Ye Ningqing

(Yangzhou High School, Yanzhou Jiangsu, China)

NSEFC is different from other earlier textbooks, for example, the Reading in NSEFC has a Pre-reading section to lead into it and a Comprehending section to deepen the students' understanding. NSEFC attaches considerable importance to reading comprehension. What is reading comprehension? What can teachers do to foster students' understanding?

I The Aim of the Reading Lesson

Understanding a written text means extracting the information required from it as efficiently as possible. It is therefore essential to considerate these aspects.

1. What do we read?

NSEFC provides a wide range of topics. Module 1, for example, provides five topics as are shown in the table below:

Each unit of NSEFC provides at least two reading passages. For those who want to read more, the Teachers’ Book provides some related passages. We can also ask our students to find some other passages from the Internet or other sources.

2. How do we read?

NSEFC suggests the main ways of reading as follows:

·Skimming: quickly running one's eyes over a text to get the gist of it.

·Scanning: quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of information.

·Extensive reading: reading longer texts, usually for one's own pleasure. This is to improve fluency.

·Intensive reading: reading shorter texts, to extract specific information.

These different ways of reading are not mutually exclusive. For instance, students often skim through a passage to see what it is about before deciding whether it is worth scanning for the information they are looking for.

Take Module 1 Unit 1 Friendship for example. The reading text is Anne's Best Friend. Students may skim it to find who Anne’s best friend is. It's not difficult for them to get the answer — her diary, from the last sentence of the first paragraph. This passage is made up of two parts: background information and an entry from Anne's Diary. So when students are asked to do Comprehending Exercise 1, they know where to find these answers.

3. Why do we read?

There are three main reasons for reading:

Reading for pleasure. Take Module 1 Unit 3 Travel journal for example. Teachers can provide some more information about famous places of interest at home and abroad for students to enjoy.

Reading for information (in order to find out something). Most of the Readings in NSEFC are designed for this purpose. For example, after reading Module 1 Unit 4 Earthquakes, students learn basic knowledge about an earthquake and know how to protect themselves and help others in disasters.

Reading for language (in order to learn useful words, expressions and structures). This is also one of the main purposes of the Readings in NSEFC. In Module 1 Unit 2 English around the world, for example, students learn about different kinds of English and the useful structure indirect speech.

In real life, our reading purposes constantly vary and therefore, when devising exercises, teachers should vary the questions and activities according to the type of text and its purpose. When working on a page of classified ads, for instance, it would be highly artificial to provide exercises requiring detailed comprehension of every single advertisement. This would only discourage the students and prevent them from developing reading strategies adapted to the true purpose of their reading.

II How Successful Readers Interact with New Words

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” This is how the linguist David Wilkins summed up the importance of vocabulary learning. And that’s why NSEFC contains many more words and expressions than the previous textbooks. Many of the students will find it hard to learn so many words and expressions.

For the comprehension of reading passages in a foreign language, successful readers use the following reading skills to find the meaning of difficult words:

1. Learn to use the context — that is, clues that the words in the rest of the sentences give about the meanings of new words.

·Some sentences help with the definition of a difficult word by punctuation, such as commas, parentheses ( ), dashes —, and brackets [ ].

·Sometimes helping words like meaning, such as, that is, or, is called, along with punctuation, provide important clues.

·Some sentences provide the opposite of what a new word means. From its opposite, we can figure out the meaning of the word.

·Sometimes you can use your own experience to figure out the definition of a word.

·Sentences before or after a sentence containing a difficult word sometimes explains the meaning of the word.

·Some sentences give examples for a new word so that a definition can be worked out.

·Some sentences use a word that students do know to help explain a word that students do not know.

2. Learn to use visual clues, such as pictures, drawings, signs, and symbols that can help figure out meaning. Often a picture starts us thinking about an unfamiliar word on the page, and we can work out a usable definition.

3. In a word we don't know, look for familiar parts within the word. We might know what the parts mean. For example, if we know what the meaning of art is, we might be able to guess at the meaning of artistic or artful.

4. Learn the difference between what a word means and what a word suggests or makes us feel. Even words that have the same meaning can suggest different things to different people. Although happy and joyous both suggest good feelings, joyous is a much stronger word and creates a feeling of very powerful happiness.

5. Be aware that one word can mean many different things. The word check, for example, has many separate meanings! We check our facts, get a checkup at the doctor's, just to name a few.

