Reading in English can be a tough skill for learners to master. Whilst many might choose to focus on speaking and listening instead, any learner taking a formal qualification in English needs to be able to read confidently to achieve success. This is no mean feat, especially as much of our course material tends to assess reading rather than teach it, whilst our learners seem less and less interested in reading outside of class. But there is hope.
This highly practical workshop takes sound pedagogical theory and matches it with tried and tested techniques that will help your learners become more confident and independent readers. We will explore what a traditional model to teaching reading often looks like and why it might not be effective. We will then look at how we read a text, and why the combination of top-down and bottom-up processes are essential to focus on in our classes. Using this as a basis, I’ll show you ten short activities you can use with virtually any text to help learners develop those processes.