ESL in Reading: Critical Analysis of an existing unit of reading materials - Research Paper Example

? ESL in Reading: Critical Analysis of an Existing Unit of Reading Materials ESL in Reading: A Critical Analysis Teaching reading skills to students whose first language is not English is a challenging task, mainly due to the structural, contextual, and other differences between English and other languages. Therefore, a language teacher should know the students’ level of understanding and their best learning approaches in order to design an effective teaching strategy. This enables the elimination of unnecessary assumptions that would lower retention rates, discourage students and result in poor grades among other negative effects. The most common approach in teaching students English as a second language (L2) is to define their reasons for learning, set aims and objectives for lessons, and implement the plan. In addition, the teacher should analyze the approach for effectiveness and efficiency mainly by taking various assessment approaches to students (Hedge, 2000). Depending on the English literacy of students and other contextual factors, the teacher should use appropriate texts to teach students the English language; many factors determine the viability of a text for use at a metalanguage level. Some of these factors include the legibility, ability to hold the students’ interest for long periods, and the use of characters, episodes and other factors in the text with which students can relate. In this case, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum is the text of choice for teaching secondary school level L2 students (Grabe and Stoller, 2002). This report will discuss common strategies and the teacher’s approach to teaching reading skills, assumptions the teacher made in designing the approach; and comment on the quality and effectiveness of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a text for teaching L2 students. Finally, the report will make recommendations on the various aspects of teaching reading skills among L2 students. Background Information In most government sponsored local secondary schools, English is the second language that students learn, and is the medium for teaching all other subjects except Chinese and music. The schools in question used to get top grade students but this has changed to only average ones of late; it is not clear why, but it does have an effect on performance of various subjects including English. Top students have opted to go to other schools of much higher repute, probably to increase their chances of joining institutions of higher learning and securing lucrative jobs after their studies. The school subdivides the students in each class into streams, according to their mathematics performance in their secondary one test. Therefore, the performance in English across streams is distributed evenly, though there are some classes with uneven distribution as the school used their English test as a basis or subdivision. The students in the target class are 36 in number, and the average age is 12 years, and this class is the second best in English for this form. Most of the students in this class can express themselves in Basic English, mainly when giving basic information that is devoid of many details. When prompted to offer explanations, most students are hesitant before giving replies in poorly structured English that is a direct translation of Cantonese; their first language. The students can understand spoken English, albeit with some limitations, but they have serious limitations with their spoken and written English such that they often opt not to use English for communication. The book adopted to instruct the L2 students in their English classes is Lyman Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was written in 1900. The version used in class is a 2007 version that incorporates drawings, exercises and other features for use in teaching students how to read, write, listen and use English in a social and academic setting (Harmer, 2007). Strategies and Approach Learning content and language development are two factors that teachers consider when designing strategies for teaching reading skills and other aspects of L2 to students. Teachers, their mentors and school administrations are the main players in the design of teaching strategies to students, all of which help students to learn common English words and other words that are used but are not part of the common vocabulary. Teachers are encouraged to use the six strategies discussed below as they are beneficial to L2 learners in the long run; however, their usefulness to students is not apparent since it takes some time before all of them can work seamlessly (Nation, 2009). Vocabulary and Language Development This approach helps to introduce new ideas and concepts to students to give them an idea of how vocabulary is used in the English language. Synonyms were pivotal in creating links between the language with which the students were familiar and the new language that they are learning. The strategy uses the language already in the possession of students to establish a foundation for the new language. Moreover, it helps to distinguish meanings of similar words and the use of words in their social or academic context (Richards, 1985). The overall idea was using straightforward language at the start of classes, and as students progress they learn to understand the meanings of words, and infer meanings of unknown words based on their use in text (Grellet, 1981). According to Nation and Wang (1999), a teacher should use word analysis to explain complex words to students, including dividing words into their basic components, some of which have contrasted meanings in different contexts. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was highly instrumental in this case as the words used in the text had a relation to student’s daily lives, and some words like Scarecrow are compound words appropriate for illustrations in word analysis. Other world that the teacher could not explain using a language that students could understand were explained in terms of their contextual use in the story (Hudson, 2007). Guided Interaction Cooperative learning is an indispensable tool in teaching reading skills to L2 learners, and the teacher encourages students to work in pairs or other groupings for various tasks during the learning process. Cooperative learning in the context of reading involves the use of paired or group readings, whereby students read the text with their peers looking on and listening. The teacher acts as a guide for students in case they encounter difficulties in their activities, and ensure that all students in each group participate to ensure group participation but personal learning. While students may be fluent in their reading, many do not grasp the meanings of words and the teacher helps students by acting as a reference point (Thornbury, 2002). After group or paired readings, students are required to show the whole class what they learn by reading aloud for the whole class. In addition, the teacher should read aloud for the students so that the latter can hear what English sound like when read correctly. However, this approach has some limitations since many students have a negative attitude towards the language, and while The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has items that the students could relate to, some concepts are difficult for students to grasp. Metacognition and Authentic Assessment Most assessments for L2 learners are based on their ability to recall the spelling and meanings of words; however, this approach can cause students to memorize words and their meanings in dictionaries without comprehending the words. Metacognition enables to students to understand complex English language using the basic instructional English. Therefore, the teacher should not insist on the ability to reproduce the definitions given in class, but should endeavor to ensure that students know the meaning of words and can use their own words to express it. This form of assessment is referred to as authentic assessment, as its results are not a reflection of memorizing capacity, but a clear indication of the content that students have understood (Hedgcock and Ferris, 2009). Metacognition and authentic assessment enable students to apply words learnt to other contexts, and derive meanings from similar words in other subjects. Therefore, this is not just a coverage of the syllabus but an in depth understanding. For instance, though the Scarecrow in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has human-like characteristics, a student who has understood the story would have the capacity to use the word in another non-fiction context where scarecrows are used by farmers (Nation, 2001). Explicit Instructions The teacher should give grade-level instruction to students on how they are supposed to read the assigned text, and some basic concepts on how to derive meanings and other approaches to learning to read in of L2. Students acquire background knowledge for later use, and can use whole ideas and their components in text to synthesize new ideas that are not recorded in the books. Depending on a student’s performance in prior assessment, the teacher gives reading skills essential for analysis, interpretation, classification, comparison, synthesis, and persuasion and problem-solving. The teacher should instruct, illustrate and explain repeatedly and consistently to ensure that students understand the concepts with repeated use (Carrell, Devine and Eskey, 1988). The teacher uses this approach to ensure that students got the prerequisite skills required for comprehensive learning including completion of task procedures, providing answers to text questions for text problems, understanding graphics and linking them with the text. For instance, the teacher guides the students in learning how to relate the pictures in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with the accompanying text. Students achieved this by first guessing the meanings of the graphical images before reading the text, and observing the truth of their guesses after reading the text (Johns, 1997). Meaning-Based Context and Universal Themes Some words and word combinations are common to various cultures while others are only found in one culture. These can be confusing to students if they do not get the correct guidance, for instance, the students are more familiar with Cantonese collocations, idioms and colloquialisms; therefore, the teacher should make distinctions and explain similarities between English and Cantonese. This is pivotal in contextualizing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz such that students can understand the limitations of using the book to learn a new language, as well as giving them the chance to familiarize with the culture and background in which the text was written (Schmitt, 2000). According to Katamba (1994), the teacher should ensure that students understood the nature of the text, including the fact that the story is fictional, and the elements portrayed in the story do not reflect their application in real-life. In this way, it was clear to students that the text was not a historical account, but its use in class is for clarity of language and other linguistic elements of L2. Modeling, Graphic Organizers and Visuals This strategy is directly applicable as a tool for illustrating the happenings in each episode of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as the numerous graphical images that accompany the text throughout the storyline. Moreover, the teacher should explain the meanings and ask for student opinions prior to and after going through the text. Observing and analyzing graphics prior to reading enables learners to read the texts with curiosity, and they find out what the text had to say in the form of giving meaning to the drawings. Moreover, the simplified