6. Learn to use a dictionary so that we can find meanings easily. Dictionaries help us in many ways, not only for finding meanings of words but also for finding how to pronounce them, how to use them correctly, how to spell them, and how to change their forms.

7. Keep a list of words that you want to add to your vocabulary. By writing down new words and trying to learn them we can improve your vocabulary.

III Using the Text to Facilitate Interaction

NSEFC suggests the teaching procedure as follows:

1. Providing background knowledge

Too often in the past, reading materials have been selected on the basis of their status as “masterpieces” rather than for their intrinsic interest for a specific group of students of a particular age or background. If students are to acquire fluency in reading, however, they need to be enticed to read materials for the same purposes as they read in their native language — for following instructions or recipes; for enjoying letters, jokes, or comic strips; for understanding headlines, news items, and, later, magazine articles; and for savoring short stories, short plays, and so on, before being introduced to what is considered classic literature. The writers of NSEFC concentrate on providing texts that are meaningful for our students. Teachers are encouraged to guide students into the texts by using the Pre-reading or Previewing techniques.

·Pre-reading

The students’ ability to comprehend the content of reading material depends in part on their knowledge of the topic. To increase students’ potential comprehension, we can do a variety of pre-reading activities that help build up background knowledge. If we explore a topic first, we will understand it better when we read.

One activity is to have a short discussion about the topic. NSEFC often leads off discussion with a set of questions before having students read an article. Pictures, sketches, or photographs are also used to introduce the topic of a reading. Another pre-reading activity is to take a field trip to a historical or cultural place or to watch a film or video clip about the topic of the future reading.

Many readers like to write down their pre-reading warm-ups.

a. Making a list. Take Module 1 Unit 1 Friendship for example.

b. Making a word map. A word map is a visual warm-up. When we make a visual warm-up, we write words and phrases. A word map links ideas with lines, boxes, circles, or arrows.

c. Brainstorming. Brainstorming is using questions to help us think. When we brainstorm as a pre-reading exercise, we raise as many questions as we can about a reading selection.

d. Free writing. With free writing our purpose is to write freely about the subject of the piece that we are going to read. Do not stop writing for any reason. Write sentences about whatever comes into your mind before you read it. Don’t correct words or cross them out. Just get on paper as many ideas as you can, no matter how strange or silly they may seem to you.

·Previewing

Before we read, we can learn quite a bit by previewing.

a. Look at the title. Titles often give the main idea of the reading. Does the title tell you what you will be reading about? If so, we can then set a purpose for the reading. For example:

b. Look for subtitles or headings. Essays, newspaper articles, and other longer readings sometimes print subtitles or headings. Appearing below titles in heavy, dark print or in italics, subtitles suggest the kind of information that you will find in a small portion of the reading.

c. Look at the pictures, charts, or drawings. Often an illustration helps us figure out in advance what the reading deals with.

2. Reading in class

In class, the text may be read for the main idea or for information.

·Reading for the main idea

Several sentences grouped together form a paragraph. Each paragraph has a main idea that holds the sentences together. Each sentence relates to the main idea and helps build the paragraph.

a. Stated main ideas

Sometimes the main idea of a paragraph is directly written down. Then, to find the main idea, all we have to do is to find the one sentence that sums up the paragraph. If one sentence states the main idea of a paragraph, we usually call that main idea sentence a topic sentence. The topic sentence can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of the paragraph. Most often, though, it appears at the beginning.

b. Implied main idea

Sometimes the writer does not tell us directly the main idea of a paragraph. Instead the writer suggests or implies the idea through a combination of information in the paragraph. We must then add up all the hints of the paragraph to see how they fit together. The paragraph is like a puzzle. When we see how it all fits together, we see the overall picture or main idea. Here is how to figure out an implied main idea and put it in our own words:

·Look at all the ideas and details in the paragraph.

·Ask if the ideas and details all relate to a single person, or idea. What is that single topic? Then check all the sentences of the paragraph (not just the first few) to make sure they really are all about our suggested topic. If not, try to find a topic that fits all the sentences.

·Ask what point these ideas and derails are all making about that topic. Then write a complete sentence that tells us about this. Again check all the sentences of the paragraph to make sure that they fit our main idea sentence. If they do not, we must make our point broader so that it will cover everything in the paragraph.

