1 Building better reading comprehensionRowena Mathew

2 We’ll only work with one textContext first! This workshop resulted from a previous workplace project on investigating L2 reading Project focus: building better (deeper and more accurate) comprehension across different EAP levels – intensive reading My focus today: Advanced level (CEFR B2; IELTS BAND 5.5; TOEFL iBT 71); published opinion texts (‘Op. Ed.’ texts) We’ll only work with one text Note that curriculum and assessment are produced by specialist teams, which are separate from the teaching team at REW, which means we are blessed with purpose written materials. However, this can mean that some teachers feel that they have a lack of agency in helping build reading skills. Also, although some texts and activities in the course books are very close to what students encounter in their reading assessment, occasionally students have failed the tests after appearing to have performed well in class activities. The gap between class and test performance for these students then raised the question – what can teachers do to help build better reading comprehension skills and be more than ‘curriculum materials deliverers’?

3 Gauging your prior knowledge of L2 reading processesPlease talk to your partner for 2 minutes about what you know about ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ L2 reading processes Time participants strictly and then elicit some egs of top down and bottom up reading processes before showing the next slide.

4 Examples of ‘top down’ or global L2 reading processes Examples of ‘bottom up’ or local L2 reading processes Scanning a text for specific details Looking for key vocabulary or phrases in a text Breaking up long words into smaller units (e.g. using knowledge of affixes and word classes in English) in a text Using knowledge of grammar to understand the meaning of specific sentences Checking in a dictionary or deciding on the meaning of unknown vocabulary from context Skimming a text for the main idea Recognising text structure Piecing together scattered information on one idea/subject in a text Drawing inferences from a text Using background or prior knowledge to help understand the text Speculating beyond the text (thinking about future developments or possible effects from an informative text; thinking about opposing views of an opinion text) Show list to participants once they elicit the difference between the two terms and possibly volunteer some examples too. Also mention that the prevailing consensus from reading researchers is that the reading process involves both top down and bottom up processes interactively and that L2 reading at lower language proficiency levels is less seamless and may not always employ all these strategies. Ask participants which strategies they think good L2 readers/more proficient L2 readers use: Answer: Research suggests that good L2 readers and more proficient L2 readers use as many as possible of these strategies. For L1 readers these processes are mostly automatic and unconscious. Say to workshop group that they will notice that we’re using a variety of these strategies as we look at one text in particular and employ a pre-reading, while reading and post reading activity with that one text.

5 Today’s example text and reading activitiespre/before reading activities while/during reading activities post/after reading activities Say to participants that they will probably know this sequence and that it is common practice in many ESL and FL course books. However, I’m going to show with my particular emphasis on specific activities within this sequence can help build better reading comprehension for ESL students, particularly because it means the teacher is exploiting each stage with full knowledge of why they are using each activity and how each activity allows students to utilise both top down and bottom up processing strategies.

6 Pre-reading activity Usual activities: teaching predicted important, difficult vocabulary before reading (low frequency words which are key to understanding the text)  discussion questions about the topic of the text to activate prior knowledge of the topic  discussion questions about the type of text to activate prior knowledge of the text type ? Critical Q. Rather than ‘activate prior’ background knowledge, what about ‘build/develop future’ knowledge? E.g. English Op Ed text genres in news media?? Raise critical question and highlight that if the students do NOT have much knowledge of the topic OR the type/genre of text they are about to read, then trying to activate prior knowledge or schemata may not work with sts. Ask teachers if they think their students are familiar with/know about the structure of Op Ed opinion pieces in English? Point out that while students may be reasonably familiar with writing opinion texts from doing IELTS and TOEFL tests, that Op Ed pieces are more sophisticated, and neither IELTS nor TOEFL provide Op Ed opinion style pieces in their reading proficiency tests – even the academic tests use mainly informative texts. Therefore, is it worth asking questions like ‘What kind of text is this?’ without a choice of answers provided? At least a choice of answers will help students build schemata as they skim read. Suggestion: You can ask sts about their knowledge of the topic before reading and get them to discuss this topic, and then ask: Have you ever read an opinion text in English before? Where and when? Have you ever written an opinion text in English before? What structure did you use? You are going to read an opinion text from News Media about X. Predict from the title of the text and the biography of the writer what their opinion on this topic will be. (OR get workshop participants to come to this conclusion and tell them how to introduce this text when they are reasonably sure that they students won’t be familiar with this type of text in English (and maybe not in their L1 on many topics in China and Saudi Arabia, for example)

7 Hand out text to workshop participants and let them work out what kind of text it is, who wrote it, where it appeared and what the purpose of it is. They might point out that a typical strategy is to focus on the title, byline and biographical details or just show these parts of the text to sts, to help sts just skim for this information. Next, ask participants if they think the structure of this text would be difficult for students and why?

