Approaches to Content Based

Reading for English

Language Learning

Katie Subra, subr0054@umn.eduMinsk State Linguistic University

21 November 2013

Background -> Common Ground

Level: Pre-Intermediate through Advanced

Objectives: Remember, Describe, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create

Fields: English for (Multiple) Academic Purposes

Favorite Activity: Reading Literature & Doing a Comparative Analysis of the Characters

And you?...

Proposed Question: How do we move from summative to formative activities?

Sample Activities – How do you do these things?KWPL (Know, Want to Know, Predict,

Learn) – Main idea comprehensionVocabulary developmentAwareness of discourse or styleBecoming a strategic readerReading fluencyTeaching for Motivation

New Discourse – New Motivation"Belay on?" – "On belay."

10 Curricular Principles – from Good Ideas for Teaching L2 ReadingGrabe, W. (2012)

Resources & ApplicationResources:

College Intro '101' Textbooks

Newsprint – VOA News, UK Telegraph, Times, …

Current Research – Wiley, PEW Research…

Fiction and Bibliographies from the fieldSustained Silent ReadingTask-Based Projects: Newsletters, Annotated

Bibliography, Presentations, Role PlayGuided Reading Worksheets & AWLs

Objectives & Guided ReadingEx: LiteratureQ: How could you adapt this to different fields?Q2: Which levels of thinking are being accessed? BT COURSE GOALS: The course will promote students’ abilities

to: 1. Increase a student’s English language proficiency. 2. Prepare him or her academically for American college

courses. 3. Expand abilities to read silently and aloud.4. Integrate multiple strategies for comprehending formal and

informal texts.5. Enhance a student’s vocabulary through the use of

contextual clues and practice.6. Develop strategies for reading for details and reading for the

main idea (skimming a text).7. Differentiate between factual and opinionated text.8. Analyze themes and make comparisons between multiple

texts. 9. Conduct research related to the topics of our assigned

memoir.10. Identify aspects of the assigned reading that are easy,

difficult, enjoyable, or dry and develop tactics for dealing with each type of reading.

Guided Reading with KWPL & BeyondReading Example: November 19, 2013

As Myanmar Modernizes, Old Trades Are Outpaced by New Competitors

Topic: Technology & the Economy in Myanmar

1. What do you know?

2. What do you want to learn?

3. What can you predict?

4. What did you learn?

Academic Word Listshttp://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/information

The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead as part of her M.A. Thesis. The list contains 570 word families which were selected according to principles. The list does not include words that are in the most frequent 2000 words of English. The AWL was primarily made so that it could be used by teachers as part of a programme preparing learners for tertiary level study or used by students working alone to learn the words most needed to study at tertiary institutions. The Academic Word List replaces the University Word List.

AWL Highlighters & Gapmakershttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm

Predict Academic Vocabulary words from the Text:

November 19, 2013 As Myanmar Modernizes, Old Trades Are Outpaced by New Competitors By THOMAS FULLER

Review – Approaches & Principles of CBI & Reading22 November 2013Academic Word Lists & Vocabulary

Practice

Graphic Organizers & Visual Reading

Resources – Debates, PEW Research, VOA, News Sources, Literature, Intro 101 Textbooks

Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition - pptx 'Analyzing Texts for CBI'Read 4 different articles & apply CBI

Reading Techniques: Content, Culture, KWPL, Langauge

Apply Bloom's Taxonomy Higher Order Thinking Skills to Reading Activities

Motivating Readers through Graphic Organizers & Debates

Motivating Readers through Graphic Organizers & DebatesThe House Believes in a National Minimum Wage

A minimum wage is the minimum price at which firms may hire workers, and conversely at which individuals can sell their labor. The government usually sets the minimum wage level at a point that will increase the wages of the lowest earners. New Zealand was the first country to set any kind of minimum wage law when it established arbitration boards in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894. There is now some kind of minimum wage or collective bargaining legislation over the minimum wage in more than 90% of countries. There are however large differences in terms of the level of the minimum and how it is set.

Minimum Wage Debate Continuedthe minimum wage

aids in the propagation of social justice and the fair treatment of workers

the minimum wage provides a baseline minimum allowing people to embark freely in the pursuit of happiness

higher wages boost economic growth

the minimum wage encourages people to join the workforce rather than pursuing income through illegal channels

the minimum wage restricts an individual’s fundamental right to work

individuals gain a sense of dignity from employment, as well as develop human capital, that can be denied them by a minimum wage

the minimum wage is little more than a political tool that ultimately harms the overall economy by raising the unemployment rate and driving businesses elsewhere

the free market tends to treat workers fairly

Minimum Wage Debate Continued

Graphic Organizers & Statistical DataPew Research Center

Beyond KWPL – Written Text Analysis Form

ContentCultureKWPLLanguage : Vocabulary &

Communicative Functions/Structures

Final Discussion:

Apply these terms to activities that we discussed today. How will you access all levels of thinking from summative to formative in your ESP reading activities?

Google Scholar English Archives

ResourcesTheory/Lesson Planning Resources:•Academic Word List Information- http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist•AWL Activities from Oxford English Dictionary- http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/academic/•AWL Gap Maker/Highlighter tools- http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/index.htm•Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition- http://www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/curriculum/ta_form.html OR http://www.carla.umn.edu/•Google Scholar English Resources- http://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues

Reading Resources:•NYTimes- http://international.nytimes.com/•Pew Research- http://www.pewresearch.org/•Telegraph- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/•Voice of America News- http://www.voanews.com OR http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

Debate Resources:•Interactive online voting & Argument summaries- http://www.debate.org/•Debatabase (detailed arguments 4 Economy, Law, Education…)- http://www.debate.org/