of the language in the text, the structure and
stages, as well as its cultural context (Martin & Rose, 2012, p. 64). Deconstruction comes in
two parts: building the field, and modeling the genre. The purpose of this stage is to engaging
the learner and developing their conscious knowledge of language and how language works
(Derewianka & Jones, 2013, p. 48). An example of this is the teaching of the exposition genre.
In the building the field stage, the teacher would engage the students in activities to share
what they already know about the topic, provide resources to research more about the topic,
such as a DVD or book (Gibbons, 2009, p. 116-117). In the modelling stage, the teacher
provides a model exposition for the students, and also provides the students with

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 metalanguage to discuss the language features of the exposition. Metalanguage is using
language to talk about language, and is an essential way of making language visible and
accessible to learners (Gibbons, 2009, p. 62). Expositions are composed of three distinct
sections, which are the Thesis, Arguments, and Restatement (Martin & Rose, 2012, p. 68). A
teacher would teach his or her students about these stages, what their key features are, and
then allow the students to mark these stages on the text. A creative method for achieving this
is to cut the model text into sections, and instruct students to place the text into the correct
order by its stages. This allows the students to develop an understanding of the stages of the
text, and to set up the prerequisites for the expansion of their ability to make meaning.

The second stage of the Teaching Learning cycle is joint construction. Joint
construction is essential for focussing students on how language is structured, and does so by
enabling students to suggest ideas whilst the teacher acts as a scribe (Gibbons, 2009, p. 67).
The purpose of this stage is to demonstrate to students the process of writing, that is to say
the necessary revisions, reorganisation of ideas, corrections to grammar, and improvements of
wording become more evident to learners (Gibbons, 2009, p. 119). Scaffolding is used
extensively in this stage, as the teacher provides a lot of assistance to the students whilst
constructing this text by organising ideas (Martin & Rose, 2012, p. 68). Often this is done by
students suggesting ideas, and the teacher rewording their input (Gibbons, 2009, p. 67).
Another example of an activity from this stage is a cloze text, which Gibbons describes as “a
text with some words deleted” (Gibbons, 2009, p. 73). Words are deleted at regular intervals,
and can be designed for specific purposes such as to practise specific grammatical
constructions or vocabulary related to the field (Gibbons, 2009, p. 73). This stage is critical for
the learner to expand their meaning making potential.

The third stage of the Teaching Learning cycle is independent construction. This stage
involves learners writing a text on a slightly different topic that is related to the field, with
minimal teacher support (Derewianka & Jones, 2013, p. 54). The purpose of this stage is to
allow learners an opportunity to create texts, and to allow teachers a method of determining
whether students have met requirements for writing in the genre (Hyland, 2014, p. 137). A
key activity in this stage is for the students to independently “research, write, and revise a
whole, multi-draft text for a specific audience and purpose” (Hyland, 2014, p. 122). The role of
the teacher is to provide prompts for the students to begin their writing, and to provide explicit
criteria to guide the student’s writing (Derewianka & Jones, 2013, p. 54-55). The teacher then
still provides some support during the writing process, but not nearly to the same extent as in
the first two stages of the Teaching Learning cycle. It is during this stage that students are
able to enhance their meaning making ability much further, as it builds on the previous two
stages.

Teaching lexico-grammatical resources with texts: a genre-based grammar

The decision of the language we want our students to learn should be based on two
criteria:
1) On the key language students will need to read and understand the main ideas of a
text and

2) On the use students have to do of that language (grammar and lexis, for example) either in
while-reading tasks or post-reading tasks. This means that language must be contextualized in
the form of texts either for reception (reading and listenting) or for production (writing and

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speaking) As Paltridge (2001) states, a genre-based grammar focuses on language at the level
of whole texts and at the same time takes into account ways in which meanings are expressed
at the level of grammar and vocabulary. Classroom applications of this view of language focus
on both text and context and discuss discourse, vocabulary choice, and grammar in relation to
them. In sum, we don´t need to teach ALL the language in texts. Instead, students have to
learn the language they need for understanding texts and do tasks related to them.

