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Making the
Most of a Newsmagazine Passage for Reading-Skills Development
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Greater numbers of English-language
newsmagazines are now becoming available worldwide. As a consequence, teachers have the
option of bringing newsmagazine articles into their classrooms and integrating their use
into reading classes. With the growing importance of reading for second-language learners
(Lynch and Hudson 1991), teachers can use these authentic materials to help students
improve their reading skills as well as to introduce them to content that is of interest
to them. Rather than simply asking students to read a newsmagazine article on their own,
teachers can integrate reading-skills development activities into their instruction to
help students improve their reading ability. In this way, ESL/EFL instructors can provide
students with opportunities to practice a variety of reading subskills as well as
strategies for dealing with new topics, long passages, difficult passages, unfamiliar
vocabulary, etc. That is, students can develop flexible reading skills and strategies that
will vary according to the purpose of the reading task and the nature of the reading
passage. (See Appendix A for a
taxonomy of reading skills.) The readings and accompanying activities can also serve as a
stimulus for other written or oral class work.
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The reading-skills development activities that
accompany the reading of a newsmagazine passage can be done before reading the passage
(pre-reading exercises), while reading the passage (during- reading exercises), and/or
after students have finished reading the passage (post-reading exercises). Depending on
the article chosen, the objectives of the course, and available time, teachers can choose
to integrate all three exercise types into their lesson or only one.
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In this article I will outline steps teachers
should take when planning their reading lessons. This will be followed by a taxonomy of
pre-, during-, and post-reading activities that can easily be used with newsmagazine
reading passages. While the focus of this article will be on the use of newsmagazine
articles for intermediate and advanced students, the pre-, during-, and post- reading
activities can easily be adapted for use with other text genres (textbook reading
passages, newspapers, books, etc.) and/or modified for less skilled readers.
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Preliminary lesson-planning steps
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Teachers who use authentic materials such as
newsmagazine articles have the responsibility to carry the task beyond simply distributing
the article to their students and asking them to read it. The teacher has the
responsibility to design exercises and activities that (a) prepare students for the
reading task, (b) aid students in improving their reading abilities, and (c)
help students comprehend the passage. Before designing pre-, during-, and post-reading
activities for reading-skills development, instructors should follow these preliminary
lesson-planning steps:
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1. Select an article that will be of interest/
relevance to your students while considering the following questions:
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a. Will the topic be of interest to the
majority of students in the class?
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b. Will the content of the reading
passage be useful for the students? If so, in what way? Will it provide them with general
world knowledge? Will it introduce them to useful vocabulary? Will it help them understand
subsequent readings or classroom activities? Will it build upon information previously
presented in class? Will the information be transferable to out-of-class settings? That
is, will it allow them to communicate more easily with other speakers of the target
language in the workplace, the classroom, or social settings?
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c. How much do the students already know
about the topic? Will it be necessary to introduce materials/concepts/vocabulary to them
during pre-reading activities to familiarize them with the topic? Are there students in
the class who could provide others with valuable information about this topic?
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2. Consider the nature of the article chosen and
appraise it in terms of language complexity, content, and text-type characteristics (Dubin
1986); diverse topics and text genres will offer opportunities for different types of
reading-skill development activities. Think about the following questions:
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a. How difficult will the article be for
students to comprehend? What aspects of the article will be particularly challenging
(e.g., length, lexicon, rhetorical structure, assumed knowledge)?
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b. What strategies will students need to apply
to comprehend part or all of the article?
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c. What aspects of the article, if any, will
simplify the reading task (e.g., redundancy, clear topic sentences, straightforward
headings, charts and graphs)?
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3. Determine the purpose for the reading task;
that is, determine what you want the students to gain from the reading experience in terms
of content and reading-skills development. Consider the following questions:
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a. Will the passage be read in its entirety?
Should it be read in detail or only for specific details?
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b. Is the reading task an end in itself or does
it lead into another classroom activity (Hood and Solomon 1985)?
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c. How much content should the students be
accountable for?
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4. After considering the "demands" of
the selected newsmagazine article and determining the purpose for the reading task,
evaluate the options you have for pre-reading, during- reading, and post-reading
activities. When actually designing reading-skills development exercises to complement the
newsmagazine article, teachers must be selective, because different exercise types lead to
different outcomes and require varying amounts of time. The activities should naturally
evolve from the nature of the reading passage itself while the teachers consider (a)
lesson objectives, (b) desired course outcomes, (c) the time available to
devote to reading-skills instruction, and (d) characteristics of the learners
(e.g., their interests, background knowledge, proficiency levels, and language needs).
