Guiding principles on K-12 language arts and multi literacies curriculum

o Language acquisition
o Language principle
o Teaching principle
o Assessing principles

Main principles

 All languages are interrelated and interdependent - faculty in the first language strengthens and
supports the learning of other languages.
 Implicit metalinguistic knowledge is the one we used to acquire competence and other
languages. And also to understand our first language. the one responsible in the
acquisition of certain languages. This reminds us the interlanguage theory (theory in
second language, an idiolect (distinct used of language) that has been develop by a
language learner which preserves some features of his/her first language.)
 L1 is the resource that facilitate L2
 Mental grammar (we have that unique faculty for language) or the LAD (language
acquisition device)- indulge us with innate capacity to understand a certain language.
how? Because of the concept of Universal grammar (the theoretical or hypothetical
system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and
considered to be innate. )
 Psychological framework- is activated when one attempts to learn in second language
- They Provide a Basis for Understanding the Mind and Behavior
 Language acquisition and learning is an active process that begins at birth and continuous
throughout life
 Spiral progression- you used what they know in new and more complex contexts and
with increasing sophistication. Thus, they reflect and use prior knowledge to extend
and enhance their language and understanding. By learning and incorporating new
language structure into their repertoire and using them in variety of contexts, students
develop language fluency and proficiency
 Learning requires meaning- we learn when we use what we know to understand what is new.
It starts with common denominator (what we know) and used that to introduce new concepts
 Learners learn about language and how to use it effectively through their engagement with and
study of texts
 Text- refers to written, oral, visual communication. A wide ranging and varied, from
brief conversations to lengthy and complex forms of writing
 What we teach or expose to them will become the product
 Successful language learning involves viewing, listening, speaking and writing activities (macro
skills)- language learning should include a plethora of strategies and activities that help students
focus on both meaning and accuracy. There should be a macro skills integration in the language
instruction.
 The five macro skills are divided into two
o Receptive skills (meaning)- listening, reading and somehow we also consider
viewing. This inputs modalities as we receive
 o Productive skills (accuracy)- it produce something. Speaking and writing. We
used the language correctly and appropriately

The five macro skills

1. Listening- a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret and
evaluate what he or she hears. Listening effectively improves personal relationships through
the reduction of conflict and strengthens cooperation through a collective understanding
- the most important skill in communication. It is a mental operation involving processing sound
waves, interpreting their meaning, and storing them in memory
2. Speaking-  skills that give us the ability to communicate effectively. These skills allow the
speaker, to convey his message in a passionate, thoughtful, and convincing manner. Description:
Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode.
3. Reading-
4. Writing-
5. Viewing- It refers to perceiving, examining, interpreting, and construction meaning from visual
images and is crucial to improving comprehension of print and non-print materials. This is
the skill to be taught as the learners are exposed on multimedia.

 Language learning involves recognizing, accepting, valuing, and building on students existing
language competence, including the use of non-standard forms of the language and extending
the range of language available to students- through language learning, learners develop
functional and critical literary skill
 Why do we have to know the current language competence level? For us to know where
to start

An effective language arts and multiliteracies curriculum satisfies the following principles

