Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin.

The more
children read, the better writers they are likely to become. This
is generally held to be the case as much in L1 as when children
learn a second or foreign language.
Learn to read
Many children are growing up in an increasingly print-dominated
world where, although they may learn to click on a computer mouse
before they learn to turn the pages of a book, reading is a vital
skill. As children grow older, reading competence in English is
essential to pass exams and to succeed at secondary school and
beyond. Through learning to read in English, children develop
positive attitudes, strong motivation and a sense of achievement.
Reading also reinforces and extends what children learn orally.
Reading in English provides an opportunity to build on and transfer
from and to L1. For all these reasons, it is arguable that it would be
doing children a disservice not to lay solid foundations in early
language literacy at primary school.
When to start reading
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One of the main debates is not about whether children should learn
to read and write in English, but when it is most beneficial to start.
The answer is neither clear-cut nor conclusive and depends on the
context and a range of factors, such as the children´s L1, and
whether this shares the Roman script, the children´s existing literacy
skills in L1, how much English they already know, and their own
interest and enthusiasm for learning to read. With very young
children, it may quite often be this latter factor, which drives the
process, as for example, when pre-reading children notice that
instead of writing “very good”, you write something else, such as
“Excellent”, on their work, or when beginning readers respond
enthusiastically to using a word card bank as “important and
serious” learning. The usual approach in most foreign language
programmes, however. Is that reading and writing in English are
introduced gradually after basic literacy has been established in L1
(and possibly also L2, if the children are growing up in a bilingual
environment).
What is involved in reading
Reading competence involves constructing meaning and making
sense of written text. It requires the complex interaction, knowledge,
and skills at multiple levels. These include, for example, the
recognition of shapes of letters of the alphabet, grapho-phonemic
correspondences and the direction of the text. They also include
sight recognition of common, high frequency vocabulary and
morphemes, the recognition of syntactic patterns and word order
within sentences, and an understanding of the structure and
organization of texts. When children read in English, they need to
learn to make use of visual, phonological and semantic cues in an
integrated way and to relate these to their previous knowledge and
experience of the world, the topic and the genre in order to construct
coherent personal meaning. To enable children to become
competent readers in English, they need practice in developing their
knowledge and skills in all these areas.
How to approach teaching reading
As a start, it is a good idea to ensure that the children´s classroom is
a literate, print rich environment in English. This can include, for
example, labelling classroom furniture, creating a weather and date
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chart, making a birthday calendar and making a chart of key
instructions, eg Listen, Read, Draw, with symbol to show what they
mean. It can also include a display of pictures of famous people,
story or course book characters with speech bubbles for key
classroom language, eg Can you repeat that, please? I´ve finished, I
don’t understand and notice board where you and the children can
write messages, eg Please remember to bring a photo on Monday.
In developing initial reading skills in a foreign language, it is
beneficial to read aloud regularly with the children while they follow
the pictures and/or the text in a story or big book. This provide an
implicit, global opportunity for children to become familiar with
conventions of print and text. It also enables you to show and share
your own pleasure and enthusiasm for reading, which is likely to be
catching, and to model the processes and strategies involved.
Example:

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When teaching children to read themselves, it is best to base this
initially on language that is already orally/aurally and to use a
combination of whole-word sight recognition. The potential for
using phonics in a foreign language context, however, is often
limited, given children´s lack of vocabulary in English. Care also
needs to be taken that children are not sounding out letters and
words in a meaningless way. The use of phonics is usually most
effective when embedded in a context such as a rhyme or chant.
Whether at word, sentence or text level, reading activities should
be meaningful and create a reason and purpose for reading which
practice one or more sub-skills. These include de-coding written
language, skimming a text for global understanding, scanning
a text for specific information, inferring meaning in a text and
understanding the writer´s intention. As children move up
through primary, it is important to expose them to an increasingly
wider range of text types or genres and to develop their awareness
of different purposes for reading and strategies to use.
As with developing listening skills, many reading activities can be
useful staged into BEFORE, WHILE and AFTER reading. If
children are not yet confident readers, it is particularly important to
create interest and motivation before reading, as they can easily feel
daunted by chunk of text. After reading, it is often suitable to lead
into an activity in which children write, using the text they have read
as a starting point or guide.
As well as developing intensive reading skills, it is also important to
develop extensive reading for pleasure, either through the use of
class readers and/or a school or class library. By encouraging
children to write book review or what they read children can build up
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a personalized record of their reading and also be encouraged to
develop critical reading skills.
While there are no definitive conclusions from research on how
reading in a foreign language should be taught to children, by
providing opportunities to develop skills at letter, word, sentence and
text level, creating frameworks for children to read for meaning in
purposeful ways, modelling your own enthusiasm and the processes
and strategies involved, encouraging personal, divergent responses,
and raising reading awareness of genres and strategies, as and
when appropriate, children will develop into increasingly competent
by the end of primary school.
 CAROL READ, 500 Activities for the Primary Class, Macmillan
Publishers, 2007 (p: 48)

According to Brewster, Ellis and Girard, in “the initial stages”, it is important not
to place too many reading demands on younger learners who are still learning
to read in their L1. Developing good levels of literacy in the L1 and good oral
skills in the L2 are the most important objectives (p: 111).
However, in “the later stages”, as pupils become more confident in reading their
own language, they use reading to learn. After an initial introduction to English
learning, pupils will be expected to cope with the independent reading required
of a coursebook. Pupils are often introduced to and learn new vocabulary or
grammar through reading short texts in the form of dialogues, descriptions,
instructions or short stories, often lavishly illustrated to support the pupils
´understanding (p: 113).

