University of Mississippi - Teaching L2 Literacy

Using an Authentic Text for Teaching Reading on the First Day of a Beginner-level Foreign Language Class Neema Loy Imagine you are teaching your native language to foreigners for the first time, and it’s their very first lesson. Would you consider pulling up a piece of written conversation from a novel, play, or a transcription of an interview to use in the class on the very first day? Not until you have been trained to do so. Otherwise, you might think it is impossible, or even insane! Once upon the time, I thought so too.  I thought I could only use those materials after students had taken Swahili for some time, mainly because I worried about students’ inability to understand the text. This post will discuss how you can use an authentic text on the first day of teaching to help students focus on reading in a beginner-level FL class.  What is an authentic text?  The word authentic means real, pure, or original. Authentic texts are “written by members of a language and cu...

 Abdullah Balbaid                                                                  Active Teaching and Active Teachers             Teaching reading skill represents one of the challenging tasks for EFL/ESL teachers as this skill requires more effort from both teachers and learners to engage and interact to achieve the learning goals. As EFL/ESL teachers, there are many effective tasks to be done to assist learners in acquiring and mastering this skill. Some of these tasks are related to extensive reading, reading strategies, learners’ motives, and purposes.     Extensive reading            One way of improving reading as a skill is extensive reading. In second la...

Weijia Feng  What English reading comprehension level  you consider yourself are ? What English  books or articles  have you read this week? How much do you understand  them ? Do you feel this way sometimes, even though you force yourself to read in English often, still, sometimes it’s difficulty for you to understand an article, a paragraph, or even a long sentence, why is that? What we can do to improve our ability of reading comprehension?  1. S et a timer when read We all have the experience that, i f you are just reading  something  for entertainment, time  goes fast and we feel no pressure, also the  place  where you read  do es  not matter. You can enjoy reading anytime, anywhere, whether in the subway, cafe or your own bedroom. But  besides leisure reading, try to make a schedule, set a timer, give yourself a task, to finish a certain amount of reading within a period of time, this trains your f...

Gulzora Mirzaeva Reading is a powerful source of communication and the betterment of communication lies on comprehension. Reading comprehension can be enhanced by the use of effective strategies. As English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher, I have had students who would come to me asking for “the best” strategy to improve their reading comprehension. It may not be right to state that there is “the best” strategy because the most effective use of strategies depends on the ability to decide what strategy to use as the context and the purpose of reading can vary. Why do we need strategies? Achieving success in reading comprehension is not only determined by a reader’s knowledge of the language, but also how a reader engages in strategic behavior to understand a text. (Scarborough, 2001). The use of a variety of strategies make reading more effective and thus, improve comprehension. Why do we need to teach reading strategies explicitly? It is crucial that teachers provide their learners...

Caylee Hope   It’s commonly thought among teachers that the best way to help students learn a second language (L2) is to effectively “ban” students’ first language (L1) in the classroom (especially in higher level classes). All of the information, from homework assignments to instruction, is provided in the target language. Teachers worry that there may be first language interference that makes it harder to learn the second language if allowed in the classroom.   However, studies have shown that first language use in the classroom can actually help students learn and use their second language more effectively than target language use alone. Particularly when it comes to reading, first language use can help if used in strategic ways.   1. It can help students acquire vocabulary                 Vocabulary and reading go hand-in-hand. The more vocabulary you know, the easier it is to read, and...

  Beyza Cayli ☆ Make your students feel like stars!   ☆   Whether we read for fun or with a different purpose, the act of reading might seem burdensome to all of us.   As a second language speaker and a teacher, I often struggle with the idea of teaching reading in a second language. How do we even teach reading when it should be the least effortless and most self-explanatory skill ever?   Although teaching reading skills would heavily depend on the age and the second language proficiency level of the language learners, there is a technique that could be applied to any reader.         As straightforward as its name, reading out loud could actually promote production. Indeed, Ozubko et al. (2012) show production not only benefits learning but also boosts memory.   Apart from its effect on memory itself, more reading entails more comprehension alongside with more chances to acquire more vocabulary thanks to the frequent encounters....

  Suhyeon Lee     Also known as Graded Reading or Sustained Silent Reading, Extensive Reading (ER) is to read large quantities of the text of their choosing as an effective way of acquiring a foreign language. There are many books and research articles published about ER and its effectiveness for language acquisition. But “how“ can we actually implement ER in our classroom? We are so used to reading the same material at the same pace as a whole in our classroom. How can teachers make students choose books at the right level? What's the teacher‘s role? Here are some useful and practical tips we can use when planning an Extensive Reading Program.

 Micah Russell     Cloze deletion tests can be a highly effective method to both gain vocabulary and improve reading ability, whether for a learner's L1 or L2. The reason for this is because the learner is able to encounter words in context, and not just in isolation. As they continually encounter words in context, they begin to build an understanding of when words occur, what they occur with, etc. Thus, cloze deletion activities can be a beneficial supplement for any learner. In this post, I will recommend two different programs with cloze deletion capabilities, and hopefully they will be able to assist you in your learning journey!      Clozemaster.com is a website that is centered around the idea of cloze deletion. While the primary focus of Clozemaster is on vocabulary learning, it is also a very useful website/app for improving L2 literacy skills. The reason for this is the same as the reason that the vocabulary learning aspect of the site is usef...

 Hanna Kim As the number of immigrants in the U.S. has increased, so has the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools. When teachers teach a second language (L2) to ELLs, L2 reading in particular helps ELLs to acquire vocabulary, sentence structure, and discourse organization (Xu, 2013). In order to improve L2 reading, motivation is a key factor that can help in understanding the success of L2 reading (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). M otivation for reading is necessary because it helps ELLs read more extensively and persistently and increases reading achievement (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). Therefore, teachers should not only focus on the act of reading itself, but also consider the various motivational factors for reading in L2 reading. Once aware of these motivational factors, teachers can take practical actions in their classrooms by introducing more effective L2 reading activities, as well as coordinating with school staffs to better support ELLs. Potential mo...

         Mai  Pelayo                                           Research shows that word processing is a vital function to comprehend text; it allows readers to group and recognize symbols as words. For this reason, in order for second language learners to carry out recognition, they must practice second language (L2) word processing skills (Grabe, 2009). By doing so, students have the opportunity to become familiar and practice a variety of vocabulary words to perform daily reading tasks such as reading a recipe and academically challenging tasks such as reading content books on economy, politics, science, geometry, and more. Research on interactive word wall has provided satisfactory results in promoting vocabulary growth (Harmon et al., 2009; Jackson & Durham, 2016; Jackson et al., 2011). By applying this tool in the L2 classroom, teachers support ...

Raúl Gamboa                                                                                                                                                     Research findings into L2 reading suggest readers develop abilities such as efficient word recognition, strategy use, fluency, main idea comprehension, and discourse awareness (Grabe and Stroller, 2013). As an attempt to integrate these skills into the L2 reading classroom, Grabe and Stroller (2013) put forth nine curriculum principles that include a structured lesson plan that consists of three stages: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. Each stage fos...