Developing fluency in Reading

Developing fluency in Reading

Abstract:

This essay is based on a conference called ‘’Developing Fluency in Reading’’ by Paul Nation that took place in South Korea. He emphasizes in the importance of producing fluency even with basic vocabulary and the importance of recognizing those words. Also he is concerned on the reading’s meaning, the practicality, and the reliability of the text, if it the text content is appropriate for their level. He also considers that practice should be a priority.

The reading text and relevance and practicality

On the reading text should be presented a meaning, something of the interest of the Ss, otherwise they are going to start reading less and getting bored. “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”

― Roald Dahl

When a text is very long is not so interesting to Ss at first sight, the first thing they are could think is ‘’This is so boring’’ because when a reading is long it takes them too much time to read and take into account that the classroom is not the best environment for being concentrated in a reading because there’s noise, the arrangement of the class is not adequate, etc. some factors as group management are really important in order to keep them in a good ambiance so that they can be concentrated. Paul Nation is Emeritus Professor suggests that a Reading should have very familiar words and they should be as easy as possible. He also mentions that you can have fluency even with a very small and easy amount of vocabulary. ´´In very early stage of language learning learner need to be fluent in what they already know´´–Paul Nation

The text should be familiar in vocabulary and also in context, you can not bring them a text that they have no a clue of what is written. For example if you hand out a text that talks about a movie called “How Green Was My Valley" staring Maureen O'Hara in 1941, if they do not have idea of who is that person or never heard about the movie it is obvious that the movie is not something from the Students’ generation that could attire their attention or interest and the

vocabulary would be no proper for their Language level. Therefore the importance to bring interesting readings according to their age and generation in order to cause curiosity in the text so that they can be engaged in the reading, plus if it is something they know or they are familiar with they might have an opinion about it and turn the class very interesting. Besides that the text

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