Principle For Teaching Reading Skills

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Do you know that when we teach something, it has some principles?
It also happening in teaching reading skills.
When you want to teach reading as a second language or foreign language you have to consider some principles to make your teaching is good.

Here, I want to mention those principles: 

• In an integrated course, don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills.

Give time for students to do silent reading that can develop a sense of fluency. Silent reading also becomes an excellent method for self-instruction on the part of learner.

• Use technique that are intrinsically motivating.

Just focus on the goals, choose material that is relevant with the goals also the interest of students.
You also can use LEA (Language Experience Approach), it is the famous one to motivating approach for reading instruction.
 LEA referred to where students create their own material for reading.

• Balance authenticity and readability in choosing text.

Authenticity is if you give a real story for the students which already edited to language proficiency level of students. Meanwhile the simplified text is make story/ passage/ essay simpler than the original one, but actually it become more difficult.
Christine Nuttall (1996) offered three criteria for choosing reading texts:

1. Suitability of content--> students will find interesting, enjoyable, challenging, and appropriate for their goals in learning English.
2. Exploitability--> a text that facilitates the achievement of certain language and content goals.
3. Readability--> a text with lexical and structural difficulty that will challenge students without overwhelming them.

• Encourage the development of reading strategies.

To what extent are you getting your students to use all these strategies?

• Include bottom-up and top-down techniques

Make sure you give enough classroom time to focusing on the building blocks of written language, geared appropriately for each level.

• Follow the SQ3R sequence.

SQ3R following five steps:

1. Survey: Skim the text to everview of the main ideas
2. Question: Reader ask her/ his wishes to get out of the text
3. Read: Read the text while looking for answers
4. Recite: Write the point of the passage
5. Review: Assess the importance of what one has just read and incorporate it into long-term associations

• Plan on prereading, during-reading and after reading phases

1. Before you read: Introduce the topic, encourage your students to skimming and scanning, predicting the main idea.
2. While you read: Giving students a sense of purpose for reading rather than just reading because your ordered it.
3. After you read: Comprehension questions are just one form of activity appropriate for postreading.

• Build as assessment aspect into your techniques.

It is important for reading to be able to accurately assess students' comprehension and development of skills.
Consider some of the following overt responses that indicate comprehension:

1. Doing: reader respond physically command
2. Choosing: reader select alternative posed orally or in writing
3. Transferring: reader summarize what they have read
4. Answering: answer the questions
5. Considering: reader make a note or outline
6. Extending: reader provide the end of story
7. Duplicating: reader translate the passage into her/ his native language
8. Modeling: for example --> reader puts together a toy after reading directions for assembly
9. Conversing: reader engage a conversation that indicate the information

All right, that's all about the reading skills principles. A lot but very useful I think for teacher.

So, if you want to teach reading in your classroom, please consider those principles.