What does it mean to teach reading and writing communicatively? How
would a reading/writing class with a communicative focus be different
from other reading/writing classes?
(Additional comments on this post no longer earn points. Please choose a more recent entry).
(Additional comments on this post no longer earn points. Please choose a more recent entry).
There are several ways to keep your reading/writing class communicative and worthwhile for your students.
ReplyDeleteUse techniques that are intrinsically motivating for your students. Find out what makes for interesting and relevant materials for the classroom that students can easily correlate into real-life situations.
Reading materials in an ESL setting for young adults-adults that would be appropriate for a communicative classroom could possibly include: restaurant menus, newspapers, advertisements, emails, memos (if the students work in an office setting), road-side signs, recipes, instructions or manuals, and even "error messages" that pop up on your computer. For writing, you could practice texting, writing directions, journal entries, or writing a recipe.
Find out your students' over goals for reading and writing and focus on them. Also, you should work with your students and help them develop strategies for strengthening their reading and writing skills. When students can read and write in their own language, teachers often assume that their students will develop their own reading and writing skills in the target language. However, as a teacher, you can't assume student's will do this on their own. You need to guide them through the process and provide them with methods and techniques that will help them. The textbook mentions several strategies such as using both bottom-up and top-down techniques, following the SQ3R sequence, and planning on pre-reading, during-reading, and after-reading phases.
A reading and writing class which is communicative would have students be practicing reading and writing material applicable to their new language environment as well as is appropriate to their age, background, gender, and preferences.
ReplyDeleteThe student is more likely to read with more focus and write with my fluidity and passion if the reading material or writing prompt is interesting and applicable to them.
A class that is communicative would not have students mindlessly read material in which they have no interest. Giving the students freedom to choose their own material or subjects might motivate them to read and write in English more on their own.
I think that teaching reading and writing communicatively would involve materials and activities that are for the benefit of the students (for example, things that would help them in daily life, like reading advertisements and knowing what they mean, reading mail-bills, letters, notices, etc., taxes, signs, and knowing how to write replies or fill in applications, checks, etc..). I also remember on one of the blog questions we talked about how “text (i.e. discourse in any form) will be easier to reproduce, understand and recall, to the extent that it is structured episodically.” This I think is very important when finding reading materials that might not be related to realia as much (I do like realia a lot and I know how useful it can be, but I also think it is useful for students to simply learn how to enjoy reading). When students find something interesting, they will have that inner motivation to read and understand more (even for native speakers it is difficult to read something we are not interested in or do not care about!). The same is said about writing, but another thing about writing is that you cannot assume that students will know how to produce certain types of text (for example, teach them how an essay is structured, what you expect to be in it, etc, before you simply ask them to “write an essay”). I think maybe in a non-communicative class it would be more geared toward how to pass a test, more of the “mechanical” type of English (where you might have to read “classical” books, and write about things that you will never need to know how to write about maybe-pollution or abortion,etc).
ReplyDeleteTeaching a communicative reading/writing class would involve materials that the students are interested in and need to be familiar with. For example, rather than just writing a random paragraph, students might practice writing a formal letter, or an email to a family member. Students should also practice reading about current events (either directly from newspapers, or simplified versions depending on the level of the student) or reading books that the student finds interesting. Basically, the emphasis of the class should be on aspects of reading and writing that the student will be able to apply later, rather than exercises purely to practice the correct use or vocabulary and grammar or eloquent sentences.
ReplyDeleteKailey Watson
Teaching reading and writing communicatively would consist of using materials that the students find interesting, something that would engage their interest and they would want to read or write more about. To teach a communicative reading and writing class, it is imperative for the instructor to know the students well, and be able to provide materials that suit them.
ReplyDeleteA communicative reading and writing class would differ from a standard class in that, with a standard class, reading and writing would be focused more on the proper application of the skills. The reading materials provided would be ones that would focus more on the comprehension side of things, like the short stories we had to read in Language Arts class in elementary school. The stories were simple, and boring, but used level-appropriate language and grammar. While writing always had to do with grammar, and was always about what we had read, or what we had talked about in class. The materials and assignments were not individual to the students, and never geared toward keeping our interest.