8 Get participants to read the first paragraph and see if they can extract the main idea – or if they think the main idea is in the byline. Ask them to remember to view this from the perspective of students who have just entered the class from doing IELTS or TOEFL style exam preparation courses. Participants would be able to say that the main idea is not the first sentence of the paragraph or even the last sentence of the paragraph – although the last sentence is more accurate. They have to read the whole paragraph to get the meaning – which is an aim of this purpose written text, to build students’ ability to get meaning from connecting sentences. Then ask participants to see what they think is the main idea of the text at this stage and write this down. Tell them that this is pre reading strategy 1. Say that sts would then check their prediction after they finish reading the text. This is a strategy that allows sts to be accountable for making genuine predictions and to begin a habit (it is a good idea to remind sts to do this with the next few texts you give to them). 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

9 First Next Last Headline/bylineOp Ed writers first use a ‘hook’ to get your attention Then they should clearly state their main point Next They present supporting reasons Each reason is usually one paragraph They usually use point; proof; analysis structure Last Conclusion They often use a ‘call to action’ This ‘call to action’ is to finish strongly Say that this is pre-reading strategy 2 for building schema: Teachers could show a diagram like the one above to highlight the similarities and differences between the only opinion genre sts may know – an opinion essay, and an Op Ed piece Source: adapted from westmount.koumbit.org/sites/org/WritinganOPINIONCOLUMN.ppt

10 Sample Structure for writing an Op Ed piece – (adapted from Westmount High School in Canada for Year 12 English exam) Opinion columns in news media Headline – The writer often uses some alliteration or other ‘play on words’ By-line + writer’s name Hook/lead – the writer will try to creatively introduce the topic first - they often use a shocking statistic/quote/example or a rhetorical question They should clearly present their main point in the first or second paragraphs – so keep reading if the main point is not clear in paragraph one The writer will present their first supporting reason – This involves: POINT – state the reason; PROOF – use statistics or paraphrase or quote another source; ANALYSIS – comment on the proof presented. They present their second supporting reason – Again POINT, PROOF, ANALYSIS They present their third supporting reason – Again POINT, PROOF, ANALYSIS They will often address you as a reader directly - by using 1st and 2nd person pronouns like ‘I’ ‘me’ ‘you’ ‘we’ ‘us’ They often finish with a statement linking to their hook/lead – a ‘call to action’ to you, the reader 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

11 While/during reading activityUsual activities: identify main idea and supporting ideas – can be done with a graphic organiser  Write a one line summary of each paragraph as you read it  comprehension questions – but these may also involve summarising ideas post reading ? Q. Could give students guided questions which they can check AS THEY READ? Explain how a guide-o-rama is done and how it differs from usual comprehension questions which sts may or may not be able to complete successfully or with confidence as they read through the text, depending on the nature of the questions. For a guide-o-rama, the text can be broken up into sections with questions interspersed after each section of text or, as I have done here, put on a handout. If put on a PPT slide/separate handout, the teacher needs to make sure students complete the questions as they go, which can be problematic for slower readers, but it at least gives the teacher a chance to see what comprehension is happening for sts as they read. Sts can also work in pairs which allows them to negotiate meaning together and takes the reading from being a solitary activity to being a shared activity where they construct meaning together.

12 Ex. ‘Guide-o-rama’ (as cited in Hedgcock and Ferris 2009) for this textYou can make a simple handout like my example (with your prepared answers on another handout) and give this to sts You can put sts in pairs to check their answers with each other as they go along You can use a ICT based format for certain texts and question types – perhaps not this text Give Guide-o-rama out and explain to participants that you can put sts in pairs for this – also using an ICT format to put these questions online like Kahoot! could be a great way of guiding sts through a text as the program is devised so that you cannot move on until you have got all sts’ answers for the question. However, a Kahoot! I made for these questions didn’t work that well as the multi choice options are difficult to create and I found the options also took away from the comprehension of main ideas – better for informational texts and true/false questions, where critical responses/reactions to a text are not the ultimate goal of the reading text. For this text type and question type I’m still searching – I’m happy to hear any ideas you might have! 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

