UNIVERSIDAD AUSTRAL DE CHILE Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Escuela de Licenciatura Profesor Patrocinante M Ed. Juana Barrientos Villanueva Instituto de Lingüística y Literatura Teaching reading comprehension through local stories. Propuesta Pedagógica para optar al Grado académico de Licenciada en Inglés y al Titulo profesional de Profesora de Inglés. Alejandra Jacqueline Rocha Loaiza VALDIVIA – CHILE 2009 Index I. Introduction Page 2 II. Objectives Page 4 A. General Objective Page 4 B. Specific Objectives Page 4 III. The method Page 5 IV. Theoretical Background Page 6 A. Definition of Reading Page 6 B. Models of Reading Page 8 1. Bottom – Up Model Page 8 2. Top – down Model Page 8 3. Interactive Model Page 9 C. Types of Reading Page 9 1. Extensive Reading Page 9 2. Intensive Reading Page 10 3. Skimming Page 10 4. Scanning Page 11 D. Teaching Reading Comprehension Page 11 E. L2 and Schema Theory Page 12 1. Content Schema Page 13 2. Reading and Linguistic Knowledge Page 14 F. Reading Strategies Page 15 G. Strategies to Activate Prior Knowledge Page 16 H. Reading Activities Page 19 V. Description of the NB5 English Program for Seventh grade Page 21 A. Objectives Page 24 1. Fundamental Objectives Page 24 2. Fundamental Cross-Curricula objectives Page 25 B. Generic Activities and examples for the development of reading comprehension skill Page 25 C. Unit 2: People and Traditions Page 30 1. Contents Page 30 2. Learning outcomes Page 31 VI. Proposal Page 33 VII. Description of Teaching Strategies during the Unit Page 34 VIII. First Session: Chiloe Charming Land Page 36 IX. Unit 2: Chiloe Magic and Traditions Page 38 A. Chiloe Charming Land Page 39 B. Chiloe Magic Page 49 C. The Caguach Celebration Page 58 D. Reading Comprehension Test Page 65 E. Evaluations Page 68 X. Conclusions Page 69 XI. References Page 71 2 I. Introduction Nowadays, English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It has become the language of international cooperation and affairs. English should be seen as an essential tool which opens different opportunities in this globalized society where everyone would like to participate actively. It is well – known that many changes are taking place in the Chilean educational system in relation to the skills and competences that a student must achieve to become a successful learner. This is the reason why in Chile there is a special awareness of the importance of learning English as a second language Through new educational policies that have included a new educational reform and the implementation of the “English Open Door” program which was created by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the United Nations Development Program in 2003, great changes can already be seen. The objectives of this “ English Open Door ” program is to improve English skills of Chilean learners, because research has shown that only a 5% of the secondary school graduated students speak English.(Mineduc noticias.,2004) One of the main contributions of this program consists of providing native English speakers to assist teachers and students in Chilean public schools. Learning English, then, has become a necessary tool to be competitive and successful in this century, where education plays a very important role. Education is considered as a key element that contributes to the development of a country. The major goal of education is to prepare students to become long-life learners. Students 3 must internalize learning to learn in order to face the new challenges of the competitive world of today. This paper will illustrate the importance of reading comprehension through the use of local topics of the students` interest. Nowadays, Reading Comprehension is considered as the most important tool in the development of education and the ability to learning to learn, which enables people to get informed about new advances in every field, is a must. (Brown & Campione,1981) During all these years, I have been teaching English in different schools in Chiloe Island. I have noticed that students do not show much interest while learning English through written texts. One of the main reasons of this lack of interest is the fact that students do not feel identified with topics which are unfamiliar to them. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to select and adapt texts according to the needs and interest of the students as well as to design activities to develop reading comprehension through known topics. Research has shown that topic familiarity is the single most important factor in determining students’ comprehension of a text (Bernhart 1986, Swaffer) 4 II. Objectives A.- General Objective To introduce teachers to an improved methodology which includes effective strategies to develop reading comprehension skill of seventh grade students of English as a second language through local readings. B.- Specific Objectives 1. To provide an improved methodology to teach English as a second language (L2) to seventh grade students. 2. To adopt the best strategies to activate prior knowledge considering topic familiarity for students of seventh grade to improve their reading comprehension. 3. To describe the methodology employed in a three forty-five minute period lesson. 4. To promote self-esteem and self-confidence in students to achieve academic success at school 5 III. The Method To be able to choose the best strategies and methodologies to teach English as a second language (L2) to seventh grade students, who show little interest in reading. The reason is unfamiliar topics. A lot of research regarding topic familiarity and the necessary activation of prior knowledge will be discussed in the literature review. Once the concepts and methods have been defined, a descriptive study will focus in the implementation of nine English classes of 45 minutes each one. At the end of this study there will be a discussion in order to propose an improved methodology and effective strategies to develop reading comprehension skills of seventh grade students of English as a second language (L2). 6 IV. Theoretical Background A. - Definition of Reading A lot of reading research carried out over the last three decades has concluded that Reading Comprehension enables the reader to understand and interpret written texts with success. This is the reason why reading is considered as the most important academic skill (Carrel 1988 a; Gabe and stroller 2001).According to Diane Henry Leipzing reading is a complex process that draws upon many skills that need to be developed at the same time. During this process the reader interacts with the text trying to make meaning from print. This interaction includes the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the text and the context of the reading situation. Although there have been a number of definitions of reading, it is difficult to define it in just a single sentence. Grabe and Stoller (2002:9) define reading as “… the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately”. According to this definition reading is a “meaning-constructing system” that readers use to try to understand a text by relating it to what they already know (Bernhardt 1986 a: 26). 7 This knowledge that readers bring to a text is called schemata. According to theories of schema and interactive reading, comprehension occurs when readers are successful in activating schemata that logically match those of the text. In order to schematize, readers must: 1) Realize that they need to do so; 2) Be able to associate new meanings with the background knowledge they already possess (Swaffer 126). Readers realize that it is not enough for them simply to know the meaning of each individual word in isolation; rather, comprehension “involves fitting the meaning of the message to the schema that one has in mind” (Omaggio 135). Therefore, the reader’s background knowledge plays a very important role on reading comprehension, which is definitively the essence of reading. Several studies have shown that during this interactive process between the reader and the text, readers employ three different reading models. These models of reading include bottom – up, top – down and interactive processes (Grabe and Stoller 2002) 8 B.- Models of Reading 1. Bottom – up Model The Bottom – up process of reading can be defined as the ability to decode or put into sound what is seen in a text. It is a process of building symbols into words. The reader focuses specially on the letters, the words and sentences creating a mental translation of the information presented in the text. Peran 1997 and Alderson 2000 see the bottom – up process of reading as a serial model where the reader begins with the printed word, recognises graphics stimuli, decodes them to sound, recognises words, and decodes meaning. In summary, in this model, reading is seen as a process of building symbols into words, words into sentences and sentences into overall meaning. 2. Top – down Model Contrary to the bottom – up model of reading, in the top – down model, readers are expected to bring their background knowledge to the text. Top – down approaches emphasise the importance of schemata, and the reader’s contribution, to the incoming text (Alderson 2000). The readers sample the text for information and contrast it with their own experiences to construct meaning of what is written on a page.According to Kennet S Goodman (1967), “The goal of reading is constracting meaning in response to a text, it requires use of gropho-phonics, syntactic, and semantic cues to construct meaning”. Readers do not read every word, but see through the text in order to be able to guess the meaning and the words and phrases that activate their background knowledge. Then, they complete what they already know with the meaning they derive from the text.