I have always enjoyed literature; I even have
memories from when I was a toddler feeling very fond of the written word. I
have been using readers in my classes since the first day I set foot in a class
as a young ELT teacher because, as you might have guessed, I find them the most
inspiring source of getting to know the culture and the history of the English
speaking world. They are a great source for discussion and enrichment of the
second language’s vocabulary and sentence structure and complexity.
In Ascent Languages we have been using the
intensive reading method for 5 years now. We have taught everything from The Hound of the Baskervilles to The Devil Wears Prada and I can assure you that students still
recall the stories and characters from books to build their own stories and
express themselves in general. They bring the stories up in their own writings
and use them as examples when they speak. The experience of reading classic
literature and modern fiction has even enabled them to handle more academic reading with ease and
write inspiring stories.
This year, at the school, we decided to
implement extensive reading. Extensive reading is reading for pleasure at a
level with which you are in your comfort zone in the second language. We thought that not everyone enjoys the same
stories and extensive reading gives you the freedom to choose what you want to
digest. In intensive reading there is analysis and you are usually asked to
elaborate on the set text. In extensive reading you choose which books you want
to read and toss aside those you find boring
Extensive reading is helpful and fun in many
ways! It helps you understand the meaning of word through context without
having to use your dictionary, and familiarize yourself with complex sentence
structure which of course is a fantastic way to improve in a second language.
We decided to do it a little bit more exciting
and rewarding for our students, so we ask them to draw their favourite
characters or write a different ending to their story .As soon as I promised a
surprise prize for those who read the most books and built a nice portfolio of
some of their work it got everyone going!
HAPPY READING EVERYONE!
Miss Corina
