Reading can be more than just fun (Part 1)

 1.   What is a reader?

A book that has been specially written or adapted for students of English as a second language. By ‘specially’ I mean:

a)   vocabulary control: number and choice of words. For example: when I wrote A Boy in Danger , a book meant for 7th graders, I changed handkerchief for scarf, because I knew from experience that in a lesson on clothing vocabulary, scarf is much more common than handkerchief.

b)   structure control: structures are to be introduced step by step, more or less like the majority of modern course books. The study of those structures must, of course, come before students start reading. That’s the problem with many readers written by native speakers of English: even in books for elementary schoolers, authors take it for granted  that foreign students are able to distinguish regular from irregular verbs, for instance. And I’m afraid that more often than not they can’t.

c)   information control: sentences, paragraphs or even whole chapters should focus on essential information, so that students can follow the story easily. Too many details, for example, used in describing a place can distract the reader. Anton Chekov, the great Russian short story writer used to say that if a writer describes a hall and says there is a rifle hanging on the wall, sooner or later someone will have to fire it.

2.   Why should teachers use readers?

There are three ways of learning a foreign language: reading, living abroad and taking up a language course. The latter is obviously the worst. It usually takes too long and is often boring. Moving abroad is awsome, but who can afford to do that these days? So, let’s focus on reading.

Here are a few advantages of reading:

a)   you get fluency. If you are reading a text in Portuguese, and the line ends in aos trancos e, you know that the very first word in the following line will be barrancos. But when you are reading something in English and the last words in the line are in spite, you may at first not know what comes next. But with practice you will learn that after in spite you must use of.  

b)   you increase your vocabulary. Learning new words by reading is pleasant, whereas learning new words by looking them up in a dictionary is demotivating. I shouldn’t be saying this, because I myself wrote a dictionary, but what is true is true.

c)   you improve your writing. Reading influences writing in terms of spelling, structure and vocabulary. After all, “the more you read, the better you can write. The more you write, the better you can express yourself and better understand the things you read.” (Joel Goldman)

d)   you enjoy yourself while reading. You feel a sense of achievement after you have finished reading a book in a foreign language.