The potential of reading approach instruction in raising learners’ linguistic awareness

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УДК 18-139

The potential of reading approach instruction in raising learners' linguistic awareness

I.D. Garus, T.G. Solopova

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study which focused on reading approach instruction for learners of English as a vocational foreign language (VFL) in a higher educational establishment, where foreign languages are not major subjects. The objective of the study was to explore the potential of reading approach instruction in raising the learner readers' awareness of reading approaches, in extending the range of approaches they employed and in encouraging learners to monitor and reflect upon their reading.

Key words: reading approach instruction, linguistics, semantics and paralinguistics, gradual and anticipatory reading.

Garus Iryna Dmytrivna - Senior Lecturer of the Chair of English Language of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (Severodonetsk, Ukraine).

Solopova Tetyana Grygorivna - Senior Lecturer of the Chair of English Language of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University named after Volodymyr Dahl (Severodonetsk, Ukraine).

Анотація

І.Д. Гарус, Т.Г. Солопова. Потенціал навчання принципам читання за допомогою підвищення лінгвістичної компетентності студентів.

В даній статті відображаються результати маломасштабного дослідження, заснованого на навчанні принципам читання студентів, які вивчають англійську мову професійного спрямування в немовному вузі. Ціль дослідження - продемонструвати потенціал навчання принципам читання за допомогою підвищення знання про принципи читання самих студентів, розширення спектра застосовуваних ними принципів і наснаги студентів вести спостереження та міркування в процесі читання.

Ключові слова: навчання принципам читання, лінгвістичні, семантичні та паралінгвістичні принципи, поетапне читання та читання з випередженням.

Гарус Ірина Дмитрівна - викладач кафедри англійської мови, Східноукраїнський національний університет ім. Володимира Даля, м. Сєвєродонецьк

Солопова Тетяна Григорівна - викладач кафедри англійської мови, Східноукраїнський національний університет ім. Володимира Даля, м. Сєвєродонецьк

Аннотация

И.Д. Гарус, Т.Г. Солопова. Потенциал обучения принципам чтения посредством повышения лингвистической компетентности студентов.

В данной статье отражены результаты маломасштабного исследования, основанного на обучении принципам чтения студентов, изучающих английский язык профессионального направления в неязыковом вузе. Цель исследования - продемонстрировать потенциал обучения принципам чтения посредством повышения знания о принципах чтения самих студентов, обучающихся чтению, расширения спектра применяемых ими принципов и воодушевления студентов вести наблюдение и размышление в процессе чтения.

Ключевые слова: Обучение принципам чтения, лингвистические, семантические и паралингвистические принципы, поэтапное чтение и чтение с опережением.

Statement of the problem in general aspect and its connection with important scientific and practical tasks

Having initially established the learner's existing approach awareness and use, the researchers embarked upon detailed approach instruction, during which learner readers' approach use was promoted and reviewed at regular intervals by means of review exercises and interviews. The findings of the study point to the problematic nature of reading approach instruction. While indications emerged that approach training appeared to raise learners' awareness of reading approaches and may have encouraged use by some learners of certain gradual processes, other approaches seem harder to acquire. Some learners do not make the transition to more complex approaches. Nonetheless, approach training can encourage learner readers to reflect on their approach use and seems to boost their confidence in their own reading abilities.

Making out the parts of general problem not solved earlier with which the paper deals. The educational reform in Ukraine is based upon the statement of the Bolognese Convention which includes the reform of linguistic education as one of its leading components, i.e. mainly the reform of the foreign language teaching process in compliance with the requirements of the All-European recommendations. Taking this modern trend into consideration there appears a necessity for further analysis of the potential benefits of reading approach instruction.

That's why on the one hand the relevance of the given topic consists in the urge to evolve and introduce an integrated approach of teaching the students of nonlinguistic higher schools the reading techniques in English as a vocational foreign language, an approach instruction which could simultaneously develop learner readers' self-determination in their work with vocational texts. On the other hand the relevance is stipulated by the lack of correspondent researches in the methods of foreign language teaching.

The object of research is the process of forming linguistic competence of students reading English vocational texts in correlation with the other types of linguistic activities.

The subject of research is the approach of teaching the students of higher nonlinguistic schools the way to read English vocational texts in correlation with the other types of linguistic activities. The technical departments of a higher nonlinguistic school were chosen for that purpose in order to prove the importance of reading approach instruction for students to handle English vocational texts.

Formulating the paper aims (stating the tasks). The purpose of research consists in theoretical reasoning and working out an integrated approach to teach the students of higher nonlinguistic schools to read English vocational texts and practical guidance of how to evolve and introduce such an approach into the teaching process at higher nonlinguistic schools.

The purpose of research brought up the following tasks to be performed:

1. To define the purpose and principles of the strategy to teach the students to read English vocational texts in correlation with the other types of linguistic activities on the basis of scientific theoretical works by psychologists, linguists and methodologists.