version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in use avoids bombarding L2 students with complex ideas and words, but instead opts to use images to explain part of the text that they cannot understand. Assumptions The teacher made several assumptions about self, students and the L2 subject, most of which allow effective transmission of knowledge to students. These assumptions include: Teaching reading skills has to be knowledge-based, and the teacher had to do a lot of background research to ensure maximum comprehension and retention by students. In addition, the teacher had to learn about the approach that works best for students such that each student is taught with an approach proven to produce positive results. Each student is taught with a unique approach because students are heterogeneous, and something that works favorably for one would be unsuitable for another. Secondly, the teacher assumed that reading is an exceedingly complex process, and students have to get the appropriate guidance to ensure that they use the correct approach and attitude in observing symbols and apply prior knowledge and experience for them to make sense. Moreover, the students need an example of how English should be read since the teacher is their first medium of interacting with the new language and the latter has to do it right for students to emulate. Thirdly, the teacher assumed that learners are diverse in their talents, skills, experiences and a myriad of other factors that influence their interaction with L2 directly or indirectly. Therefore, the teacher’s approach and expectations to various students is different, which gives each student the freedom to approach the subject from an angle that works best for her. Moreover, the reading material is drawn from the literature that has something common for all students. Finally, the teacher assumed that a student’s use of language can deceive one to believe that the student has a better command of the language than is the case. For instance, these students can use common phrases and collocations without understanding the meaning. Therefore, the teacher has to device methods to assess how much a student understands about the language she uses in social and class-based communication (Hudson, 2007). Text Critique The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is used to teach reading to L2 students; however, while it is a suitable text for instruction, it has its strengths and limitations in terms of quality and effectiveness. The version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz used in the L2 class varied in its strengths in terms of language use, and its reading and vocabulary analysis. Language Analysis The participants in the text serve to introduce new ideas and words for the students, whereby each page of the text has a new idea to learn. Consequently, the learners have a continuous flow of intriguing information with new words to keep them interested as they read the text (Lockwood, 2008). For instance, episode 3 presents Scarecrow accompanied by the idea of the need for brains in order to think clearly. While this aspect keeps students intrigued by the turn of events in the story, it allows the teacher to introduce the class of compound sentences. Moreover, the character presents contrasting ideas that enable the learner to create a correlation between the presence or absence of a feature and the results of the phenomenon. The text uses simplified English with an attempt to avoid the ambiguity that may confuse L2 learners. Moreover, it employs images at every episode to aid the teacher in explaining the meanings of the words used in every episode. However, both the text and the pictures have to be used together to ensure that students understand the storyline, especially since the pictures in the story are not comprehensive without the text. This is because the storyline is complex and at this stage the students ought to have learnt how to extract ideas from text without depending on images. Moreover, the images help learners to contextualize words that a general definition cannot explain fully. The field of the text is a story about a girl who is caught in a tornado and taken to a strange land, and the various characters who believe they lack something and need the wizard’s intervention for them to achieve their desires (Christie, 2005). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz does not use the tone and language structure used by fairy tales, though it is a fairy tale too. For instance, it does not have the fairies and other fairyland creatures that are characteristic of the genre. On the contrary, it incorporates various elements of day-to-day life with which the young learners can associate. For instance, it incorporates fields of corn, scarecrows, lions and dogs among other aspects of the modern life. Another aspect that differentiates the text from others in its genre is the absence of frightening episodes; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is pleasant to read and does not invoke fear on the readers. Fairy tales usually have the element of fear that aims to force young children to adhere to the morals that the stories aim to teach. The target text is a faithful replication of the original text, though many aspects have been eliminated to reduce complexity, increase comprehensibility, adhere to standards of modern English, and make the fairy tale more culturally neutral to enable users from all cultural backgrounds to use it. In addition, the drawings for this version have been updated to correspond to student expectation and perceptions of the subjects handled by the text (Jackson, 1988). The text uses a balanced mixture of long and short sentences, most of which follow the basic subject-verb-object agreement structure; however, some sentences combine multiple phrases that may pose challenges to learners with little command of the language. Some parts of the text are made up of long conversations, a feature that may confuse learners; the writer