Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id eAS40U902777; Mon, 27 Nov 2000 23:00:30 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 23:00:30 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <001f01c058ef$4b589b20$09150785@fedu.fukuiu.ac.jp> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Charles Jannuzi" <jannuzi@edu00.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:5336] Re: Reading X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 1694 Lines: 38 For EFL/ESL students whose language backgrounds are either (1) non-alphabetic (like Chinese characters, that would be written Chinese and in part written Japanese) or (2) alphabetic but much more regular and simple than English (Spanish, Italian, Indonesia, Tagalog, etc.), I strongly recommend reading aloud. It really does help take the stress out of bottom-up decoding skills so learners can engage in meaning and imagination (which is how texts should communicate). Many learners find video with closed captions too distracting--the visual signal combined with the audio combined with the text overloads them. But a story read out loud in a skillful way as students follow in their books transfers the teachers' competence and "reading energy" to the learners. This is social reading. Young learners like stories. Although we make a big academic deal out of how approaches to writing academic texts is partly cultural bound (in science, based on what you see in journals, that isn't really that true), stories are universal. When I read folk tales from various world cultures, I'm amazed at that similarities across all cultures. And story "logic" is largely the same. Japanese learners of English are captivated hearing and reading an English version of one of their many folktales and traditional stories. They can also learn about other cultures--one story from Mexico appealed deeply to my Japanese students. I teach in an EFL situation and I find it regrettable that teachers read so little to students while students seem so little engaged in the texts they are supposed to be reading (actually "studying" for language points). Yours, Charles Jannuzi Fukui University, Japan
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