2. To invent models of teaching to read English vocational texts in correlation with the other linguistic activities.

3. To empirically verify the effectiveness of applying the models of teaching to read English vocational texts in correlation with the other linguistic activities.

4. To make approach instructions of teaching to read English vocational texts in correlation with the other linguistic activities.

Methods of research: critical analysis of scientific theoretical works, scientific supervision, testing, methodical experiment.

reading student school

Presentation of the research with complete grounding of the obtained scientific results

There are approaches to make the process of reading more effective. These approaches intended to improve the process of reading are optional for the students to choose. They encompass linguistics, semantics and paralinguistics. Linguistic approaches may consist in: a) reading aloud to associate the written passage with its corresponding sound in the foreign language; b) recognizing the structure of sentence; c) inferring grammar rules by analogy; d) analyzing unfamiliar passages by splitting them and linking their constituent parts with familiar passages or by defining their grammatical category. Students need to be learned to use the reference materials to aid their reading and develop their reference skills, e.g. the use of dictionary in alphabetical order.

Initial skimming of the text is a semantic approach which contributes to the students' confidence about tackling the text. The teacher can train the students how to search for the remaining information which was not gleaned from the initial skim reading, through exercises aimed at obtaining more indepth information. These exercises may be followed by a more intensive look at a passage which may lead on to mixed-skill activities such as interviews, written exercises or gap fill exercises.

Paralinguistic approaches may be presented as follows: a) recognition of the text genre and the use of illustrations and titles to predict the likely content of the text; b) prediction of the vocabulary which can be encountered in the following passages.

The experiment was conducted in the following way. The students participating in the experiment were aged 18-20, were in their second year of study and had had at least a year of experience of English as a foreign language. They all attended the classes of the two teacher-researchers who carried out the experiment. The total number of the participants was 26.

Before teaching the approaches it was necessary to find out which approaches were already familiar to the students. The text appropriate in length and difficulty to their language level was distributed among them. It contained a number of unknown words. They were asked to read the text without the dictionary and to underline the sentences the meaning of which they understood. This procedure had two advantages for both the students and the researchers: the students understood they need not know every single word in the text; they could reflect upon the approaches they had previously used in the process of reading texts in English. Having read the text once without the dictionary the students were later asked to re-read the text again with the aid of the dictionary. They were also given a written assignment in the form of a test dealing with the contents of the text. After all that they were interviewed concerning the approaches used by them while performing the tasks. A list of approaches possibly used was presented to the students for review.

The approaches highlighted by the survey were included into reading activities and practiced in reading exercises. The teachers taught the students how to predict the meaning from the title of a passage, how to find main ideas in a paragraph, how to use the context to guess the meaning of unknown words. The students were constantly reminded about the approaches necessary to use.

The teachers chose the reading tasks having in mind the upcoming experiment resembling the examination in English at which the students would be required to identify and extract details and points of view first, and to understand the gist, identify main points and details, recognize points of view and draw conclusions later on.

A number of observations were held during the experiment in order to check the students' implementation of the reading approaches. Some of the assignments were conceived to hide the reminder of the approaches to better understand which of them were automatically used by the students. The final observation took place 24 teaching weeks after the initial reading approach training had begun.

Training appeared to have had some effect in relation to some of the approaches. Some of the students, however, simply don't make the transition to more complicated approaches. All in all the teachers had a very good working relationship with the participants of the experiment.

Conclusions and perspective of future development

The results and the practical value of the experiment were very important. The students admitted that the more they read, the more they applied various reading approaches, and the more their comprehension increased. The approach to preliminary read the questions grew less popular among the students during the course of the experiment. This is evidence in favour of the main purpose of the research, i.e. success in teaching the students to make efforts to better understand the text by using the wider spectrum of reading approaches. There are proofs that students' knowledge of reading approaches and their ability to reflect upon appropriate ones during their reading did increase. We believe that such training and continued practice may help the students become more independent in their reading and better prepared to cope with future reading assignments.

References

1. Brown, A.L. and Palincsar, A.S. (1987) «Reciprocal teaching of comprehension strategies: a natural history of one program for enhancing learning». In Day, J.D. and Borkowski, J.G. (Eds.) Intelligence and Exceptionality: New Directions for Theory, Assessment and Instructional Practices. Norwood, N.J: Ablex.

2. Fisher, L. (2001) «Modern foreign languages recruitment post-16: the pupil's perspective» Language Learning Journal 23, 33-40.

3. Little, D. (1995) «Learning as dialogue: the dependence of learner autonomy on teacher autonomy». System 3(2), 175-181.

4. O'Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U. (1990) Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: CUP.

5. Roots, J. (1995) «Reading: from beginners to intermediate». In Grenfell, M. (Ed.) Reflections on Reading from GCSE to `A' Level. London:CILT.

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