LECTURA EN EL AULA DE LENGUAJE

Nolvia Montecinos

Claudia Fonseca, M.A.

Didactic of Literature

September 24th, 2012

READING IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Reading is a very important subject that needs to be considered in the learning process especially when you are learning a second language, but most of the time students get frustrated about this subject because since the very beginning they did not receive from the teacher a good induction on reading. Therefore, in order to succeed reading in the language classroom it must be necessary to consider three important aspects, such as: its aims, the teacher´s role, as well as the student´s role.

When you are starting a project of whatever nature, you must first establish the aims and work on that basis to ensure success, well, I consider that to set the aims for reading in the Language classroom must be the first step for the teacher, but he has to consider that “every reader require different treatment” (Textbook 31). Also the teacher should know the difference between teaching Language lessons and reading lessons because their aims are totally different, since the first one teaches grammar, structure, and so on, and reading teaches meaning. A very complete aim for a reading development program is “To enable students to enjoy (or at least feel comfortable with) reading in the foreign language, and to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate understanding” (Textbook 31). In this process the teacher needs to have it clear that it is the student attitude that will take him to really get involved in reading, but of course it will not be possible without the teacher´s preliminary contribution.

In the reading process the teacher plays an important role since we can say that the student attitude toward reading is the result of a good or bad job from the teacher that can make a positive or negative mark. To fulfill his role the teacher must “enjoy and value reading himself” (Textbook 32), in other words he has to lead with his example, reading at times when students can see him. He also has to “introduce what reading is about and choose suitable text” (Textbook 32), that means that he has to choose text according to the level and find out what texts can work out for the students, as well as devising effective activities and using different methods in order to make this subject interesting for them and so they can work productively, with constant monitoring to see how students are doing, probably some of them are going to request help from the teacher. As we can see the role of the teacher is to prepare, motivate and accompany the students in the process. But to achieve the aims about reading in the Language classroom besides the teacher´s performance is also needed that the students do their part.

Another very important aspect is the role of the student, because although the purposes are properly set, and the teacher has clearly defined his role, if the students does not fulfill their role, nothing will have been achieved, as they take the best part, they need to be motivated and have the attitude to get in the process for them to enjoy reading or at least feel comfortable with. Finding the meaning from reading is not an easy task for students specially when they are not used to, also when they are shy, quiet and do not like active participation. In order to accomplish the aims for reading students must: “take an active participation, monitoring comprehension, learning text talk, taking risks and learning not to cheat themselves” (Textbook 33). Sometimes the classroom environment influences in the attitude of the students toward reading, so it will be a task for the teacher to create an appropriate environment in which students can freely express their ideas about reading.

To conclude I can say that

...