1. Develops thinking and language through interactive learning

2. Develops communicative competence (a concept which dominates the way and how the English
language is taught in second language classroom) and critical literacy
3. Draws on literature in order to develop students’ understanding of their literacy heritage
4. Draws on informational texts and multimedia in order to build academic, vocabulary and strong
content knowledge
5. Develops students’ oral language and literary through appropriately challenging learning
6. Emphasizes writing arguments, explanatory/informative text and narratives
7. Provides explicit skill instruction in reading and writing
8. Builds on the language experiences, knowledge and interests that students bring to school
9. Nurtures students sense of their common ground in using language/s for communication as
present or future global citizens to prepare them to participate in school and in civic life
10. Assess and reflects the students’ ability to interpret and/or communicate in the target language
 GOAL: to produce graduates who apply the language conventions, principles, strategies
and skills in 1.) interacting with others, 2.) understanding and learning other content
areas, 3.) fending for themselves in whatever field of endeavor they may engage in.
 1. Communicative competence- a synthesis of knowledge of basic grammatical principles,
knowledge of how language is used in social settings to perform communicative functions and
how knowledge of utterances and communicative functions can be combined according to the
principles of discourse
 Classifications
a. Grammatical/linguistic competence- the acquisition of phonological rules,
morphological words, syntactic rules, semantic rules, and lexical items
b. Sociolinguistic competence- learning of pragmatic aspect of various speech acts
namely the cultural values, norms and other sociocultural conventions in social
contexts
- Context and topic of discourse, the participant’s social status, age, sex and
other factors which influence style and registers of speech
- Since different situations call for different types of expressions as well as
different beliefs, views, values and attitudes, the development of sociolinguistic
is essential for communicative social action
c. Discourse Competence- is the knowledge of rules regarding the cohesion
(grammatical links) and coherence (appropriate combination of communicative
actions) of various types of discourse (oral and written). Sociolinguistic rules of use
and rules of discourse are crucial in interpreting utterances for social meaning,
particularly when the literal meaning of an utterance does not lead to the speaker’s
intention easily.
d. Strategic Competence- is to DO with the knowledge of verbal and non-verbal
strategies to compensate for breakdown such as self-correction and at the same
time to enhance the effectiveness of communication such as recognizing discourse
structure, activating background knowledge, contextual guessing, and tolerating
ambiguity
- the ability to recognise and repair communication breakdowns before, during,
or after they occur
2. Multiliteracies (multi literacy practices)- These include traditional literacy practices using texts as
well as new literacy practices using texts of popular culture such as films.
o Social literacy encompasses how we communicate and exchange meaning in our
society
o professional literacy- links with the notion of literacy for school of the workplace.
o Through multi-literacy skills, learners will be able to appreciate and be sensitive to
sociocultural diversity and understand that the meaning of any form of communication
depends on context, purpose and audience.
* Socio-cultural diversity concerns aspects of culture that can influence an individual's
interactions with others of different backgrounds

LANGUAGE ARTS AND MULTILITERACIES CURRICULUM (LAMC) COMPONENTS

The curriculum has five (5) components:

Component 1. Illustrates learning processes that will effect acquisition and learning of the language. It
explains the HOW of language learning and therefore serves as guiding principles for language
teaching.

Component 2. Describes knowledge and skill areas which are essential to effective language use
(understanding of cultures, understanding language, processes and strategies) which will be
developed through language arts (macro-skills).

Component 3. Shows the interdependence and interrelationships of the macro-skills of the language
(listening, speaking and viewing; reading, viewing and responding; writing and representing) and the
development of thinking skills (critical thinking, creative thinking and metacognition) allowing students
to make meaning through language.

Component 4. Explains the holistic assessment of the Language Arts and Literacy Curriculum which
serves as feedback of its effectiveness to students, teachers, school administrators, and curriculum
developers.

 These components are essential to the learner’s ability to communicate effectively

because these will lead them to achieve communicative competence and multiliteracies

COMPONENT 1: Language Learning Process

1. Spiral Progression Skills. Grammatical items, structures and various types of texts will be taught,
revised and revisited at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. This will allow students to
progress from the foundational level to higher levels of language use.

2. Interaction. Language learning will be situated in the context of communication (oral and written).
Activities that simulate real-life situations of varying language demands (purposes, topics, and
audiences) will be employed to help students interact with others thereby improve their socialization
skills.

3. Integration. The areas of language learning – the receptive skills, the productive skills, and grammar
and vocabulary will be taught in an integrated way, together with the use of relevant print and non-print
resources, to provide multiple perspectives and meaningful connections. Integration may come in
different types either implicitly or explicitly (skills, content, theme, topic, and values integration).

4. Learner-Centeredness. Learners are at the center of the teaching-learning process. Teaching will be
differentiated according to students’ needs, abilities and interests.

5. Contextualization. Learning tasks and activities will be designed for learners to acquire the language
in authentic and meaningful contexts of use. For example, lessons will be planned around learning
outcomes, a theme, or a type of text to help learners use related language skills, grammatical
items/structures and vocabulary appropriately in spoken and written language to suit the purpose,
audience, context and culture. Learning points will be reinforced through explicit instruction and related
follow-up practice.

6. Construction. Making meaning is the heart of language learning and use. Learning tasks and activities
will be designed for learners in such a way that they will have time to reflect on and respond to ideas
and information. Learners will be provided with sufficient scaffolding so that they will be able to reach
their full cognitive, affective, and psychomotor potentials and become independent learners who are
good consumers and constructors of meaning.