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The answers to the questions and issues raised
above will influence decisions made about pre-reading activities those activities designed
to prepare students for the actual reading of the selected article. Because comprehension
will be determined partly by a student s own background knowledge, pre-reading activities
can be utilized (a) to tap students already existing background knowledge, and/or (b)
to provide students with new information that will help them comprehend the passage.
Furthermore, these activities increase student concentration, stimulate curiosity,
increase imagination, and foster motivation, as well as give students a sense of purpose,
a reason for reading (Hess 1991).
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If all the students, or some of the students,
are familiar with the topic of the selected reading passage, pre-reading activities can be
designed to encourage students to share their knowledge with their peers. If the
instructor thinks that few, if any, of the students are familiar with the topic, but that
the topic will be of interest to them, he/she should design pre-reading activities that
highlight new information that will help students make sense of the passage.
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Listed below are a number of pre-reading
options; note that they are not listed in order of preference, nor is the list all-
inclusive. Upon close examination, one will realize that the activities represent
different types of pre-reading approaches. The background knowledge of the students and
the nature of the selected article will dictate the types of pre-reading exercises that
are most appropriate for your class. The pre-reading exercises outlined here can be used
separately or in tandem. Note that for many of the exercises it is advisable to have
students "letter" each paragraph in the passage (A Z) before beginning the
pre-reading exercise. This "painless" procedure facilitates class discussion and
prevents confusion between exercise items (often numbered) and paragraph designation
(Rosenthal and Erb 1992).
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1. Create a semantic map. Before
even looking at the article, the teacher and students can create a semantic map on the
blackboard that graphically displays information within categories related to a central
concept and stimulates meaningful word associations. The teacher begins the process by
introducing the major theme, a major concept, or a major issue from the article by writing
it in the middle of the blackboard. For example, in the case of a Newsweek article by
Starr et al. that focuses on post Olympic Game endorsements and advertisements (see Appendix B ), the teacher can write
the following on the blackboard:
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After telling students that they will be reading
an article about the Olympic Games, the teacher can ask them what they think the article
will be about. The teacher should be prepared to ask probing questions designed to elicit
information from the students. The nature of these probing questions can lead students to
mention terms/ideas that will be included in or inferred from the article to be read. As
students contribute ideas, the teacher can create a semantic map, grouping students ideas
in general semantic categories and/or in categories that reflect the organization or
content of the article to be read. For example, after a brainstorming session on the
Olympic Games, a semantic map such as the one shown in Figure 1 might be on the blackboard.
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Once the semantic map is sufficiently developed,
the instructor can (a) point out the topics that will be covered in the article, (b)
ask students to quickly glance at the article (the title, subtitles, headings, pictures,
etc.) to determine which topics will be included in the article, and/or (c)
encourage students to develop further the "section" of the semantic map that
reflects the contents of the article. For example, with the Starr et al. article, it would
be appropriate to develop further the section on Olympic Game endorsements,
advertisements, and money (see the bottom right-hand cluster of words on the semantic map
above). The end result may look something like Figure 2 .
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Semantic map exercises, such as the one
described above, help students work as a group to gather their own resources;
simultaneously, they prepare students to understand, assimilate, and evaluate the
information to be read (Heimlich and Pittelman 1986). Bringing this knowledge to the
conscious level helps students make sense of the topic of an article to be read.
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2. Study the layout of the reading
passage. Students can be asked to preview the article title, subtitles, headings,
and/or "visuals" (e.g., photographs with captions, illustrations, charts,
graphs) to see if they "reveal" the main idea(s) of the article. Students can
quickly examine the layout of the article and try to (a) predict the content of the
article, (b) form questions they will be able to answer after reading the article,
and/or (c) share information they know about the topic.
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3. Skim for the main idea(s).
After examining the title and headings, students can be asked to read the first and last
paragraph of the article to determine the main idea(s) of the article. Alternatively, they
can read the first paragraph in its entirety and the first sentence of each subsequent
paragraph before determining the main idea(s). The actual organization of the selected
article will dictate which paragraphs, if any, should be skimmed for the main idea. For
this pre-reading exercise to be effective in providing students with practice in skimming,
students must be given only a few minutes to accomplish this task; otherwise they will read
the article rather than skim it!
