Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing: (ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series)

Using a framework based on principles of teaching and learning, this guide for teachers and teacher trainees provides a wealth of suggestions for helping learners at all levels of proficiency develop their reading and writing skills and fluency. By following these suggestions, which are organized around four strands – meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development – teachers will be able to design and present a balanced program for their students. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, and its companion text, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking, are similar in format and the kinds of topics covered, but do not need to be used together. Drawing on research and theory in applied linguistics, their focus is strongly hands-on, featuring easily applied principles, a large number of useful teaching techniques, and guidelines for testing and monitoring, All Certificate, Diploma, Masters and Doctoral courses for teachers of English as a second or foreign language include a teaching methods component. The texts are designed for and have been field tested in such programs.

Table of Contents:
@contents: Selected Contents: Table of Contents Chapter 1 Learning to read in another language 1 Learning to read in the first language Learning to read in another language Principles for teaching reading Chapter 2 Learning to recognise and spell words Prerequisites for formal reading instruction Phonics and the alphabetic principle The role of phonics in a reading programme Spelling: productive phonics Learning to spell Designing a focused spelling programme Chapter 3 Intensive reading Focuses in intensive reading Features of a good reading exercise Are comprehension questions good reading exercises? Comprehension of the text The focus of comprehension questions Grammar features in the text Cohesive devices Strategy development Standardized reading procedures Handling the exercises The role of teaching exercises Chapter 4 Extensive reading Understand the goals and limitations of extensive reading Find your learners= present vocabulary level Provide plenty of interesting and appropriate reading texts Set, encourage and monitor large quantities of extensive reading Support and supplement extensive reading with language focused learning and fluency development Help learners move systematically through the graded reader levels Simplified and unsimplified texts The extensive reading programme Chapter 5 Reading faster The nature and limits of reading speed The nature of fluency development The nature of fluency development activities Increasing oral reading speed Increasing careful silent reading speed Increasing silent expeditious reading speed Frequently asked questions about reading speed Chapter 6 Assessing reading Motivating Measuring achievement Diagnosing problems Measuring reading proficiency Issues in making and using comprehension tests Chapter 7 Helping learners write Principles for teaching writing Designing tasks Experience tasks Bringing tasks within the learners' experience Making sure learners have the experience to do a task Shared tasks Guided tasks Independent tasks Using the four kinds of tasks Chapter 8 The writing process The parts of a writing programme Meaning-focused writing The parts of the writing process Considering the goals of the writer and model of the reader Gathering ideas Ideas to text Editing Reviewing Diagnosing control of the parts of the writing process Diagnosing from the written product Chapter 9 Topic types The topic type hypothesis Topic types and writing Topic types and reading Limitations of the topic type approach Chapter 10 Responding to written work Motivating Improving the quality of writing Measuring proficiency in writing Appendix 1 Spelling correspondences Appendix 2 Conjunction relationships References

About the Author :
I.S.P. Nation is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.