13 Also while reading: Can use ‘Think alouds’ for sts to monitor their comprehension as they read Clarify meaning of any other unknown vocabulary that individual sts ask for help with e.g. ‘welcome with open arms’; ‘make no mistake’; ‘at a local level’ Look more closely at grammar e.g. ‘would be’ in Para 1 vs ‘would you want’ in Para 5 Explain ‘think alouds’ – best done in pairs or a small group and they may need to be modelled by the teacher to show how to do it and what it is: that you are telling others what you are thinking as you read a text in order to: show sts that reading is mentally active get sts to see that their reading process can be different from others’ develop more self-awareness in sts as to what they find easy/difficult when they read in English Get them to learn to develop ‘inner’ comprehension questions so that reading and answering comprehension questions become less forced and a little more natural for them This does not have to be with a whole text but could be with two paragraphs only with one st thinking aloud during one paragraph sentence by sentence and another st thinking aloud in the next paragraph, sentence by sentence. Simple think alouds can be sts 1. stopping to check the sentence that they have just read and saying to their partner ‘I think this is about…’ 2. stopping when they meet a new word or phrase and saying to their partner ‘I think this might mean…because…’ or ‘I’m not sure what this mean, because…’ and 3. saying at the end of the paragraph ‘I think I’m going to read about x next because…’ Simple substitutes work best – ‘be very happy about’; ‘it’s undoubtedly true’; ‘have an effect on local people and the local economy’ 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

14 Get sts to write a summary of the text in pairs After/post reading Give some complex/specific noun phrases to pairs of sts to demonstrate meaning to the rest of the class e.g. ‘short term financial costs’ Get sts to write a summary of the text in pairs Get sts to reread the text and annotate their reactions to supporting ideas 1. I’ve found giving individual phrases to get pairs of sts to draw in simple pictures/cartoons and then show the class and get other sts to guess the meaning have been successful. For this text I recommend: current economic crisis; short-sighted; question the wisdom; employment market; critical shortage 2. Summaries can be done at any language level, and I’ve found they are best when sts need to write in pairs and check their summaries with other students – For an Op Ed text: Do they have the same main idea? Do they have the same supporting arguments? Have they paraphrased sufficiently? Summaries can be produced for class display so sts can read each others’ summaries and go back and edit/amend their own if necessary 3. Annotations move sts into a critical thinking stage, which is what REW uses Op Ed pieces for in our EAP courses. Very able sts may be able to do this during a first reading, but for many sts, this is only possible once they have understood the whole text, in a second - or even third reading. 4. Sts should be praised for rereading texts to learn more from them – although they cannot do this in tests as much, the intensive reading lessons in class should be developing their competence to extract meaning and try again when they find comprehension difficult. 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

15 Example of both summary notes, reader reactions and graphic organiserJust in case participants want to know what summary notes and reactions in an Journal or a graphic organiser could look like (although this is an all in one version!) 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

16 To finish: L2 reading is a process of utilising both top-down and bottom-up strategies interactively but not automatically/seamlessly Sts need help building schema for unfamiliar reading text genres Sts need for us to show them that pre-reading, while reading and post-reading activities are all useful for comprehension (and explain why) Sts need time to reread texts – skimming and scanning can be overused strategies! Sts need time to do grammar and vocabulary work from reading texts Summarise my main points – emphasise that I’ve used strategies that are both top down and bottom up but are designed to help sts extract deeper and more comprehensive meaning than skimming and scanning information in texts allow. 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd

17 References Abbott M, 2006, ESL Reading Strategies: Differences in Arabic and Mandarin Speaker Test Performance. Language Learning, 56(4), Alderson J.C., 2000, Assessing Reading. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Anderson N, 1999, Exploring second language reading, Heinle and Heinle, Boston Grabe W and Jiang X, 2014 Assessing Reading The Companion to Language Assessment, 1st ed., , John Wiley and Sons Inc., New Jersey Hedgcock J and Ferris D, 2009, Teaching readers of English, Routledge, Taylor and Francis, New York Nation I.S.P Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, Routledge Taylor and Francis, New York Westmount High School English language arts department westmount.koumbit.org/sites/org/WritinganOPINIONCOLUMN.ppt, Quebec, Canada 9/12/2017 RMIT Training Pty Ltd