How to promote extensive reading?

How to Promote Extensive Reading?

        Nowadays, it is hard to find people who read a lot without being required to. In many schools, Students read because their teacher asks them to read. Do some of them read a great deal at home? Maybe YES but most of them don’t do it. Would Students be interested in reading something in a language that they are still learning? I don’t think so. In my life I have seen that reading is not the best hobby. Here is where the teacher has to act. To promote and get students interested in reading, It is advisable that He/She:

-Be a role model: What happens if your parents don’t behave correctly as they tell you to do? Nothing positive happens. You just don’t feel like doing it. The same thing happens in reading, if your teacher doesn’t read much, you won’t be motivated to do it. What if your teacher tells you that he has read many books articles, magazines, newspapers, etc and then shows what she has learned by doing it; Students will be more encouraged. Students will want to be like the teacher. There was a time when I saw my friend translate paragraphs from English to Spanish. At that time I said to myself “IF HE CAN DO IT, I WLL BE ABLE TO DO IT” Since then reading English Grammar books was my hobby.

-Remind students that understanding every single word in the reading is no the aim, but getting the general understanding.

-Allow students to the book which they are interested in: The book have to depend on the student level in the language. It is important that there not be much follow discussion or work in class about the reading because they are reading for pleasure; it shouldn’t be an obligation for students. What would happen if they feel like they don’t understand or enjoy? They would feel frustrated. For this reason, the teacher can allow the student to choose another book.

-Try to find a successful start: Once they manage to read successfully, they will feel more comfortable. Therefore, they will try to repeat it again. To do this, teacher can give students a pile of easier books to read.

-Highlight the benefits of this kind of reading: This way, they will know why they are going to do it. This will be a motivation to do it.

Interesting and fun writing activities.

Fun and interesting  writing activities.

Sometimes students can be a reluctant to write something in class. It shouldn’t be a problem because there are different activities to make students write enthusiastically.  Teachers can be able to have Ss interested in writing using the following activities…

1^st- Variations on a theme. For this activity, T needs 10 different pictures that are not quite different in theme. They can be pictures e.g. of only landscapes but in different places. Then T needs to put them on the wall or board so that everyone can see them. Ss have to pick one of the pictures and write a description of it on a piece of paper. T has to give Ss limited amount of time. When Ss are finished, T write letter (a, b, c,…) on the pictures and number on the descriptions (1, 2, 3,…). Finally Ss have to match them (the descriptions with the pictures).  To make it even more engaging, T can give a prize to the S who watches correctly (like a competition).Nobody wants to lose…

2^nd- How to get to my house. For the next activity, the teacher needs to prepare a map of a town. T has to name some of the buildings. This map has to have a railway station. T then photocopies as many maps as the number of Ss in the classroom. T has to make sure that each map has a different building on each map. Then T assigns each Student a partner to whom this student will write. After that, T tells her that she she/he has to write a letter to his partner how to get het/his home from the railway station. T tell him/her that her house is the marked building. When Ss Finish to write their letters, they send them to their partners. And their partners have to find the building based on their description that they received. Finally, T has to ask them to compare their maps for checking.

3^rd-Which picture is it about?. For this activity, T has to give each student a picture about any topic. Then, they have to write a sentence describing their pictures. It shouldn’t be very easy to discover which picture the sentence is describing. When they finish writing the sentences, they have to give their picture to their partner next to them. By doing this, all the Ss will write a sentence about all the pictures. T waits until everybody finishes writing the description about each picture. Then, T puts all the pictures on the board and the each student has to read his/her sentence. The others have to try to guess which picture he/ she is describing. In case they are not able to guess which picture he is describing , he wins a point. This activity can also be helpful to teach grammar. T can ask Ss to use certain grammar in the sentences.

Teaching listening activities.

How to teach listening activities?

In a classroom, Ss are always listening. They listen to the teacher’s instructions, classmates’ opinions, etc. Even though they practice it in every class, they get a little scared when they are required to listen to a recording to do some task such as answering given questions, getting the main idea, and getting details. It is true that it is not the same to listen to the teacher’s instructions and follow it than to listen to a recording to do certain tasks.

To avoid and/or decrease these feelings on the Ss, T should prepare Ss. First of all T ought to introduce the topic and discover what Ss already know about the topic that they are going to listen to (it work as the lead-in). What teachers usually do is to ask to Ss questions about the topic so that they can predict what the listening will be about. If it is really necessary, T should provide any new vocabulary that Ss may need. It might be seen in Basic levels; some books have vocabulary that for Ss are impossible to find out the meanings. Once Ss have already discussed the questions, T has set the questions. If she wants the Ss to listen for the gist (skimming), she might give one or two questions. It is advisable that T tell the Ss that they don’t have to worry that they have to understand every word in the recording. Actually, understanding every single word on the audio is not the goal. After you do it all, Ss will be more confident. The recording should not be long. It will depend on the Ss’ levels. If it is a Basic 1 course, it must be less than a minute.

If Ss are going to skim, T has to play the recording only once. Then, T has to ask Ss the questions previously given. Ss get the right answers most of the time in this task so there not necessarily be comparing. Before playing the second time  T should be very specific about what Ss will listen for( this time for scanning) such as emotional tone, answering very detailed questions, finding out who says what, etc. T might need to play one more time. Since listening should focus more on the process rather than the product, it is crucial that T ask the Ss to get in pairs or in groups to compare and agree with the best answer. In case that Ss are not doing most of the tasks well, T has to play the recording one more time. Then the Ss will have to compare their answer again. There might be cases when Ss cannot get the right answer, in this case you will have to play the recording only on the relevant parts. Finally Ss should tell their answer to the class. It is important that T ask others if they agree with their classmate.

After that T has a variety of activities to choose. For instance, ask Ss to write a summary of the listening, work on new vocabulary, the pronunciation, grammar used, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91GL21bCjAE

Personally speaking I love this video because it has a complete listening lesson, from pre-, listening, listening itself to post listening. The lead-in is engaging because it includes competition. The procedure is almost similar to the one that I wrote above. You guys should watch this video. It is a good example of a listening lesson.