I. The difference between first and second language reading process
Before the first language learners learn to read, they have listened to the stories a lot, have been read to and have interacted with adults about stories and books. When they start to learn, they have several thousand vocabulary words which they will meet in reading books and knowledge of grammar, and they are familiar with the stories. That is, they are well prepared for reading at early age. However, when the second language learners learn to read, they have very little second language vocabulary; they do not know grammar of the second language at all; and they are not familiar with stories. Therefore, the second language learners need a lot of pre-reading activities and they should read books with vocabulary- regulated books. There are some advantages for the second language learners. First, second language learners can already read their first language; second, they have many reading strategies like guessing from context, scanning and skimming; and third, they have more developed cognitive skills because they are usually older than the first language learners.
II. What intensive reading means in ESL setting
In intensive reading, the teacher explains the meaning of a text using the first language sentence by sentence. Such intensive reading usually involves translation into the first language. This program aims at developing the ability to comprehension of texts and gaining knowledge helping understand next reading texts. Intensive reading focuses on comprehension of texts, regular and irregular sound- spelling relation, vocabulary, grammar, and cohesion. In worst case, intensive reading only focuses on comprehension of a particular text with no consideration to whether this features will be useful on the next other texts. However, when used with other reading skills like extensive reading, scanning, and skimming, intensive reading can be effective and can give general knowledge of subjects.
III. What extensive reading means in ESL setting
Extensive reading involves a large quantity of varied enjoyable reading at a reasonably fluent speed. Graded readers are usually used in extensive reading. Extensive reading is a good way of learning and a source of enjoyment. In extensive reading, 95 to 98 percent of the running words are already familiar to the learners and there should be no grammatical features they do not know. Extensive reading should be no burden at all to readers. Extensive reading can result in a variety of substantial proficiency gain. However, these gains require considerable time and effort. Learning through extensive reading is largely incidental and fragile, and therefore a quantity of input with vocabulary repetition is required. Extensive reading needs planning, and monitoring. For this, learners should read at least one graded book per week; read more than five books at a level; and this reading should continue over several years, and during the life time.
IV. Create a mini-lesson plan for 1) intensive ESL reading and 2) extensive ESL reading
1. Intensive ESL reading
Class setting: EFS
Middle school 7th grade
20 students
Level-intermediate
Aim: Develop intensive reading skills and improve vocabulary power
Activity: Intensive reading exercise
l Explain the different kinds of reading skills- skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading.
l Explain our focus of intensive reading.
l Read the following passage to the students.
l Explain the meaning of passage in Korean sentence by sentence.
l Explain the meanings of vocabularies and parts of speech in the sentence.
l Explain grammatical features in the passage.
l Make students translate one sentence into Korean in turn.
l Solve the comprehension problems according to the passage.
l Do the crossword puzzle.
l Homework: read the following passage and then solve the comprehension problems and vocabulary problems.
2. Extensive ESL reading
Class setting: EFS
Elementary school 3th grade
20 students
Level-intermediate
Aim: Improve a general understanding of subjects and enjoy reading a variety of books
Outline: Extensive reading exercise
l Read a Magic tree house per week.
l Before reading the book, select five or six unknown words, explain them or make them look up the dictionary.
l Train guessing from context.
l After 6 months they will read 24 books of magic tree house.
l Make students tell briefly about Magic tree house they read.
l They will learn repeated vocabulary words in the books and gain knowledge according to the books.
l Make students write reading logs.
Activity: Read Magic tree house #24- Earthquake in the early morning.
After reading, students do one of two activities.
Oral book report: Present a commentary on the book they read to the class.
Group discussion: Bring students together who have already read the same book. Discuss about the book. After discussion, they prepare a written book report to present to others in the class.
V. Make a summary paragraph for the above
In the above, I discuss about intensive reading and extensive reading. Each of reading program has unique advantages and disadvantages. Through intensive reading, students can learn exact comprehension of a text and can build vocabulary; and through extensive reading, students become to enjoy reading and can get a general knowledge of subjects. Therefore, when we make a reading plan for students, we should not stick to one program, but consider including both programs.
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