 Brewster, J., Ellis, G., & Girard, D. (2002). The Primary English Teacher's Guide. New
Edition. Pearson.

STAGES
Reading is a process involving word recognition, comprehension,
and fluency.

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1. Word recognition is the ability of a reader to recognize written
words correctly.
2. Comprehension is the ability to read text, process it, and
understand its meaning.
3. Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly
A reading lesson is made up of activities to activate students’
background knowledge and present new vocabulary and tasks while
students read the passage and after the reading is over.
Stages for Teaching Reading
These are the three stages that you should follow during a reading
lesson.
Pre-Reading Stage
While-Reading Stage
Post-Reading Stage

Reading Lesson: Pre-Reading

Pre-reading activities are activities that help students think about what they
know about a topic and predict what they will read or hear.
The purpose of pre-reading activities is to:
- Establish a purpose for reading
- Improve vocabulary so students can complete the reading task
successfully
- Predict what they are going
- Establish what they know about a topic

While Reading
While-Reading Activities are defined as activities that help students to focus
on aspects of the text and to understand it better.
The goal of these activities is to help learners to deal as they would deal with it
as if the text was written in their first language.

Post Reading
Post-reading activities help students understand texts further, by critically
analyzing what they have read

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 Retrieved from: [Link]

Activity samples for each stage::

Pre-Activity:
Objective: Activate prior knowledge and build anticipation for the text.
Brainstorming: Engage students in a brainstorming session related to the topic
of the reading text. For example, if the text is about sports, ask students to list
different sports they know.
Vocabulary Preview: Introduce key vocabulary words from the text. Display the
words and provide brief explanations or translations. Encourage students to
repeat the words and discuss their meanings.
During Activity:
Objective: Develop reading comprehension and language skills.
Read-Aloud: Begin by reading the text aloud to the students. Model proper
pronunciation, intonation, and expression. Pause at key points to ask questions
or discuss the content.
Guided Reading: Divide the text into sections and have students read each
section individually or in pairs. Encourage them to underline or highlight
important information or unfamiliar words.
Comprehension Questions: Ask a series of comprehension questions related
to the text. Allow students time to discuss and answer the questions individually
or in small groups.
Vocabulary and Language Focus: Select specific vocabulary words or
language structures from the text for further exploration. Provide explanations,
examples, and opportunities for students to practice using the words or
structures in context.
After Activity:
Objective: Reinforce comprehension, reflection, and language development.
Retelling or Summary Writing: Ask students to retell the main events or write
a summary of the text. Encourage them to use their own words and include
important details.
Group Discussion: Engage students in a group discussion about the text.
Encourage them to share their thoughts, opinions, and personal connections to
the content.

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Extension Activities: Provide extension activities to further practice language
skills and engage with the text. This could include tasks like writing a letter to a
character, creating a poster about the topic, or acting out a scene from the text.
Remember to scaffold the activities and provide support as
needed, considering the language proficiency level of the
students. You can also adapt the text complexity and
adjust the questions and tasks accordingly.

Task: Read chapter 5 “Reading” from Scott and Ytreberg´s book:

Teaching English to Children” (pp: 49 – 48) and take notes.

Approach to reading: many 5 to 10 year olds are in the process of learning to

read in their own language. Whether or not they have mastered the skill in their
own language, and whether or not their own language is written in the Roman
alphabet, will have an effect on the initial stages of teaching reading in English.

a) Which are the different ways to approach the introduction of reading in

a foreign language?
1. Phonetics: this approach is based on letters and sounds. Basically, we teach
the pupils the letters of the alphabet, and the combination of letters, phonically –
as they are actually pronounced.
2. Look and say: this approach is based on words and phrases, and makes a
lot of use of flashcards – words written on cards like this:

It is usual to start by teaching everyday words, which are already familiar to the
children. The teacher shows the children the word and says it while pointing to
the object. The children repeat the word. This happens several times with each
word.
The introduction of the words only takes a short time, and goes quite quickly, so
the teacher may spend 5 minutes of a thirty-minute lesson on 4 new words.
There are a lot of word recognition games which can be done at this stage:
- Matching words and pictures
- Pointing to the object on the card,
- Guessing which card teddy has picked out the hat

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and so this approach encourages recognition of a range of words and
phrases before “reading” a text.