could have avoided this by integrating a play-style conversation into the fairy tale. The text incorporates suspense among other literary tools; this is essential in engaging the learners’ curiosity and ensuring that their attention remains until they have finished reading and understood the text. For instance, the after the meeting of Dorothy with Scarecrow, the learner is left wondering what would happen next in the storyline. Finally, the text introduces as few words as possible in each episode to avoid overburdening learners with many unfamiliar words. In episode 3, the narrative introduces the word scarecrow, whose meaning can be derived from the text; this eliminates the need for students to seek definitions from dictionaries that may explain in words that L2 learners may not comprehend (McCarthy, 1990). Reading and Vocabulary Analysis The questions set before reading each episode encourages students to skim through the text and come up with a guess of what they think of the episode before reading. These questioned are directed to students such that they need to use first person language to answer the question, which gives them a way to express themselves in class. Other tasks encourage evaluative and critical reading since the students have to use alternative words to express their answers other than the ones provided in the text, and come up with critical answers. For instance, students are posed with a question about Scarecrow’s foolishness; here they can answer by including the observation that Scarecrow sounds wise enough for a scarecrow. While questions and tasks set before the episode encourage word-attack skills, the ones that come after encourage students to enhance their lexical knowledge (Anderson, 1999). The aim of the unit is to give students the skills necessary for the comprehension of subject matter in other subjects that are taught using English. The aim of the activities in the text is to encourage in-depth comprehension and the capacity to derive meanings based on the contextual use of words in the text. Though the tasks are many and spread out through the text, the overall sum effect of the tasks is the principal factor in achievement of unit objectives. Therefore, this text is effective in achieving the objectives of the unit since its tasks are aligned with study objectives. Moreover, the target points are arranged in an ascending manner such that achieving the objectives of tasks gives the learner the capacity to complete tasks that come later in the text. In this text, the only point that may be difficult for students is the tasks that require them to guess the contents of each episode, especially since some of the aspects of the narrative are unfamiliar (Morgan, and Rinvolucri, 1986). Recommendation The tasks at the beginning of text require students to guess the storyline when presented with some words and images; however, this may not be appropriate considering the aims of the subject. The subject aims at helping students to acquire interpretive skills that are necessary in an academic setting. The approach taken by the text is effective but not suitable for the text. As seen in appendix 1 and 2, the proposed worksheets give a different structure that should be adopted in teaching reading skills using the text. For instance, the tasks prior to reading involve teaching students vocabulary before they read the words in text, and giving them a vital lesson in structure and form. As the students go through the text, the teacher should teach them how to associate graphical images with text as the components are used to pass on a message. The last part is the context bit, where students should learn how and when to apply the words they have learnt correctly, both in a social and a learning environment (Crystal, 2006). Conclusion The text is appropriate for secondary 2 students, especially due to incorporation of more text in relation to pictures as is appropriate at this level of L2 learning. However, since the aim of the L2 classes is to enable students to use English better in other subjects, a text could have been picked that contains elements of other subjects. Moreover, the effectiveness of the text for use as an L2 teaching medium could be greatly enhanced by using a text that was originally written with L2 learners in mind and not a modification of another text. References Anderson, N. J. (1999). Exploring second language reading: Issues and strategies. Heinle & Heinle. Carrell, P. L., Devine, J., & Eskey, D. E. (1988). Interactive approaches to second language reading. Cambridge University Press. Christie, F. (2005). Language education in the primary years. UNSW Press. Crystal, D. (2006). Words, words, words. O.U.P. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. Longman. Grellet, F. (1981). Developing reading skills. Cambridge University Press. Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. Pearson Longman. Hedgcock, J. S., & Ferris, D. R. (2009). Teaching readers of English. Routledge. Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. O.U.P. Hudson, T. (2007). Teaching second language reading. O.U.P. Jackson, H. (1988). Words and their meaning. Pearson Education. Johns, A. M. (1997). Text, role, and context: Developing academic literacies. Cambridge University Press. Katamba, F. (1994). English words. Routledge. Lockwood, M. (2008). Promoting reading for pleasure in the primary school. Sage. McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford University Press. Morgan, J., & Rinvolucri, M. (1986). Vocabulary. Oxford University Press. Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. Routledge. Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press. Nation, P., & Wang, K. M. (1999). Graded readers and vocabulary. Reading in a Foreign Language, 12(2). pp. 355-380. Richards, J. C. (1985). The context of language teaching. C.U.P. pp. 176-188. Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Longman. APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 Read More