COMPONENT 2: Effective Language Use

1. UNDERSTANDING CULTURES Learning language through text types and literary appreciation
exposes learners to different cultures of the world, including one’s culture. Learners develop
sociolinguistic and sociocultural understandings and apply them to their use of the language
(Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English).
o Sociolinguistic understanding refers to appropriate language use. It takes into account
the social significance of linguistic forms and the linguistic implications of social facts.
o (we have to develop cross cultural awareness and determines who is communicating)
o Sociocultural understanding refers to knowing about the language speaking
communities. Why? To gain insights into different values and beliefs systems and
acknowledge the cultural contexts which underpin them. They understand that the
natural and physical environments – as well as the social, economic, historical and
political environments – influence the language speaking groups and their cultural
traditions.
o Language is a complex social practice that reflects and reinforces shared
understandings about appropriate actions, values, beliefs and attitudes within a
community. These shared understandings determine not only what is communicated
and when and how it is communicated, but also who does the communicating. These
collectively constitute the sociolinguistic features of language.
o Example:
 OKAY gesture for Americans
 Money for Japan and the Philippines
 An insult and a vulgar sexual invitation in Greece and Turkey
 An obscene gesture in Germany, Brazil and Australia
 Zero or worthless (in reference to a person) in France and Belgium
 Curse in some Arab countries
 In Thailand, the feet are considered the most degraded part of the body; therefore, never
direct them toward anyone and never use them to touch anyone nor perform any task such as
pushing or opening a door with a foot when your hands are full. Thais show the bottoms of their
feet only when they intend to seriously insult someone. Hence, when seated on the stage, you
insult your Thai audience when you cross your legs and point one foot toward them.

2. UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE- Differences in language systems are expressed in a variety of

ways: for example, in grammatical differentiations, variations in word order, word selection, or
general stylistic variations in texts. By comparing the system of the language with the systems of
other languages, students understand that each language is different, but has identifiable
patterns within its own system. (mental health grammar or LAD helps us to understand various
structural patterns of language)
o Interlanguage theory, we have this implicit metalinguistic knowledge that we used for
us to acquire the first language and second language
 3. PROCESS AND STRATEGIES- Learners select from a repertoire of processes and strategies by
reflecting on their understanding of the way language works for a variety of purposes in a range
of contexts. They deliberate on how they use language and apply different language strategies,
depending on their purpose, context and audience. They use language as a way of coming to
grips with new ideas, resolving difficulties or solving problems. They use strategies such as
brainstorming and discussion as a way of developing ideas. They experiment, take risks and
make approximations with language as a way of developing their language skills. They clarify
what they need to know when seeking information for particular purposes. They use key-word
searches and their understanding of the conventions of informational texts such as tables of
contents, headings, indexes, forewords and glossaries as aids in locating information. They
assess the usefulness of information for particular purposes. They treat information and ideas
critically and evaluate information in terms of its reliability and currency. They make notes and
graphic representations of information and combine information from different sources into a
coherent whole by summarizing, comparing and synthesizing.
o Learners reflect on ethical considerations in the use of ideas and information.
o ethical considerations recognize the importance of attributing sources of ideas and
information and of presenting or representing ideas and information in ways which
are not misleading.
o They use quotation and sourcing conventions appropriately to add credibility

COMPONENT 3: Making Meaning through Language

 Language is the major instrument in communication (oral and written) and the heart of
which is the exchange of meaning.
 Language learning should focus on guiding students make meaning through language for
different purposes on a range of topics and with a variety of audiences.
 Students must be able to adapt to various situations where communication demands
greatly vary.
 The skills, grammatical items, structures and various types of texts will be taught, and
revisited at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication.
 This design allows students to progress from the foundational level to higher levels of
language use.

Coherence with the Basic Education Program Goals

1. The K-12 languages curriculum ensures that processes and products of learning actively foster and
contribute to the achievement of the basic education program goals.

2. Competencies are spiraled across the curriculum and year levels. Upper level courses will focus on
writing, comprehension and study strategies.

3. Content includes print and electronic texts that are age, context and culture appropriate.

COMPONENT 4: Holistic Assessment Assessment

  An important aspect of learning and teaching. It should be effectively used to support the
holistic development of our pupils.
 Our assessment practices should go beyond summative evaluation and move towards a more
holistic approach.
 Holistic assessment refers to the ongoing gathering of information on different facets of a
child from various sources, with the aim of providing qualitative and quantitative feedback to
support and guide the child's development.
 Holistic assessment informs our teachers of their teaching practices and guides them in the
design and delivery of student learning. It will also enable parents to support their children's
development and growth

Characteristics of Assessment

1. Proximity to actual language use and performance.

- Assessment procedures should be based on activities that have authentic communicative function
rather than ones with little or no intrinsic communicative value. These activities are based on actual
performance in authentic situations which the learner is likely to encounter in his or her daily life.

2. A holistic view of language.

- Assessment procedures are based on the notion that the interrelationships among the various
aspects of language, such as phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, among others cannot be ignored.
Also the four skills of language-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-are seen to be parts of a
structurally integrated whole.

- Assessment approaches should be used for communication and self-expression.

