ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Panelists: Marc | Peter
Date: May 2003
Discuss this topic on our Message Board.

Topic: "What role does reading play in the language learning process?"

Marc Helgesen

"Outside of a dog, a book is a person's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx

Reading is, I believe, the magic skill. It increases learners' vocabulary and builds fluent processing skills. It presents grammar in context. As a result, all the other skills ­- listening, speaking and writing ­- benefit.

Peter is right when he says there is no single perfect way to teach reading. Different students learn in different ways. On the whole, Japanese learners are exposed to a very limited range of reading activities in junior and senior high school. Those activities tend to be bottom-up (that is, they look at the parts of a reading rather than the whole. For that reason, I stress extensive reading with my own students. I want them to read a lot. I want them to read easy material. I want them to read whatever they find interesting.

“The key is that what they are reading is easy and they are reading for pleasure.”

In my own reading classes, the students are required to read more than 500 pages per term. That sound like a huge amount (It is. You should see their jaws drop when I announce that in April). But actually, they all end up reading a lot more than that. Most end up reading between 650 and 750 pages. The key is that what they are reading is easy and they are reading for pleasure. There is a lot happening with Extensive reading in Japan. For information and ideas about how to set up an extensive reading program or add it to your existing class, visit the Extensive Reading Home Page. From there, you can also join a discussion list. If you are interesting in finding out what one extensive reading program (mine) looks like, click here.

Three paragraphs into this column, I have already stressed that the books should be easy twice. This is a key. Reading is not a "no pain, no gain" sport. Rather, we develop reading fluency by reading easy material that we can read fluently. That's why graded readers are so important. Graded readers are books written in easy English. You've probably seen them at large bookstores like Kinokuniya or Maruzen. If you've never read one, next time you are there, spend a few minutes looking them over. They can be quite good.

There are many series of graded readers. All the publishers have some great books (and all have a few dogs). I find it useful to put a "Good/ Average/ Poor" chart on the inside cover of each book. After students read it, they make a check with their evaluation. That way, students quickly find out which books their peers like and which they don't.

There are four main series of graded readers available in Japan. Here are my somewhat subjective comments on the strengths of each series (honesty note: I write for Longman (which publishes Penguin readers) and for Cambridge. I have nothing to do with the readers but should make my biases clear). By the way, most teachers I know get as many readers from all of the publishers as their budget will allow. Anyway, here's my take (alphabetically).

Cambridge Readers (http://publishing.cambridge.org/ge/elt/readers/)
Major strength: sex and violence. OK, not just that but some Cambridge Readers do include "adult content" elements (clearly labeled on the back in case you want to avoid it ­- or find it). I mention this since so many ELT materials are sanitized. But think about things you usually read. How often do you read a novel where someone doesn't get hurt, get involved or ...well, they don't get sanitized.

Oxford Bookworms and Dominoes (www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/readers/bwlibrary/)
These actually include several series. They are very solid. One thing I really like is their "Factfiles." These are non-fiction titles. Since most graded readers are fiction, I find these fill a much needed niche. A lot of my students enjoy the idea that they are learning something as they read. Dominoes is the newest series. One popular feature is difficult vocabulary and pronunciations being provided on that page.

Macmillan Readers (http://www.onestopenglish.com/Booksandcourses/NEWREADERS/guideindex.htm
They were formerly published by Heinemann. The special feature of the series is "information control." That means they avoid presenting too much new information too quickly ­- and thus confusing the learners. Macmillan Language House really doesn't promote these very well in Japan, which is a shame. They really are excellent books.

Penguin Readers (http://www.penguinreaders.com/)
Students love the movie tie-ins. This series probably does the best job on popular culture with movie-based books and biographies of people like Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, etc. I have to admit that when I read the Audrey Hepburn biography, I found it rather flat. But my students love it. That's what's important. I would avoid movies ties-ins more than 5 or 6 years old. Penguin Readers used to be separate from Longman Readers. Longman always had excellent editing but some of the earlier Penguins were not so good. The new ones are fine. (Three of the six more popular books among my students last year were Penguins).

Teachers using readers may have different opinions. This could make for an interesting discussion on the ELT News message board.

People have asked me, since I'm a writer and since I like readers so much, why I've never tried writing one. I usually say, "Hey, there are so many great readers out there, I don't need to." (Then again, someone once said that writing a graded reader -­ with the limits on vocabulary, grammar, idea flow, etc. -- was like shadow-boxing in a phone booth. And I think they might be right, too.)

Follow-up to last month's column (or "why can you never come up with the right response in real time?")

In the column last month, I indicated that I had put aromatherapy burners in my classroom. I must admit, I don't know that much about which aromas do what. I do know that citrus is good for raising energy levels and geranium is good for concentration, but I'm clueless about most scents. A few weeks ago I came across Jasmine essence at a 100-shop. I know Jasmine tea is popular with the students so I figured why not get some for aromatherapy. Shortly after that, an Italian teacher was in my classroom. She noticed an aromatherapy burner and commented on it. She happens to be a qualified aroma therapist. When she noticed the Jasmine she said, "Marc, this would be...ah...more appropriate for a bedroom." Oh.

Of course, it wasn't until later that I thought of a good response: Well, we do want the students to love English!

Panelists: Marc | Peter

Discuss this topic on our Message Board.

Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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