the preparation course

Unit 6 ReadingTKT PREPARATION COURSE

Task 1•Write down different types of reading material you know

•For example: magazines

What is reading• It is a receptive skill• it involves responding to text,

rather than producing it.• it involves making sense of

text. To do this we need to understand the language of the text at word level, sentence level and whole-text level. (bottom-up process)

• We also need to connect the message with our knowledge of the world. (top-down process)

• Consider:• ‘The boy was surprised

because the girl was much faster runner than he was.’

KEY CONCEPTS• Coherence refers to the

logical connection between sentences of a text.

• Coherence involves using the knowledge of the world to make sense of text.

• ‘The boy was surprised because the girl was much faster runner than he was. Then he found out that her mother won a medal for running at the Olympic Games’

• Cohesion refers to the grammatical link that exists between sentences.

• That is, being able to identify reference words. That is to know that ‘he’ refers to ‘the boy’ and ‘her’ to ‘the girl’.

Reading skills, subskills, and strategies

Reading sub-skills• Reading for gist or

skimming is about reading quickly a text to get the general idea of it.

• Reading for detail

• Reading for specific information or scanning, we use this sub-skill to find quickly the piece(s) of information we need.

• Reading for detail involves reading in order to get meaning out of every word.

Language learning activities • Extensive reading

involves reading long pieces of texts such as books, articles, etc.

• Intensive reading refers to the use of texts to see how language is used.

Summarizing…reading involves…• Understanding letters,

words, and sentences• Understanding the

connection between sentences (coherence and cohesion)

• Understanding different types of texts

• Making sense of the text

Read quickly to get the general idea

Task 2 Answer true or false for the following statements1. Giving learners lots of opportunities for extensive

reading, in or out of class, does not help them to develop their fluency in reading.

2. Tasks need to be of an appropriate level of difficulty and practice relevant reading sub skills.

3. Reading comprehension tasks and exercises focus always on the same reading subskills.

4. It is not necessary that teachers recognize which subskill a task focuses on.

5. Teachers need to choose comprehension tasks very carefully.

Answer key1. Giving learners lots of opportunities for extensive

reading, in or out of class, does not help them to develop their fluency in reading. FALSE

2. Tasks need to be of an appropriate level of difficulty and practice relevant reading subskills. TRUE

3. Reading comprehension tasks and exercises focus always on the same reading subskills. FALSE

4. It is not necessary that teachers recognize which subskill a task focuses on. TRUE

5. Teachers need to choose comprehension tasks very carefully. TRUE

• End of the presentation!