- Assessment also takes into account the whole learner and his or her social, academic, and physical
context.

3. An integrative view of learning.

- Assessment attempts to capture the learner’s total array of skills and abilities. It measures language
proficiency in the context of specific subject matter.

- Assessment procedures are based on the idea that various aspects of a learner’s life, both academic
and personal, are integral to the development of language proficiency and cannot be ignored. These
dimensions include not only processes such as acquiring and integrating knowledge, extending and
refining knowledge, and using knowledge meaningfully, but also issues such as varying student attitudes
towards learning.

4. Developmental appropriateness.

- Assessment procedures set expectations that are appropriate within the cognitive, social, and
academic development of the learner.

- This characteristic of assessment makes it particularly valuable for second language learners who
come from culturally diverse backgrounds and who may have atypical educational experiences

5. Multiple referencing.
- Assessment entails obtaining information about the learner from numerous sources and through
various means.

- For students, assessment should allow them to see their own accomplishments in terms that they
understand and, consequently, allows them to assume responsibility for their learning.

- Assessment should allow parents to share in the educational process, and offers them a clear insight
into what their children are doing in school.

- For teachers, the primary advantage of assessment is that it provides data on their students and their
classroom for educational decision-making. In addition, it reports the success of the curriculum and
provides teachers with a framework for organizing student’s works

 English language is a dynamic social process which responds to and reflects changing social
conditions, and is inextricably involve with values, beliefs and the ways of thinking about
ourselves and the world we dwell in
 Sociocultural means taking into account the non- linguistic features in the life of society
(knowing about the language speaking communities and make sense of the social fabric of the
target language)
 Macro skills serves as building blocks for understanding and creation of meaning and for
effective communication across curricula,


TEACHING READING FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

What is involved in reading for academic purposes?

 The ability to read well maybe the most important second language academic skills needed by
EAP students
 In academic contexts, students’ success depends in large part on their grasp of information
learned through reading
 Students need to, at minimum, be able to identify main ideas and details; distinguish between
fact and opinion; draw inferences; determine author stance and bias; summarize, synthesize,
and extend textual information to new tasks (e.g., class projects, oral presentations and
examinations
 Reading provide a major source of input for further student learning of both language and
content is indisputable
 The mastery of academic reading skills requires not only the integration of comprehension
abilities but also the development of a very large vocabulary and reasonable good command of
grammar resources
 Explicit instruction can make a difference and established the foundations for ongoing reading
skills improvement and lifelong reading abilities
Conceptual underpinnings

Skilled-reader abilities that have implications for L2 reading instruction

1. Decoding graphic forms for efficient word recognition

2. Accessing the meanings of a large number of words automatically
3. Drawing meaning from phrase- and clause-level grammatical information
4. Combining clause-level meanings into larger networks of text comprehension
5. Recognizing discourse structures that build and support comprehension
6. Using reading strategies for a range of academic reading tasks
7. Setting goals for reading, monitoring comprehension for reading goals, adjusting goals as
needed, and using text information to achieve reading goals
8. Using inferences of various types
9. Drawing on prior knowledge as appropriate
10. Evaluating, integrating, and synthesizing information for critical reading comprehension
11. Maintaining these processes fluently for extended periods of time
12. Sustaining motivation to persist in reading

 The first three abilities suggest the need for rapid and automatic word recognition and fluent
recognition processing of phrase and clause structures to support comprehension. These
abilities ague for fluency practice, extensive reading (i.e., reading a lot of relatively easy
material) and time spent on the development of a large recognition vocabulary
 Abilities 4 and 5 signals the importance of developing main idea comprehension using all levels
of language knowledge, including discourse structure awareness
 Abilities 6 -10 identify strategic processing as a means for improving comprehension of more
difficult texts and carrying out academic tasks that require the application of text information
 Abilities 11 and 12 highlight the importance of reading fluency development, reading practice
for extended periods of time, and student motivation

Nine curricular principles for EAP reading instruction (can be proposed to assist teachers, materials
writers, and curriculum developers in translating research findings into instructional practices
appropriate for EAP reading classrooms)

1. Integrate reading skill instruction with extensive practice and exposure to print
2. Use reading resources that are interesting, varied, attractive, abundant and accessible
3. Give students some choice in what they read
4. Introduce reading skills and provide students with practice opportunities by first drawing on
course book passages
5. Connect readings to students’ background knowledge
6. Dtructure lessons around pre, during and post reading tasks
7. Provide students with opportunities to experience comprehension success
8. Build expectations that reading occurs in every lesson
9. Plan instruction around a curricular framework that integrates goals for the development of
reading abilities. To do so,
  Promote word recognition efficiency
 Assist students in building a large recognition vocabulary
 Create opportunities for comprehension skills practice
 Build students’ discourse-structure awareness
 Develop the strategic reader
 Build students’ reading fluency
 Provide consistent extensive reading opportunities
 Motivate students to read
 Integrate content and langauge learning goals

