Synchronous (Onsite) Reading Out Loud: A Communicative Approach to a Reading Skills more

Sat, Apr 29, 16:00-16:25 Asia/Seoul

In contrast to the Japanese high school EFL context which tends to be passive and teacher-centered, this presentation introduces a learner-centered, communicative approach to university EFL reading. Here, comprehension is developed through a collaborative process where learners negotiate the meaning of text, with teacher input as necessary. In small groups or pairs, learners infer the meaning of new words from context, discuss the meaning of texts, and focus on discourse markers. This approach also employs extensive reading, where learners write reports and explain what they were able to grasp from graded readers, all in English. The presenter will show results from comprehension tests, actual student-written examples of ‘book reports,’ and survey results which show increased motivation towards reading and English lessons generally. The approach is a ‘strong’ version of task-based learning (Ellis, 2018), rooted in the principle of “using English to learn it (Howatt, 1984:279),” applied to a reading class.