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4. Scan for details. After
examining the title and headings, students can be asked to scan for important information.
If the article contains easily identifiable information that will help students understand
the content of the article (e.g., names of countries, times and/or dates, names of
people), the teacher can generate a list of questions that will help students discover
this information quickly . Students can scan the entire article for an answer or be
directed to specific paragraphs for the information (e.g., "Look in paragraph D. How
much money can athletes earn for a public appearance?" "Look in paragraph G.
Which woman athlete will endorse multiple products?" "Look at paragraph B. In
what country is gymnast Scherbo popular?"). Again, to ensure that students scan
rather than read, scanning exercises should be completed quickly, under timed conditions.
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5. Match main ideas with paragraphs.
The teacher can list the main idea of each paragraph (or groups of paragraphs) on the
blackboard; this should be done in an abbreviated manner (i.e., short phrases) and should
be presented in scrambled order (i.e., not in the order of the text). Initially, the
teacher can ask students to look at the list of main ideas and consider questions such as
these: (a) What do you think the title of this article is? (b) What is this
article about? (c) Who is the article about?
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Then students can be asked to skim/ scan the
article quickly and match the letter of the paragraph(s) with the main idea on the
blackboard. Consider the example in Figure 3 . An exercise of this type reinforces the notion that most
paragraphs are developed around a main idea. However, because newsmagazine articles are
not always written transparently in this manner, teachers should be aware of the fact that
only certain reading passages can be used with an exercise of this type.
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6. Examine the visuals. If the
selected article has charts, graphs, or figures that are fairly easy to decipher without
having read the article, students can be asked to examine those visuals in order to
discover the main idea(s) of the article.
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7. Read select paragraphs carefully.
If the article is organized in such a way as to include one paragraph (or more) that
summarizes and/or introduces most of the ideas to be covered in the article, students can
be asked to answer a set of questions about the article by reading that particular
paragraph or paragraphs.
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8. Present main idea(s). If
students are unfamiliar with the topic of the selected article, but the teacher thinks the
topic will be of interest to the students, the instructor can give a
"mini-lecture" about the article to orient students to the main ideas of the
article and introduce key vocabulary. This approach is most effective if key vocabulary
items are jotted down on the board, or a semantic map created, during the
"mini-lecture."
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9. Consult the dictionary.
Students can be asked to look up key words in their dictionaries in order to find an
appropriate definition, synonym, or antonym. Ideally, the key words should be presented in
context, perhaps by "lifting" the sentences in which they are included in the
article and writing them on the blackboard. This form of presentation not only introduces
words in meaningful contexts but also indirectly introduces students to the contents of
the article. Before planning an exercise of this type, teachers should check their
students dictionaries to determine what information is included in the dictionary entry.
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10. Consider new vocabulary. If
the article includes vocabulary words that are likely to be new to students yet crucial
for comprehension, these terms can be introduced to the students by means of pre-reading
exercises before students are asked to read the passage. Vocabulary items can be
introduced by (a) providing or having students discover definitions, synonyms,
and/or antonyms, (b) pointing out contextual clues, (c) familiarizing
students with word families, etc. (Gairns and Redman 1986; Morgan and Rinvolucri 1986).
Students could also be asked to identify semantic groupings in an exercise similar to the
one illustrated in Figure 4 .
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The primary purpose of these during-reading
options is to facilitate the actual reading of the selected passage. These activities
encourage students to be active and reflective readers (Wallace 1992). Furthermore,
during-reading options can provide more academically oriented students with practice in
activities (such as note-taking) that are commonly practiced by skilled readers while
reading for academic purposes. While at times it is appropriate to ask students to simply
read the selected passage, at other times it is beneficial to provide students with
opportunities to utilize different during-reading strategies while reading. The
during-reading options outlined below can be adapted for different reading tasks. That is,
whether students are reading the article in its entirety, just skimming the article, or
reading it for specific details, these during-reading tasks can be modified to complement
the assigned task.
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1. Read for specific purposes. The
teacher can encourage students to read selectively by posing a number of questions to the
students that they should consider while reading or by creating grids or tables that
students complete while reading. For example, while reading the article about the
Olympics, students could be asked to identify the sports event associated with each
athlete as shown in Figure 5 .
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2. Highlight the text. Teachers
can ask students to read with a highlighter (or pen) in hand so that the students can
highlight (or underline) the main point(s) of the article and/or the answers to a set of
questions posed to them just before reading.
