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