Modern Techniques of Teaching Reading Skills

Abstract

In recent years the support extensive reading(ER) in English as a second or foreign language(ESL/EFL) programs has been compelling. When practicing extensive reading, the reader/learner reads a wide variety of text for pleasure and achieves a general understanding of the context while deciphering unknown words through context. This approach contrasts with extensive reading, a more traditional approach based on a slow, careful reading of a text, with goals of complete comprehension and identification of specific details and information. Research supports the use of ER, as it benefits the development of speaking, listening, and writing language skills(Maley 2005), as well as involuntary vocabulary acquisition(Brown, Waring, and Donkaewbua 2008). for this reason, ESL/EFL programs(Day and Bamford 1998). In East Asian nations such as Korea- where EFL increasingly central to education policy- more and more workshops, seminars, and conferences focus on helping teachers incorporate ER programs into their teaching context. There is a wide range of materials available for ER, including graded readers-novels and short stories that are calibrated to the different language levels of learners. However, despite the great support for what has been described as “the single most effective way to improve language proficiency”(Maley 2005,354). “Simply reading” is not a valid use of learning time, nor is it congruent with local expectations of the role of classroom teachers. Consequently, intensive reading, a companied by comprehension questions and language analysis tasks, continues to dominate in Korean classrooms.