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?? Figure 4 The following words
are used in the article about the Olympic Games. Group them into
three logical categories: Las Vegas Albertville clothing pole-vaulter
Barcelona shampoo cereal swimmer runner basketball player skater
gymnast sunglasses Coke ??* 3. Take notes. Students
can take abbreviated notes on a separate sheet of paper about
the article while they are reading. At the beginning of the semester,
the instructor might provide students with a "skeletal framework"
of the notes that they can fill in. Later, students can take notes
on their own. Another note- taking activity would require students
to jot down a 2 5 word description of the main idea of each paragraph
in the margin of the article. Later students can match their main
ideas with the teacher s, listed on the blackboard. (Refer to
pre-reading option #5, which can be modified easily to become
a during-reading activity.)
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4. Predict the contents of the article.
After students read a portion of the article, they can then work in groups or as a class
to predict what will happen next in the article. In this way, students are exposed to
diverse reactions to and interpretations of the text. Then they can work together to
hypothesize the contents of the rest of the reading passage.
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5. Determine what has happened.
Students can be asked to read the newsmagazine passage in "chunks." That is,
students can be asked to read the newsmagazine article section by section, stopping at the
end of each section to discuss the main idea(s) up to that point.
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Post-reading exercises, traditionally the only
set of exercises accompanying a reading passage, give students the option to review,
synthesize, summarize, and/or react to what they have read. Just as it is useful to
prepare students for what they read through pre-reading activities, students need to
follow up on what they have read through post-reading exercises (Moore et al. 1982). Time
can be set aside for post-reading activities in class, or students can be asked to
complete them as homework.
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1. Discuss the article with classmates.
Students can be asked to discuss the main idea or specific issues from the article with a
classmate, in groups, or as a class. Rather than just asking students to summarize main
points, teachers can pose questions that will create a more communicative interchange
among students. The key to facilitating such an interchange is to pose a question that
creates a true information gap and that leads to responses that students are genuinely
interested in. For example, a post-reading question to accompany the article on the
Olympic Games could be the following: "Which types of post Olympic Game activities do
you think would be most satisfying for the athletes introduced in this article? Why?"
In response to a question of this type, students are making use of information from the
article, but bringing in diverse interpretations and opinions that would be of interest to
classmates.
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2. Generate summaries or reactions.
Students can be asked to present oral or written summaries and/or reactions to the article
utilizing information from the text.
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3. Search for meaningful vocabulary.
Students can be asked to go back to the article to (a) explore the meaning of
useful idiomatic phrases that they have just read in context, (b) search for
synonyms or antonyms of certain key lexical items, and/or (c) identify lexical
items that belong to specific word families. For example, students reading the article on
the Olympic Games could be asked to answer questions such as those shown in Figure 6 .
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4. Scan for details. After having
read the article, the teacher can either read a set of questions or put a set of questions
on the board, and direct the students to scan the article for answers to those questions.
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5. Make inferences. Questions can
be posed that require students to infer meaning, that is, read between the lines. For
example, students can be asked to characterize the attitude of the author(s).
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6. Sequence events. Students can
be given a list of events that were described in the reading passage and asked to sequence
them. Timelines and chronology activities help students clarify the order of events in the
reading passage.
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7. Apply information from the article.
Students can apply information from the article to an information-gap activity,
problem-solving activity, debate, simulation game, roleplay, etc. In this way, students
can apply information gained by reading the article to a situation that is both of
interest and relevant to their lives. In these activities, students are obliged to move
beyond the content of the reading passage to create questions and answers not necessarily
found in the text (Hind and Brancard 1991).
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8. Follow up on pre-reading
or during-reading exercises. In follow-up activities,
students reevaluate assumptions made prior to reading and while
reading in light of information gained from completing the reading
(Hind and Brancard 1991).
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9. Create or revise semantic maps.
Semantic maps, described under pre-reading activities, provide a useful means for
summarizing the contents of a reading passage. As a post-reading activity, "semantic
mapping affords students the opportunity to recall, organize, and represent graphically
the pertinent information read" (Heimlich and Pittelman 1986:6).
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10. Synthesize information from multiple
sources. Because newsmagazines cover similar topics week after week, students can
be asked to synthesize information from more than one article. This type of activity
encourages students to relate information from more than one reading source.
