The efficacy of macro-linguistics in developing reading skills: an integrated lesson plan

Abstract

Studies regarding reading skills have been carried out for a long time. However, the bond between linguistics and foreign language teaching, especially reading skills, has been frequently overlooked. Thus, this study which aims to emphasize the importance and need of linguistics offers an alternative way of dealing with reading texts. In this context, after reviewing the literature about some major fields of macro-linguistics such as, pragmatics, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics briefly, a relationship is established between the interdisciplinary areas listed above and foreign language teaching, mainly reading skills. The study is intended to help foreign language teachers to enrich their teaching reading experiences via keeping the core fields of macrolinguistics in mind. Thus, as an implication, an integrated lesson plan is developed in the study to demonstrate the efficacy of macro-linguistics in developing reading skills. Based upon the observations conducted, aforementioned plan highlights that the students are kept aware and motivated, reflect their experiences, have ideas about the register and intralingual and interlingual vernaculars of the language displayed in the text. The data is collected through student observations, performances and samples of their works. The results of the study indicated that foreign language students’ comprehension levels of a reading text could be increased with the realization of macrolinguistics.