 It does not intend to map explicitly onto figure 1 because research findings represent only one
contributions, among many, to curricular principles
 Provide a strong foundation for EAP reading instruction
 Help frame EAP reading instruction that develops student’s reading comprehension abilities
 Engagement, motivation and autonomy are the three keys to reading improvement
 The goals in principle 9 translate into practice in various ways

Objectives at each stage of the pre-, during, and post-reading framework

Promote word recognition efficiency

 Over time, students improve their word-recognition skills when engaged in vocabulary
development activities, reading fluency practice, and extensive reading
 Flashcards, while sometimes considered passé, can prove effective not only for vocabulary
building and collecting but also for word recognition practice

Three activities that promote word and phrase recognition speed and accuracy, and that
support reading fluency

 Word and phrase recognition exercises

- Students generally enjoy recognition exercises in a timed recognition or ‘beat-the-clock’
fashion and with record-keeping charts for tracking progress. Through such exercises, students
develop a heightened awareness of the role that rapid word recognition plays in reading

Common word/phrase-recognition exercise format (timed word selection exercises)

 Timed semantic- connection exercises

- another way to provide practice in quick lexical access is to create exercises with words that
are already familiar to students
- under timed conditions, students consider the key word (on the left) and multiple choices (to
the right) and select the one word (or phrase) that has something in common with the key word,
similar in meaning, or is a common collocate of the key word
 lexical access fluency exercise
- more advanced EAP students benefit from this
- require the matching of key words (in bold face, on the left) with their
definitions or synonyms under timed conditions

Sample lexical access fluency exercise

Build a large recognition vocabulary

 vocabulary knowledge is closely related to reading abilities
 students need to recognize at least 95 % (between 10,000- 15,000 words) of the words that they
encounter for adequate comprehension in instructional context
 more fluent reading and comprehension generally occur when a reader recognizes 98-99%
(35,000-40,000 words) of the words in a text.
 To institute an active vocabulary development framework that guides EAP teachers, material
designers and curriculum developers, the following eight resources should be in place
1. Systematic procedures for selecting target words
2. Techniques for introducing new words and encouraging students to use words meaningfully
3. Activities to practice word- meaning connections and work with large sets of words
4. Tasks for building students’ word-learning strategies
5. Approaches for creating a vocabulary-rich classroom environment
6. Task that guide students in becoming independent word collectors
7. Ways to build student motivation for word learning
8. The recycling of texts and vocabulary
Three ideas for building a strong vocabulary development framework (these techniques are more
effective for building a vocabulary instruction framework than simply asking students to memorize
words)

1. Procedures for selecting words that merit explicit instruction- systematic way to decide which
words to focus on (e.g., categorizing unfamiliar words from an assigned reading into one of four
types)

 ++, deserve direct instruction

 --. Are not worth instructional time
 -+ and +-, teachers need to decide how much time to devote to words

2. Concept of definition map for introducing vocabulary

- One way to introduce new key word and connect it to what students already
know is to build this
- Student view a key word from four vantage points, providing them with multiple
perspectives for building their understanding of the word

Generic concept of definition map and concept of definition map for the word
tabloid
 3. Approaches for creating vocabulary- rich classroom environments
- They can do so by placing students’ written work, interesting magazine articles,
information from the web, book covers from new library acquisitions and
popular song lyrics on the walls and bulletin boards of their classrooms and
school corridor
- Display words
- Teachers can ask the students to move words around on the wall to create
meaningful word clusters (e.g., words belong to a particular area
- Engage students with the activities that promote the meaningful use of word-
wall items

Create opportunities for comprehension skills practice

 Comprehension requires a reasonable knowledge of basic grammar, an
ability to identify main ideas in the text, awareness of discourse
structure, and strategic processing. And it is effectively developed
through class conversations during which students identify and explore
main ideas in the texts that they are reading
 Main-idea comprehension should be at the core of reading instruction.
Develops from instruction that emphasizes discourse structure
awareness through in particular, the use of graphic organizers
 Typically, teachers assess comprehension (through post-reading
comprehension questions) rather than teach it
 Asking students to summarize what they have read or some segment of
a longer text, also provides them with helpful practice in identifying
main ideas, articulating these ideas clearly and establishing links across
main ideas and supporting details

Questions typical of the questioning the author approach

a. What is the author talking about?
b. What do you think the author wants us to know?
c. That’s what the author said, but what did the author mean?
d. Does that make sense given what the author told us before?
e. But does the author tell us why?
f. Why do you think the author tells us this now?
g. How is the author making you feel about?
h. How has the author let you know that something has changed?

