Improving English Reading Skills

Lesson Plan

Learning outcomes

- Capability to intensively read and understand an authentic text fully
- To learn reading an article under time pressure
- Improved fluency and speed of general reading
- Practice answering questions in full sentences
- Ability to skim an authentic text
- Students will use productive and receptive skills
- Prevent tunnel reading by knowing in advance what to look for
- Ability to express one‘s opinion by using useful phrases

Skills aim

Main skills:

- Reading an authentic text
- Preventing tunnel reading
- Writing answers in full sentences and filling gaps with single-word terms
- Speaking fluent formal English in group discussion
- Learning and Applying useful phrases
- Collaborative learning with other students using TL

Sub-skills:

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To improve the accuracy and fluency of TL later focussing on formal group discussion

Language Focus aims:

- Job lexis of the TL
- Formal group discussion/expressing opinion in TL
- Applying useful phrases in TL

Context/Topic:

A newspaper article about a significant number of teenagers with decreasing Saturday jobs

Professional development aims

- Time management
- To illustrate tasks that are appropriate, useful, entertaining and amusing for the students
- Interaction with students
- To give clear instructions
- Being calm instead of hastily

The language learners

A group of 16 upper-intermediate level, 19 year olds, from several European and Japanese universities, currently studying on an exchange programme at a British university. The majority are studying business. They have enrolled for extra English language lessons to support their studies and also to learn a little about the local culture. They need to improve their reading skills as they tend to tunnel-read and to look up unknown words in the dictionary too often when faced with long, challenging texts. They are very fluent in informal speaking but need to develop more formal group discussion skills. They have expressed a desire to learn more idiomatic expressions.

Rationale

The topic of having a job comes up regularly in students‘ life at a business school. Therefore, it has been estimated that the topic will catch their attention and interest. The lexis of job will extend their background knowledge and it will be useful to their further studies. They will learn to apply and differentiate between two kinds of reading an article, skimming and intensively reading. These reading processes will also be very useful in their further studies. The formal group discussion by applying useful phrases is constructive to their text comprehension and it practices their formal speaking skills as requested by the students. The chosen text will give students experience of an authentic style of writing and hopefully encourage and motivate them to have a Saturday job due to its benefits in vocational world.

Materials

- Authentic article: Guardian (2012): Number of teenagers with Saturday jobs slumps {online}. Available at: http://gu.com/p/38m9j/em (accessed: 11th October 2012).
- Activity sheet
- Answer sheet
- Additional sheet with useful phrases {online}.

Available at: http://eu.um.dk/da/~/media/sprogportalen/Documents/Engelsk/Lene/Formal%20meetings%20- %20useful%20phrases.ashx (accessed: 19th March 2015)

Predicted Problems

- Wrongly estimated timing on each activity thus not being able to solve or check all tasks with the students or being under time pressure thus urge students to do the tasks faster or not giving them the time they need, therefore losing students interest and concentration resulting in students being inactive and passive, hence not learning effectively from that lesson.
- Students can possibly be bothered or daunted by the number of tasks, although the teacher wants them to teach as much and effective as possible, it is possible that the teacher had designed too many tasks.
- Too many tasks in a short period of time, hence subject matter goes in at one ear and out at the other (too much income, but low output).
- Chosen inappropriate tasks for the text, so that the tasks does not apply to the article resulting lack of success in learning outcomes and skill aims.
- To concern, annoy or make students unsure by going around the class while they are working. (Teacher wants to monitor and facilitate them, but it can possibly go wrong)

Stages Plan

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