3. Whole sentence reading: here the teacher teaches recognition of whole

phrases and sentences, which have meaning in themselves. This often means
a story, which the children read for the first time themselves after the whole text
is familiar to them. The words are not presented in isolation, but as whole
phrases or sentences.
4. Language experience approach: this approach to reading is based on the
child´s spoken language. The teacher writes down a sentence for the child to
read which is based on what the child has said. For example:
This is me.
My sister is nine. She is in class 3F.
This is a postcard from my uncle in Milan.

b) Which method to choose?

No matter which approach to reading you take as your basic approach, you
should remember that all these approaches are a way in to reading and are not
an end in themselves. You will probably want to make use of all the methods
described at some stage in the process of learning to read.
Five to seven year olds Eight to ten year old beginners
5 to 7 year olds are likely to take The majority of 8 to 10 year olds will
longer to learn to read in a foreign already be able to read a bit in their
language than eight to ten year olds. reading skills to English. This means
Some children starting school are not that you can spend much less time
familiar with books or what they are teaching the mechanics of reading,
used for. They have to go through the and concentrate on the content.
process of doing reading-like
activities first – reading from left to
right, turning the pages at the right
place, going back and reading the
same pages again, etc.
Picture books with and without text
are invaluable at this stage,
(illustrations in a book for young
children matter almost as much as
the words themselves).
- Sentence structure,
paragraphing, grammar – none
of this means anything to most
pupils at this age.

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STARTING POINTS:
These are some examples of possible starting points for a class of 6 year
olds who have English for three short lessons a week:
1. Reading a story from a book.
2. Reading a class story.
3. Reading texts based on the child’s language.
4. Reading familiar nursery rhymes or songs

Reading techniques:
-
 Carol Read (2007). 500 Activities for the Primary class. Macmillan
Publishers (p: 17)
Section 1: Listening and speaking
When children start learning English at primary school, there is usually an
emphasis on developing listening and speaking skills. Through listening to
English, children are led naturally into speaking. From using single words and
formulaic language, children gradually develop the ability to produce
language and to interact with others in a more extended way.

Learning to speak:

Speaking is a complex skill and the difficulty for children learning a foreign
language should not be underestimated. Although children are good at imitating
and may acquire better pronunciation than older learners, they are still
developing language and discourse skills in their L1. Their age and level
of social, cognitive and emotional development need to be taken into
account when planning activities in English.

Speaking skills can be broadly divided into two areas:

Spoken interaction Spoken production

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SI refers to the ability to ask and SP refers to the ability to
answer questions and handle produce language, for
exchanges with others. example, in a rhyme.

It is important to develop children´s competence in both these areas in order to

build up confidence and lay the foundations for future learning.

Initially children will benefit from activities which require lots of repetition and
which help them to memorize vocabulary and “chunks” of language and
acquire pronunciation in a natural way.

Many of the language children produce in the early stages of learning will be
single words or short formulaic utterances, eg I´m fine. There may also be a
tendency to mix languages, eg in the case of Spanish-speaking children,
Dáme el rubber (give me the rubber), Mira! El monkey está allí (Look! The
monkey´s there). Rather than explicitly correcting language mistakes, it is best
to respond to children´s meaning and what they are trying to
communicate. As you do this, you can remodel or recast what they say, eg
yes. You´re right. The monkey´s there!

Very young children may be reluctant to speak at first, and it is important to give
them time to listen and absorb the sounds of English before participating
actively. Insisting on participation is likely to be counter-productive. The best
strategy is usually to provide lots of opportunities for speaking activities
in a very secure and non- threatening way, eg through choral repetition of
action rhymes or choral counting games, and allow children to join in
when they are ready.

In order for children with only minimal linguistic competence to start learning to
communicate in English, it is important to establish simple classroom routines
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from the outset. These include, for example, greeting and goodbyes at the
beginning and end of lessons, asking for permission, eg to go to the toilet,
sharpen pencils, get crayons, etc and classroom language, eg I don´t
understand. / Can you repeat that, please? Even very young children can be
taught the following 3 phrases formulaically:

- I think…
- Maybe…
- I don´t know…
and then be encouraged to use regularly in class “discussions” eg
T: (pointing to picture) Who´s behind the bush?
P1: I think it´s a lion.
P2: Maybe it´s the elephant.
P3: I don´t know.

Further reading:
[Link]

Task 2 Read the different activities for developing listening and speaking
skills in the book: “500 activities for the Primary Classroom” (pp: 20 – 47).
Choose one activity that you and your group would like to put into practice
next class.
You have to explain the activity, give instructions, organize the class (in
pairs, groups, etc). You have to decide and tell us if the activity you have
chosen is for presentation, practice 1, practice 2, practice 3 or production.

Bibliography
 CAROL READ, 500 Activities for the Primary Class, Macmillan
Publishers, 2007 (p: 17)
 SCOTT, WENDY & YTREBERG LISBETH, Teaching English To
Children, 24th impression- Longman, 2010.
 [Link]

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