Approaches to Main-idea comprehension instruction

a. Elaborative interrogation- more gentle approach to Main-idea comprehension that its label
suggests. In this approach, comprehension questions are followed by WHY questions that
oblige students to return to the text, reread, and then explain their answers. WHY questions
lead to an exploration of main ideas in addition to text recall, inferencing (i.e., reading
 between the lines), and coherence building (i.e., making connections across parts of the
text)
b. Comprehension monitoring- often identified as a reading strategy that improves main-idea
comprehension, involves much more than the recognition of main-ideas and the
identification of difficulties being experienced while reading.

Comprehension monitoring strategies used by skilled readers

 Having a reason for reading and being aware of it
 Recognizing text structure
 Identifying important and main-idea information
 Relating the text to background knowledge
 Recognizing the relevance of the text to reading goals
 Recognizing and attending to reading difficulties
 Reading carefully
 Rereading as appropriate
 Clarifying misunderstandings

Build students’ discourse-structure awareness

 Reading comprehension depends on a reader’s awareness of discourse
structure
 Good readers recognize how textual information is organized and the
signals that provide cues to this organization; readers use this
information (e.g., words that signal rhetorical patterns or topic shifts,
transition phrases, headings and paragraphing) to achieve
comprehensions
 Engages students’ in regular discussions about how texts are structured
and how discourse structure is signaled
 Graphic organizers serve as effective tools for raising stduents’
discourse – structure awareness

Common tasks for exploring discourse structure at different points in a reading lesson

 Building discourse structure awareness at pre-reading stage

- Teachers can guide students in examining text headings and subheadings, and
hypothesizing what each section is about
- The goal is for students to take steps independently, without being directed to
do so
- Students can also be asked to preview preselected text sections and highlight
key words that signal discourse structure
 Raising students’’ awareness of discourse structure at during reading stage
- Brings text organizations features to students’ conscious attention
- The teachers can ask students to do the following while reading
 Complete an outline of the text that reveals main text units. As part of
post-reading discussions, students can explain what makes each unit
identifiable as separate unit.
  Fill in a graphic organizer (e.g., venn diagram or time line). As part of the
post reading discussions, students can explain how the information
placed in the graphic organizer was signaled in the text
 Underline lexical clues that indicate major organizational patterns (e.g.,
cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problem-solution).
 Highlight transition words and phrases that signal new sections (e.g.,
and finally used to signal not only continuation but also the last item in
a series; conversely used to signal a contrast). As part of post reading
discussion, students can describe what they think the phrases and
words signal
 Assign a brief main-idea label to each paragraph (or sets of paragraph)
in the margin. As part of post reading discussion, students can compare
labels and explore the function of different paragraphs

 Building discourse structure awareness at post-reading stage- many during reading activities can
be converted into post reading tasks

Develop the strategic reader and promote strategic reading

 Good readers when encounter challenging texts, they employ strategies
with a heightened level of metacognitive awareness
Strategies employed by good readers while reading for comprehension
 Planning and forming goals before reading
 Forming predictions before reading
 Reading selectively according to goals
 Rereading as appropriate
 Monitoring reading continuously
 Identifying important information
 Filling in gaps in the text through inferences and prior knowledge
 Making guesses about unknown words to be able to continue reading without
major disruptions
 Using discourse structure information to guide understanding
 Integrating ideas from different parts of the text
 Building interpretations of the text while reading
 Building main idea summaries
 Evaluating the text and the author and forming feelings about the text
 Attempting to resolve difficulties
 Reflecting on information in the text

Approaches for incorporating strategic reading curricula

 Directed reading-thinking activity- students are guided in thinking like good readers;
anticipating, predicting, confirming, or modifying their ideas as they read and then summarizing
  KWH- used for promoting strategic reading and motivating students to read by having them
discover what they have learned from reading

 Identification of challenging parts of a text- likely encounter on a fairly regular basis in academic
classes
Possible sources of reading difficulty

Building students’ reading fluency

 Fluent reading- rapid, accurate and prosodically appropriate reading- is frequently neglected in
EAP curricula and reading textbook
 Critical component of effective and successful reading instruction
 Developing word-recognition fluency can be carried out through repetition and beat-the-clock
practice with flashcards and timed readings of word list
 Building word and passage reading fluency requires a real time commitment
o Rereading- a common practice among skilled readers in academic settings to consolidate
content learning