·Make sure that our implied main idea sentence is not too general. If your sentence covers all the ideas in the paragraph and cannot be made any more specific, it is correct.

·Reading for information

Finding the main idea of a paragraph or a longer piece of writing gives us an overall picture of what the writer is saying. But the remaining details complete the picture. In order to make sense of the full picture we need to:

a. Find the facts presented.

Here are some ways to help locate facts.

b. Understand the order or sequence that the writer puts them in.

c. Separate the major facts and details from the minor ones.

The following suggestions can help us sort out the major details from the minor ones.

However, information that fits in with a larger meaning will make more sense. As we come to see the whole picture, each detail will fit in its own special place.

3. Checking for comprehension

Understanding the ideas and details that a writer presents is an important part of reading. But it is not everything. We need to be able to interpret our reading so that we know not just what the writer says but also what he / she means. Interpretation involves deciding what you believe about our reading and what we need to think more about. Interpretation also involves finding the ideas and conclusions that are suggested by the reading but are not stated directly.

a. Telling fact from opinion

Not everything a writer writes is necessarily true. The writer gives both facts and opinions. The writer claims only that the facts are true. The opinions are merely what the writer thinks, not what everyone would necessarily agree to. It is not always easy to keep facts and opinions apart. For most practical purposes, however, we can tell fact from opinion in our reading.

b. Making inferences

Writers often tell us more than they say directly. They give us hints or clues that help us “read between the lines.” Using these clues to gain a deeper understanding of the reading is called inferring. When you infer, you go beyond the surface details to see other meanings that the details suggest or imply.

4. Having a discussion

Another way to get more meaning from a reading is to look for the next step. What will happen after the situation described? Can we come to any conclusion from what is said? Do the ideas in the reading apply to other situations? A skillful reader can use the information and ideas from a reading to build new meanings. After reading, teachers can get students to have a good discussion.

a. Predicting outcomes

Some situations give us enough clues so that we can predict what is likely to happen next.

b. Drawing conclusions

The next step in thinking about a reading is to make a judgment about it.

c. Generalizing

Generalizing helps us take the ideas that we find in the reading and apply them to cases beyond those mentioned. In generalizing we make a broader meaning from the ideas that we discover in our reading.

It is one thing to understand the words that a writer has written. It is another to feel that the words are interesting or useful to us. Too often the things that we read may have little or no effect on us. We may not relate to the words in any personal way. When we feel this way, we may not work very hard at interpreting or thinking about the reading.

However, if we don't pay much attention to a piece of reading because we can't relate to it, we miss a great deal. We don't learn new things, try out new ideas, or see life in different ways. We may close ourselves off from the many things that writers can share with us.

Skillful reading is not just understanding the words. It is relating the ideas to our own interests or experience.

This way of reading may sound rather magical. But no magic is involved. Simply stop for a minute to think about how what we are reading relates to what we have already experienced, what we know, and what we feel.

Conclusion

In drawing together reader and text, we must continually keep in mind individual interests if we expect the students to continue reading. Only students who have acquired confidence in reading through materials accessible to them may be expected to move on with enthusiasm to the great works that are treasured heritage of another culture. To integrate reading experiences together with developing language control, reading should be continually linked with purposeful oral and written communication. To be successful in meeting this challenge, the teacher should (a) provide students with meaningful tasks associated with the reading, (b) develop activities that encourage students to communicate without making graphic or oral demands beyond their competence in the new language, (c) give students, nevertheless, freedom to experiment with the language they possess, and (d) create a classroom environment in which students feel free to express the ideas that have been stimulated by their reading. Then they can work towards more and more valid interpretations through discussion. In this way, they will come to appreciate reading in another language as a normal element in their linguistic experience. Experiences with reading, whether in a first or second language, should create autonomous readers who enjoy the stimulation of direct interaction with writers and will continue to read without prodding for their own pleasure and information. This is what NSEFC seeks to achieve.

References:

1. 刘道义主编：《普通高中课程标准试验教科书 英语 必修1》，人民教育出版社 2004 年版。

2. Chritine Nuttall: Teaching reading skills in a foreign language, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1982.

3. Wilga M. Rivers: Interactive Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

4. FranCoise Grellet: Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge University Press, 1981.

5. J. Charles Alderson: Assessing Reading, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

6. David Nunan: Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge University Press, 1989.

7. Jane Willis: A Framework for Task-Based Learning, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1996.