Many regular reading and writing classes typically include long (and often boring!) passages that seem to come from textbooks or possibly newspapers. Sometimes they are authentic materials, but very often they were written or tailored specifically to the level being taught. Often after reading the long, dense passages, students have to answer a series of questions. There is nothing inherently communicative about it because it's not the kind of task students would have to carry out in the real world.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone above has said, one of the best ways to make reading/writing communicative is to use authentic, interesting materials. As the text points out, though, it is still important to give some extensive reading assignments to increase students' fluency. Especially for those students who are planning to pursue degrees in an English-speaking university, it's important to be able to read and understand long sections of text. The obvious answer is to give them texts that interest them. This is especially important at lower levels. At higher levels of ESL, however, with the students mentioned above, they do need some practice synthesizing long, dense passages. In the immediate future, they'll have to take the TOEFL (and possibly the SAT). Once into the university, they'll have to take gen ed classes they probably have no interest in, such as Texas history or biology. So how do you make THAT kind of reading/writing work communicative?? I'm afraid I don't completely know the answer to that yet :) I imagine you'd teach them reading skills (skimming, scanning, questioning, summarizing, etc.) at lower levels in a more communicative style so that they'd have the skills needed to tackle the more complex reading at higher levels. It'd be good here to teach somewhat theme-based and have students write argument essays. For ESL students, for example, they could study about the presidential election and write argument essays for who they think should be the next president, as though they were writing an opinion column for a newspaper. Then another student could write a response. As far as writing goes, too, I loved what Zahra said in class about the journal exchange between the teacher and the students.
Reading and writing typical classes are mostly based in text books that not necessarily include authentic materials. This way, students are learning how to read academic stuff and write formal texts, but they will not be familiar with easy authentic materials like a water bill or a receipt. Also, students will not be able to write creatively without thinking of not violating the format rules. Regular reading and writing class are full of drilling and strategy learning which is good, but not for a long term language development. On the other hand, communicative approach could make use of authentic material along with text books. Students are taught how to comprehend and respond to daily life texts. Student are reading as a group and sharing their thoughts before writing them down. Students are reading and writing things that they like. In a communicative class the focus is to learn the language not just to comprehend it but also to use it effectively for real life purposes. Even for students in an EFL environment or those intending to get a degree in a native English speaking country, it is still important to expand their academic knowledge of the language to a more global one.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes I take for granted the amount of reading and writing I do on a daily basis. It happens so naturally that I don’t notice it any more.
ReplyDeleteIt’s an important skill set that L2 students pick up. I imagine that in the beginning it may be challenging and frustrating to some. I would naturally prefer not to read or write something that I’m not particularly interested in but the world is a challenging place and sometimes you have to do such things. I’m all for having students read and write about what interest them but I think it’s important in advance L2 classes to challenge students to read and write outside of the box.
I’m all for students having to keep journals outside of the classroom. I think it’s good to set sometime in class where you can go over journal entries. Making journal entries into a communicative activity would help students in many ways and make them more comfortable expressing themselves when they write.
Someone mentioned job applications and I think those are actually good to go over. I know a few people who are intimidated by job applications and get discouraged by them. Resume writing another important skill that can be made into an activity.
Also like the idea of reading and writing cooking recipes, that would make for a really good class topic too. Everyone has an opinion about food and people are usually really excited to share their thoughts about it.
I think activities like these can boost a student’s confidence.
Teaching reading and writing communicatively, to me, means to teach using subjects or topics that will aid the learner in their daily life. These things need to have meaning to the student and not just be busy work. The tasks are grouped by level and some sort of purpose is behind the learning of these things (i.e. how to read an email or how to fill out an application of some sort).
ReplyDeleteA communicative focused reading/writing class would involve things like job applications, reading advertisements and coupons, or things that introduce terms for family and job titles, or how to read phone numbers and write addresses. Things that have real world applications. All of these things I have reviewed and taught ing my ESL class. These are things my students need to know how to use. Whether its filling out a job application or reading a receipt from the grocery store, to repeating a phone number all these things they will have to know how to do sometime in their lives and to give them the ability to do that is what communicative teaching is for.