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Successful, mature readers, by definition, are
able to read unedited texts written "by authors who make no accommodation to readers
who are less than fully competent" (Dubin 1986:137). The use of newsmagazine articles
in the ESL/EFL classroom provides students with opportunities to read authentic materials
while developing skills that approximate those of the successful, mature reader. (See
Grabe 1991, for a more detailed discussion of fluent reading processes.) The most
efficient use of these newsmagazine materials requires that teachers (a) appraise
students interests, language needs, and background knowledge, (b) select an article
of interest and relevance to students, (c) define reading tasks, and (d)
develop the most appropriate pre-, during-, and post-reading activities. By means of these
activities, teachers can make the most of newsmagazine reading passages, preparing
students to read articles like these on their own in the future.
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This article only begins to highlight the
activities a teacher can plan for a reading-skills development course. Teachers can
broaden their repertoire of pre-, during-, and post-reading activities by consulting
Grellet (1981), Heimlich and Pittelman (1986), Hess (1991), Holme (1991), Moore et al.
(1982), and Wallace (1992), as well as the many ESL/EFL teacher reference books on the
market.
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- Dubin, F. 1986. Dealing with texts. In Teaching second language reading for academic
purposes, ed. F. Dubin, D. E. Eskey, and W. Grabe. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
- Gairns, R. and S. Redman. 1986. Working with words: A guide to teaching and learning
vocabulary. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Grabe, W. 1991. Current developments in second language reading research. TESOL
Quarterly, 25, 3, pp. 375 406.
- Grellet, F. 1981. Developing reading skills: A practical guide to reading comprehension
exercises. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Heimlich, J. E. and S. D. Pittelman. 1986. Semantic mapping: Classroom applications.
Newark, Del.: International Reading Association.
- Hess, N. 1991. Headstarts: One hundred original pre-text activities. New York: Longman.
- Hind, J. and R. Brancard. 1991. What s next? Ten ideas for post- reading activities.
Paper presented at the annual TESOL Convention, New York.
- Holme, R. 1991. Talking texts: Innovative recipes for intensive reading. New York:
Longman.
- Hood, S. and N. Solomon. 1985. Focus on reading: A handbook for teachers. Adelaide,
South Australia: National Curriculum Resource Centre.
- Lynch, B. K. and T. Hudson. 1991. EST reading. In Teaching English as a second or
foreign language, ed. M. Celce-Murcia. New York: Newbury House.
- Moore, D. W., J. E. Readence, and R. J. Rickelman. 1982. Prereading activities for
content area reading and learning. Newark, Del.: International Reading Association.
- Morgan, J. and M. Rinvolucri. 1986. Vocabulary. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Munby, J. 1978. Communicative syllabus design. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Rosenthal, J. and K. Erb. 1992. Teaching the vocabulary of a newsmagazine. Paper
presented at the annual Region II NAFSA Convention, Park City, Utah.
- Wallace, C. 1992. Reading. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Fredricka
L. Stoller is an assistant professor in the English as a second language/applied
linguistics programs at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. She is also the director
of the Program in Intensive English at the same university. She is an active member of
TESOL and past-chair of the TESOL Awards Committee. |
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Return
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Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
| The following words are used in the article about the
Olympic Games. Group them into three logical categories: |
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Las Vegas
clothing
Barcelona
cereal
runner
Minsk
skater
sunglasses |
Albertville
pole-vaulter
shampoo
swimmer
basketball
player
gymnast
Coke |
Figure 5
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athletes |
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sports event |
Vitaly Scherbo......................
Michael Jordan......................
Kristi Yamaguchi...................
Alberto Tomba...................... |
Figure 6
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Find a synonym of profitable in
paragraph D:__________________ |
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Find an antonym of minor in
paragraph D:__________________ |
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Find the noun form of perceive in
paragraph E:__________________ |
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Find the verb from of endorsement in
paragraph G:__________________ |
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Appendix A
Taxonomy of Reading Skills (Munbt 1978)
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recognizing the script of a language
deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items
understanding explicitly stated information
understanding information when not explicitly stated
understanding conceptual meaning
understanding the communicative value (function) of sentences and utterances
understanding relations within the sentence
understanding relations between the parts of a text through lexical cohesion devices
understanding relations between parts of a text through grammatical cohesion devices
interpreting text by going outside it
recognizing indicators in discourse
identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse
distinguishing the main idea from supporting details
extracting salient points to summarize (the text, an idea, etc.)
selective extraction of relevant points from a text
basic reference skills
skimming
scanning to locate specifically required information
transcoding information in diagrammatic display |
Appendix B
Back to Article
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