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Suggestion for Teachers in EFL Reading Comprehension Classes


Ali Alamry



As L2 teachers of English, one of the greatest goals when it comes to L2 reading is that our students be able to read and comprehend with ease. However, reaching this level takes a lot of effort from the teacher and the learners. As a rule of thumb, reading should not be a repelling activity. After all, we read as we walk every day, and so for our students, effective reading should become second nature. Below are some suggestions for teachers and students in an L2 reading environment.  

 

Autonomy in Language Reading


As L2 reading teachers, we should support every effort exerted from our students to depend on themselves reading and trust their judgment in this regard. We can help them read on their own when we develop their reading strategies such as summarizing, forming questions on the reading assigned, and answering them. We should guide them to look for cues in the text that help them recognize the main ideas from the supporting details. Discussing and reflecting on the assigned readings gives the students a chance to voice their opinions about the quality and the quantity of the assigned reading and a window into their reading comprehension level. These techniques and reading strategies also help repair incoherent interpretations (Grabe, 2009). 


We should support them to read extensively on their areas of interest to build their vocabulary because “vocabulary growth leads to improved reading comprehension and amount of reading leads to vocabulary growth” (Grabe, 2009 p.266). building autonomous learners is desirable in its own right. Autonomous learners can determine realistic and reachable goals, select appropriate methods and techniques to be used, monitor their own learning process, and evaluate the progress of their own learning (Ceylan, 2015). Maintaining students’ independence in reading is crucial because reading is a lifelong skill that needs time to be perfected. Only autonomous learners can gauge their reading comprehension precisely and adjust their reading pace, strategies, and purposes accordingly. 

 

Learning by Seeing 


One of the favorable ways of learning something is seeing it. This can be applied to reading. Students have to see us organizing the reading assignment before their eyes; they need to see us stating our purpose from reading, deciding on how deep we are going to go into the text, whether we are going to look for particular details or settle for knowing the gist of the text. As L2 readers, they have to know that there are levels of comprehension to a text, and not all texts have to be understood equally and to the very same level of depth. 


We should let students see us execute some reading techniques such as skimming, skipping and scanning, etc. These techniques can make reading less intimidating and save time and make them more effective readers. Regardless of how tempting it may sound to read everything and to know everything in a given text, it is not always the case that we are expected to do so even in the L1. However, it is worth noting not to assume that there is a common set of strategies that characterize ‘the good language learner’ (Ellis and Shintani, 2013) because what works for one student may not work for the others. So, we need to teach the students to be strategic readers and utilize the text and the strategies that work the best.  


Reading Class Objectives’ Planning


Reading classes in the EFL environment has to have clear objectives for both the teacher and the students. When these reading objectives are not concrete and measurable, students get frustrated. As teachers, we should clearly state what we expect from the students and set for them reasonable goals extracted from reliable tests for reading competence and revise these goals periodically (Plakans and Gebril, 2015). Reading as a skill is very dynamic and needs flexibility and variety when designing the syllabus for a given class of reading comprehension. 


A good reading class should include different texts, academic and non-academic, and how to approach each one of them. Teachers should explicitly, if needed, point out whether the writer is trying to tell a story, persuade, argue for or against something, and whether it is a fact or an opinion. This type of text knowledge is essential for reading comprehension as the importance of learning new vocabulary. needless to say, that teachers have to consider students’ language proficiency when planning for the reading class, so students find the reading material a bit challenging yet accessible. (Ali Alamry)

 

References. 

Ceylan, N. O. (2015). Fostering learner autonomy. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 85-93.

Ellis, R., & Shintani, N. (2013). Exploring language pedagogy through second language acquisition research. Routledge.

Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Ernst Klett Sprachen.

Plakans, L., & Gebril, A. (2015). Assessment myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. University of Michigan Press.

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