Stefani Goode
I think the greatest difference between a regular reading/writing class and one that is communicative is the amount of authentic/everyday material presented to students. While traditional classes have asked students to read or write isolated or unrealistic text, communicative classes focus on using materials students would be likely to encounter in daily life. I think the idea of a student-driven classroom is also key here - as teachers we should allow our students and their lives influence which materials we choose to give them. In a community center this may mean that we start a book club or give them things like menus to read if they're at a beginner level. We can ask them to perform writing tasks that mirror types of writing they will encounter frequently - job applications, as Jimmy mentioned above, are a great example of this. I think also that it would be a great idea to ask students to bring in an example of text in English that they encounter in daily life that was difficult for them to navigate and allow those items to determine the path of a class period. Working with the students as much as possible so that you know what they're interested in learning and what they need in their lives will go a long way toward creating a more communicative atmosphere and will add to their internal motivation as they try to complete reading and writing activities or assignments.
ReplyDeleteThe different could be that in a communicative class, the reading and writing will be products of MEANINGFUL communication, not drills. Other reading / writing courses may focus solely on the mechanics of writing such as spelling, punctuation, format conventions, or even the alphabet. The focus might be more "bottom-up" with use of drills and exercises which are disconnected and out of context.
ReplyDeleteIn a communicative course, there may be more "top-down" focus on overall message in which students meaningfully initiate and respond to genuine communication. There may be readings of authentic materials (such as a job ad) to which students communicate a meaningful written response, such as an email. Unlike in the "other" reading / writing courses, in a communicative class comprehension of meaningful communication should be necessary to completing tasks.
As everyone said above, the reading and writing materials which interest students are the necessary way to teach reading and writing communicatively. These materials are written or designed by native speakers, so that students can learn the authentic and natural language. Not only the interesting and authentic materials but level-suitable ones are helpful for teachers to know their students and think about the most communicative strategies to teach. And the way of teaching should also be communicative, which means teachers cannot be stick to the one certain teaching material, instead, they should enlighten students to find more relative topics and materials. And I think in the communicative class, doing the exercise and explaining it cannot be thought as the important goal and main task. Teachers should teach students reading and writing skills like skimming, scanning, which they can apply in others materials.
ReplyDeleteThe regular reading and writing class focus on the materials themselves, so I think this kind of class can be useful for lower level students who need to learn the basic knowledge about L2. And also it is suitable for exam-centered curriculum.
In a communicative reading/writing class, the material would be chosen with the preferences of the student taken into consideration, but also be made relevant to their lives. If for instance this is a business EFL class, the instruction might focus on email, current events, and stocks invoicing. If it is an ESL class for stay at home moms, the instruction might be how to read prescription instructions or the electric bill and writing recipes or notes back to a child's teacher. The grammar portion comes with practice, the communicativeness comes from usefulness. In just a "normal" ESL/EFL reading/writing class, the material probably will not be based on the needs of the student, but rather on giving them the rote skills they need to pass an exam.
ReplyDeleteTeaching reading and writing communicatively means to relate to authentic material. Brown says to distinguish between real writing and display writing (395). I see real writing to be more helpful because it’s what we use most in everyday life. But, as talked about in chapter 21, many of the task-based texts (such as filling out an application) occurs more than writing an essay. In regards to reading, picking genres that are encountered more in your personal life, maybe it’ll be helpful to your students. In conclusion, authenticity is important to communicative teaching/learning. Knowing your students’ needs is paramount.
ReplyDeleteJust because it is a reading and writing class doesnt mean that they are never allowed to speak in the classroom! You could test reading comprehension by having discussion with the students and letting them decide what points of the text are important. Also, having them read real world material such as a billboard or news paper or bill and discussing meaning and learning the new vocabulary. Also I think giving the students the opportunity to read or write about topics they are interested in would be helpful to keeping them focused and wanting to read and write.
ReplyDeleteTeaching reading and writing communicatively means that students learn reading and writing skills with authentic materials that are closely related to real-life. In traditional classroom setting, many teachers just used text books or stereotyped materials to teach reading and writing skills. As a result, students were not motivated fully. As we have talked before, when students have interests and are motivated intrinsically, they try to learn something more actively and spontaneously. As an ESL/EFL teacher, we have several ways to teach reading and writing more communicatively. As first, teachers should more authentic materials that students can easily encounter in their life such as email, menu, advertisement, cautions, directions, manuals, notices, and so on. Then, because students may also feel that they will use or encounter these examples in the future in there life, they may feel the necessity of learning reading and writing skills. Moreover, teachers can let students choose what they want to learn by themselves. For example, in reading class teachers can use an interesting novel as a material. Then, each student can recommend a book, and whole class can select one of them by vote. In this situation, because students choose the learning material by themselves, they may be motivated and interested more than teachers’ one-sided choice.
ReplyDelete