At the text level, a teacher might choose to focus on the visual layout of the text, its generic
structure, the thematic structure of the text, or ways in which the text is broken up into
paragraphs. Other text-level of language use that might be considered include patterns of
cohesion, such as reference and conjunctions. In all cases, the language to be taught has to
be related to the language students need both to understand texts or to produce them. We
will develop language teaching with texts further in Class 6.

READING MODELS: Some ideas

Once students have developed independent reading skills, the following strategies are
designed to make explicit connections between the processes of reading and writing; in
particular, they aim to promote the practices that will produce critical readers.

• Choose texts that are generically ‘simple’.Texts that are not clear in their purpose or which
shift almost aimlessly between genres can provide poor models for student writing.
• Use the text as an object to be pulled apart and examined. Question the untouchability of the
printed word. Show students that reading is an active process of unpacking all elements of a
text.
• Do several readings, each time examining different aspects, such as:

Purpose

Why is the text written like this?

Who is the audience?

Who was it written by?

Message

What is the text about?

What are its main themes?

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Structure

Are different parts of the text doing different jobs?

Is language used differently in each stage?

Grammar

What type of language is being used to do each job?

For example, what words are used to describe here?

What are they describing?

What type of words are they?

Some other suggestions for follow-up or post-reading tasks

Use of graphic organizers

An excellent comprehension aid are the graphic organizers, a tool used widely by L1 and L2
teachers at all levels of literacy instruction (Dubin & Bycina, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2002; Jiang
& Grabe, 2007). Although Grabe and Stoller (2002) describe graphic organizers as primarily a
way for students to discern text structure, they are also useful in guiding students to pull out
key facts and relationships and to record them in a visual format different from (and more
easily understandable than) the information contained in potentially dense and lengthy
paragraphs. A graphic format may help some visual nonverbal learners to grasp key ideas and
connections that they might otherwise miss.

For all students, graphic organizers facilitate review processes and provide easy reference to
key textual components (Kajder, 2006; Shrum & Glisan, 2005).

Graphic organizers can vary widely in form, and the organization and genre of a text can
determine which type of organizer is most appropriate.

One site you can download graphic organizers is https://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

but if you search the internet you will find lots of sites with graphic organizers for different
type of texts.

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We nonetheless encourage all teachers to build substantive post-reading work into their
intensive reading lessons rather than simply moving on to the next topic and text. Although it
may be tempting to do so—teacher and students may be tired of the text once it has been
carefully read and thoroughly understood— students will benefit more from their reading if they
are required to evaluate it critically and work with the text in their own language-production
activities (speaking and writing) (Hirvela, 2004; Horowitz, 2007; Weissberg, 2006).

Postreading activities also offer the best opportunities for teacher assessment of student
progress, as they make the internal reading process and its outcomes more transparent (see
Chapter 9). Again following the template in Figure 5.1, we focus here on three general goals of
the post-reading stage: (1) summarizing; (2) thinking critically; and (3) making reading–
writing connections.

For more ideas on reading strategies and/or tasks see the file “List of reading strategies and
tasks” in Recursos.

Activities

During this week/class we are asking you to::

1. analyze two sample teaching sequences

2. read the information about the teaching-learning cycle and post-reading tasks
3. design at least one post-reading task for the text you selected in class 2

Bibliography

● Derewianka, B., & Jones, P. (2013). Teaching Language in Context. Melbourne: Oxford
University Press.
● Feez, J., & De Silva Joyce, H. (2012). Text-Based language literacy education:
Programming and methodology. Putney: Phoenix Education Pty.
● Hyland, K. (2014). Genre and second language writing. Michigan: University of Michigan
Press.

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 ● Martin, J.R., & Rose, D. (2012). Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge
and pedagogy in the sydney school. Bristol: Equinox.
● Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the Language Learning Classroom. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.

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