Rereading tasks that promote reading fluency development

 Confirming an answer to a comprehension question

 Confirming the main idea (skimming)
 Locating details (scanning)
 Preparing for a summary or synthesis task
 Reading between the lines (inferencing)
 Filling in a graphic organizer that reflects text organization
  Determining author stance, bias and position (and possibly taking a position different from that
of the author)
 Locating discourse structure and main idea signals
 Finding points of agreement or disagreement with another information source (e.g., video)
 Connecting information with a previously encountered information source (e.g., another
passage, teacher mini-lecture, video or field trip)
 Preparing for a follow up activity requiring the use of text information (e.g., a radio report, essay
or debate)
 Reading a full text after a jigsaw activity in which students have read only one part of the text

o Repeated reading-
- Unassisted repeated reading involves students reading short passages aloud alone
until they reach a set reading rate
- Assisted repeated- encourages students to read passage silently/aloud along an
audio tape or CD, with teacher, or after first listening to the passage and then
reading along (among other variations)

Nine tips for repeated reading routine

o Oral paired reading- commonly used in L1 settings and students work in pairs with sausages’
that they have already read for other purposes.

Provide consistent extensive reading opportunities

 Ensure that students actually read, and read a lot

 Requires a curriculum-wide-commitment if it is to have a major impact on fluency and reading
comprehension development
Ten principles of an extensive reading program

Tips that can enhance an extensive reading program

o Scaffolded silent reading- defined by these practices;

 The teacher teaches strategies for the selected reading material
 The teacher schedules ScSR session regularly
 Students read student selected materials and can change reading materials
when motivation lags, interests wanes, and/or the text proves too difficult
 The teacher engages students in short (5-10 minutes) lessons that explain or
model some aspect of fluent reading or a comprehension strategy
 Students engage in silent reading for designated period of time
 The teacher monitors student engagement and text comprehension.
Monitoring takes place as the teacher moves around the room and interacts
with individual students on a periodic basis
 The teacher holds students accountable for time spent reading silently (e.g.,
during teacher-individual student interactions, with completed-book
response assignments)
Motivate students to read

 Demotivate- a truly unfortunate consequence considering the importance of reading for most of
our students

Motivational support provided by teachers and the curriculum in numerous ways

Integrate content
and language learning objectives

 Often labeled content-based instruction

 Inherent in CBI, naturally leads to opportunities for extended reading, motivational learning
experiences, strategic responses to increasingly complex tasks, greater choices in reading
materials and growing challenges to match expanding skills
 CBI- lends itself to project-based learning; the recycling of important skills on regular basis; the
rereading of text and realistic tasks for interpreting, integrating and evaluating information from
multiple text
 Curricular frameworks

o Concepts-oriented reading instruction- used and researched extensively in L1 settings. It was

initially guided by instructional principles for stimulating student interest and motivation to
read. And engaged in content discussions and activities that require the purposeful use of
multiple strategies: activating background knowledge, forming and answering questions,
determining main ideas, monitoring and repairing comprehension, noting text structure and text
characteristic, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, taking notes, using graphic organizers
o Collaborative strategic reading- based on concepts from reciprocal teaching but is appropriate
for L2 learners. It combines reading comprehension- strategy instructions and cooperative
learning principles to promote content learning, language mastery, and reading comprehension

Four strategies:
 Preview to predict what the passage might be about
 Click and clunk to identify difficult words and concepts and use fix up strategies to make
sense of difficult text
 read for the gist to restate the most important ideas in portions of the text
 summarize what has been learned
- teachers introduce these through modeling, role playing, thinking aloud and
discussing why, when and how to use the strategies. While engaged in these
activities, students activate prior knowledge, make predictions, monitor
comprehensions difficulties, clarify information, restate important ideas,
summarize the text and form appropriate questions about the text

TEACH READING, WRITING, SPEAKING AND LISTENING IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER

 macro skills integration in language instruction has becoming a more prominent pedagogical
approach as language educational paradigm continuously campaigns a more skills- oriented
assessment scheme
 reading as model for writing- noticed how grammatical structure used for various purposes
 writing for themselves- help readers see what into a reading that they are trying to make sense
of. ELLS can gain insight into how the reading and writing processes are related
 writing as a response to reading- provides opportunities for ELIs to use new vocabulary items
that have been recycled through multiple texts they have read on the same topic
 bringing together oral language, reading and writing- includes reader’s theater, choral reading
(entire class reads a passage out loud together, with feeling), poetry reading and writing, and
literature circles (group of students all read the same book and discuss various aspects of it
 reading a variety of genres- provide models and texts for analysis to aid in the process of
developing the written competence to produce those genres of text in the future

