Reading Techniques

Reading Techniques

There are several reading techniques that can be applied in the classroom, such as SQ3R, Jigsaw, KWL, PQ4R, NHT, QARs, DR-TA, and Reciprocal Reading. Here is a brief explanation how to have it in our classroom.

1.      SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review)

Before you read, Survey the chapter:

• the title, headings, and subheadings
• captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps
• review questions or teacher-made study guides
• introductory and concluding paragraphs
• summary 

Reading Activities

            As reading as well as writing is not Indonesian students’ most wanted activities, teachers teach English as a FL need to be well-prepared in conducting these teaching-learning activities. Understanding reading activities, therefore, is a requirement for teachers. Activity refers to any kind of teaching-learning process happens in the class that mainly consists of pre-, whilst-, and post-reading activity. It has two functions:

1.      Helping readers understand particular text they are reading

2.      Helping readers develop good reading strategies for reading other text

Classroom Action Research & Research and Development

Teachers, todays should be aware that they have multi-tasks not only as teachers but also as ‘researcher’ in the sense that they will investigate their own classes. Thus, teachers may implement Classroom Action Research (CAR) and Research and Development (RD).

1.      Classroom Action Research

CAR is conducted by or in cooperation with teachers for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of their educational environment and improving the effectiveness of their teaching.

There are some steps in designing CAR. Kemis and McTaggart mention four broad phases in a cycle of research. The first cycle may become a continuing, or iterative, spiral of cycles which recur until the action

Researcher has achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop.

1.      Planning

Strategies and Metacognitive Skills

There has been no a clear cut between reading skill and reading strategies. Skills are assumed to be an automatic information-processing technique and it applies unconsciously. In contrast, strategies are conscious actions selected to achieve particular goal. When a reader does reading strategies, she applies the metacognitive mechanism which aims to the particular goals of problem solving.

Reading strategies focus on creating meaning and maintaining meaning by facilitating comprehension processing which can be achieved prior to, during, and after reading. Metacognitive skills in reading help a reading understand and regulate the performance of the task. It represents the planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Flavel subdivide metacognitive knowledge into knowledge about persons, task, and strategies. Knowledge of persons include knowledge a reader has about how people operate cognitively, while knowledge of tasks involves being familiar with a new information and awareness of a certain task required. Knowledge of strategies involves knowing strategies for monitoring an individual’s cognitive progress and how to remedy comprehension failures. The researches have proved that there were no differences of strategies which were used by good readers and poor readers. However, they were different at the level of success. Further, each individual employs different strategies. Nevertheless, successful readers use more reading strategies than less successful readers. Thus, direct training of strategies and metacognitive skills which provide many exercises is useful for readers to gain success in making and maintaining meaning to bring comprehension.  

Content and Formal Schema and Background Knowledge

            There are two different types of schema, or background knowledge, that the readers bring on a text. The first is content schema, which is related with the content area and cultural knowledge. The other is formal schema which deals with syntax, cohesive relations, and rhetorical organization of different text types.

1.      Content Schema

Some experts have argued whether the existence of background knowledge affects reading comprehension or hinders comprehension. Reynolds et al. proved that cultural schema as well as personal knowledge influence reading comprehension. Further, prior knowledge affects memory performance that it supports short-term memory for reading ability. However, topic-related attitudes influence the long-term memory of a text, but play a minor role to change immediate recall of a text. In addition, Gaskin (1996) noted that a reader’s attitudes and affiliations affect the interpretation of the text.   

Issue in Reading

A.    What is Reading?

The visible answer to the question is that a series of activity which involves identifying words and interpreting words that have different meanings in different sentences. However, the ability to interpret words requires readers to have a large extent on the prior knowledge that enables readers to predict the purpose of the written texts.

Besides sufficient background knowledge, readers also need to be aware of monitoring strategies, which is making repair of the reading text, to acquire a smooth and efficient reading activity. Further, readers involve in a meaning-based activity that is purpose and comprehension driven. All of these are elements of literacy events or literacy acts in the second or foreign language reading. However, the L1 literacy will affect the target language learners. As Cook (in Hudson, 2011:10) notes that the L1 is present in the L2 learners’ minds, whether the teacher wants it to be there or not.”

There are some assumptions in viewing literacy. Literacy in linguistics focuses on lexicon, syntax, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence. In addition, there is another focus that is cognitive which readers encountering text and constructing meaning through strategy and skill activation. The other factor is sociocultural dimension which views literacy through social practice, including links to ideology and power (Kucer in Hudson, 2011:10). Later, when we talk about reading in foreign language context, we also talk about reading assessment. 

Postmethod Era

Lesson 02

September 21^st, 2011

By early 1990s, many experts as well as practitioners believed that there was no single method that was superior or better than others. Thus, there was an opinion to unify all methods. This particular time is called “postmethod era” when there is no single method that is predominant. Since then, there is no more new method that is created. Further, in case there appears a “new term” on method that is actually uprooted from the existence methods and approaches. David Nunan (in Brown, 41) explains that it has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all, and the focus in recent years has been on the development of classroom tasks and activities which are consonant with what we know about second language acquisition, and which are also in keeping with the dynamics of the classroom itself. 

Approach and Method in Language Teaching

Lesson 01

September 14^th, 2011

            Basically, every teacher should has four competences in language teaching; namely academic competence, pedagogic competence, personality competence, bla bla competence (sorry, I missed this part).

            Academic competence refers to a competence or ability to understand what to teach, in this context English. It involves elements of English, English skills and English components. Meanwhile, pedagogic competence is ability on how to teach English and personality competence is dealing with social aspects. However, teachers tend to give a very heavy emphasize on pedagogic academic that somehow they are not aware of academic competence.

Assumption and Hypothesis

After stating the research problems, a researcher will define a hypothesis. The statement of a hypothesis becomes important in quantitative problem as it asks about the relationship between two or more variables. Statement of research problem usually provides only general information, thus a good hypothesis will lead to more specific information. There are some terms and features in stating a good hypothesis that will be discussed further and also some examples on hypothesis.

               Meanwhile, assumption is somewhat taken for granted exist when a researcher states the hypothesis. For example, when a researcher asks ‘can I see you tomorrow?’ of course she or he assumes that there is a tomorrow. 

Review of Related Literature

Everybody has been understood that a research can be gone further for the sake of expanding of knowledge after it is related to the previous study. In other words, a researcher has to trace back the knowledge through reading to certain literatures. The discussion of having review of related literature becomes crucial in a research and understanding about plagiarism is another strand of it.