The content of learning to read includes linguistic, psychological and methodological components. Here we consider them in more detail.
The linguistic component is letters, words, phrases, sentences. Mastering the letter, students should be able to name it and the sound that it transmits. However, the minimum unit of learning to read is a word that allows you to master the technique of reading: dubbing a graphic image of a word according to the rules of reading or by memorizing the image of a word and associating this image with a meaning, that is, understand what is read.
Reading phrases teaches not only the articulation of a word, but also the placement of stresses according to the norms of the language. When reading sentences, the same thing happens, and the intonation design of sentences is also added.
The psychological component includes evolving skills and reading skills based on mastering actions and operations. Since reading has procedural and substantive plans, the skills and abilities formed during learning to read fall into two large groups:
1) technical reading skills;
2) skills and semantic information processing.
When teaching reading by the communicative method, it is important that the unity of the content and procedural plans be manifested, that is, the texts simultaneously served to develop the reading technique and were the source of information. It is necessary for the tasks intended for the development of the reading technique to give a more motivated character (for example, to read the text as if you were telling it yourself).
Skills of semantic processing of information constitute the essence of the reading itself. The ability to read means the ability to extract meaningful information, which means not only an understanding of what is expressed explicitly, that is, by the language means themselves, but also implicitly, that is, an understanding of information that lies outside the language constructs, implications, in other words, understanding the meaning. Such reading implies mastering the following skills:
– anticipate the content of the text;
– isolate the most important;
– shorten the text by eliminating redundant information (pass the content of the paragraph 1–2 sentences);
– to interpret, that is, to understand the subtext, the semantic content, to express their own attitude to the read.
Methodological component — teaching students how to master reading in a foreign language, which leads to the formation of an individual reading style.
Learning reading as a type of speech activity begins at an advanced stage of learning. It is important for children to show that reading is also communication but mediated through the text. It is important to teach them the process of reading, to show that there is much in the text that helps to understand its content, the intention of the author.
Two important rules of reading: firstly, to read does not mean to translate and, secondly, to understand the text, it is not necessary to know every word. Below is a diagram of the “penetration” into a foreign language text, which clearly shows the correct chain of actions characteristic of a “mature” reader [1].
Reading is not a stable activity, either by result or in procedural terms. Thus, it always appears in one of its specific manifestations — the species.
The second task we consider the ability to work with a bilingual dictionary. This skill is generally an integral component of the culture of human cognitive activity. Unfortunately, many students are not trained in this: before picking up a dictionary, they write out unfamiliar words from the text in a column, then put aside the readable text, and start flipping through the entire dictionary in search of the right word, forgetting its spelling and constantly returning to the list of words while finding a word, they often do not analyze its polysemy or compatibility with subsequent lexical elements, etc. We see our task in finding the meaning of an unfamiliar word in a dictionary with a student.
First of all, you must enter the word in memory, i.e. remember its literal composition by speaking or prescribing; It is advisable to open the dictionary in the part where there may be an unfamiliar word; to find the necessary spread of pages should be given the printed on the top and bottom of the page of the first and last on this spread of the word (letter combination); A dictionary entry should be reviewed, giving a set of meanings of this word in different grammatical forms and different phrases. The last crucial step is to correlate the data in the dictionary of several word meanings with the desired context and select the most appropriate value. Mastering the culture of working with a dictionary ensures the speed and accuracy of finding the desired meaning of a word and greatly helps independent reading of texts.
In modern methodology, the allocation of types of reading is produced:
1) on the basis of a psychological attitude (analytical and synthetic reading). Analytical reading means reading detailing, i.e. perception takes place in detail (in this case, it’s good means of disclosing the meaning of the text), synthetic — holistic perception (a large role is played by independent work, which is combined with analytical working out in the class of individual parts of the text);
2) according to the degree of participation of the native language (translated / non-translatable);
3) degree of assistance to students (prepared / unprepared; reading with and without a dictionary);
4) the form of organization of educational work (individual, frontal, classroom / home);
5) the amount of material and depth of study (intensive / extensive);
6) the focus and nature of the process (learning, searching, introductory, viewing).
The most common classification has acquired S. K. Folomkina — four types of reading that can be transferred to the system of dichatomic division: according to the degree (depth) of penetration into the content of the text, it is possible to distinguish learning and introductory, according to the speed of reading, since the following types are related to rapid reading (speed is the most important characteristic) — search and viewing [2].
S. Folomkina based her classification on the practical needs of the readers: viewing the story, article, familiarization with the content, searching for the necessary information, detailed study of the language and content [2].
The stages of learning to read are general, but the content of their main components is different: the text (purpose and results of reading), the task before reading and the control of understanding must correspond to the specific type of reading. Thus, the main stages of reading: pre-text; text; post-text.
The most significant principles of teaching reading, from our point of view, are the following:
- Training based on the selection of texts.
- Differentiation of training depending on the types of reading.
- Relying on knowledge, skills, skills in the native language.
- Phased learning to read.
Based on the internal structure of reading (motivational-conquering, analytical-synthetic, control-executive), correct reading activity is a three-step process, also consisting of three phases (before reading, during reading, after reading).
So, there are three means of indirect influence on the type of reading: the text itself and the tasks that are performed before and during the reading of the text, as well as the conditions in which the reading proceeds, and the method of control.
References:
- Solovova E. N. Methods of selection and work with texts for reading at the senior stage of schoolchildren learning / E. N. Solovova // Foreign lang. at school. — 2007. -№ 2. — p. 2–10.
- Folomkina S. K. Learning to read in a foreign language in a non-linguistic university / S. K. Folomkina. — M.: Higher. school., 1987. — p. 5–12, 177–189, 191–199.