activities for fostering ELLs’ reading comprehension

Some common classroom language functions

BUILD DEEP UNDERSTANDINGS OF ACADEMIC VOCABULARY CONSTANTLY

 part of what makes vocabulary difficult is that often the same word can take on multiple
meanings in different contexts and subject areas
 effective vocabulary instruction provides multiple exposures to target words over multiple days
and across various reading, writing and speaking opportunities
 text set- collection of reading materials that is organized around themes. Includes a wide variety
of written texts and materials that vary in length, difficulty and structure and encompasses text
that are interesting, relevant and accessible to most students. Gives students options for
independent reading and provides students with opportunities to practice new reading
strategies and to learn content information
ways to foster active vocabulary learning for ELLs

1. Professional literacy- understanding and capacity to exercise the skills that you learn across
your degree and through other life experiences
2. Socio-cultural diversity- Illustrates the essence of teamwork which means working together to
achieve a common goal
3. Traditional literacy- Reading of print and writing in forms intended to be read as print
4. New literacy- reception and creation of information through the full range of digital media
5. Component 1- The use of source text to combine the input and output modalities in language
learning
6. Component 4- The learning objectives are based on the learning progressions which map out
specific sequence of knowledge and skills that students are expected to learn as they progress
through their education
7. Component 3- The use of print, electronic texts that are age, context and culture appropriate
8. Sociolinguistic competence- for example, in pretty much most English speaking cultures, its not
acceptable to address a minister with ‘hey dude’
9. Strategic competence- the speaker may not know a certain word, thus will plan to either
paraphrase, or ask what that word is in the target language
10. Grammatical competence- when a person judges that sentence
11. Building on students existing language competence- They make connections, anticipate
possibilities, reflect upon ideas and determine courses of action
12. Engagement with and study of texts- exposure to wide ranging and varied, from brief
conversations to lengthy and complex forms of writing
13. Meaning- focus of receptive skills which involve receiving information
14. Accuracy- focus of productive skills which involve producing words, phrases, sentences and
paragraphs
15. Source text- giving students a sample of business letter, a research proposal and the like
because this is what we truly and actually perform in reality
16. Component 4- it entails obtaining information about the learner from numerous sources and
through various means
17. Component 3- accentuate the development of higher order thinking skills
18. Component 2- Making notes and graphic representations of information and combine
information from different sources into a coherent whole by summarizing, comparing and
synthesizing
19. Critical literacy- involves the questioning and examination of ideas, and requires you to
synthesize, analyze, interpret, evaluate and respond to the texts you read or listen
20. Text- any form of written (reading and writing), oral (listening and speaking) and visual
communication involving language
21. Explicit instruction- a way to teach in a direct structured way
22. Interactive learning- a hands-on/real life approach to education founded upon building student
engagement through guided social interchange
23. Media literacy- ability to comprehend and use communication media
24. Idiolect- individual’s distinctive and unique use of language, including speech
25. Language acquisition device- implicit metalinguistic knowledge in one language
26. Interlanguage- dormant psychological framework in the human brain that is activated when one
attempts to learn a second language
27. Universal grammar- all languages possess the same set of categories and restrictions
28. Law of apperception- learners are asked to perceive new experience in relation to past
experience
29. Component 3- highlights the spread and alignment of the language and literacy domains with
the 5 sub strands
30. Component 1- used of differentiated activities
31. Component 2- promotes cross cultural awareness and cultural differences
32. Component 4- accentuates the use of activities that are based on actual performance in
authentic situations which the learner is likely to
33. Sociolinguistic competence- expressing strong views about politics and religion over dinner is
general avoided. This rule is also moderated depending on the relationship between the guest
 and the host. If politics and religion are their favorite topics and if they know each other very
well, these topics might well be appropriate
34. Strategic competence- if the communication was unsuccessful due to external factors (such as
interruption), or due to the message being misunderstood, the speaker restores communication
by means of making requests for repetition or clarifications
35. Law of apperception- trying to make a bridge between the learner’s past experiences with the
new things you would want them to experience
36. Spiral progression- students enhance their language abilities by using what they know in new
and more complex contexts and with increasing sophistication
37. Schema- the information and educational context a learner already has before they learn new
information
38. Communicative competence- descriptions of what individuals can do with language in terms of
speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-
rehearsed context
39. Interlanguage- developed by a learner of a second language which preserves some features of
their first language and can also overgeneralize some L2 writing and speaking rules