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Intensive reading is used to teach or practice specific reading strategies or skills. The text is treated as an end in itself.
Intensive Reading, sometimes called "Narrow Reading", may involve students reading selections by the same author or several texts about the same topic. When this occurs, content and grammatical structures repeat themselves and students get many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text.
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Day and Bamford (1980) put forward ten characteristics identified in successful Extensive Reading Programs.
They are duplicated (in abbreviated form) below:
It is common for both approaches to reading to be used in the same class. For example, where extensive reading is encouraged, the teacher may have all the students read the same text so they can discuss the topic together or learn a specific skill such as as writing an outline.
In a class where intensive reading is mostly used, students may be asked to read texts of their own choosing to report back on, in either an oral or written format.
In both approaches, it is not the nature of the skills that are of most interest but rather, the results.
Materials:
-word attack skills
-text attack skills
-non-text information
Texts on the same topic -Reading more than one text on the same topic allows students to bring more background knowledge to each new text read.
Authentic materials such as newspapers, magazines, that are related to the second language culture
Web resources - These should we chosen from suggestions by the teacher so that students do not choose those that are too overwhelming .
Stories and articles chosen by the teacher, with the following guidelines:
The style should include repetition, without being monotonous.
New vocabulary should not occur at the same place as difficulties of structure.
The text should break in sections that are not too long. This is to give the reader a feeling of accomplishment when completed.
Authors should be chosen with less complex structure and less extensive vocabulary range.
Role of Teacher
The teacher gives recommendations on reading materials, based on student's interests.
The teacher guides students in setting specific goals for amounts read.
The teacher provides modeling. If class time is given for reading, the teacher reads at the same time.
The teacher overlooks if students are not aware of the exact meaning of each word. The teacher should not jump in and explain.
The teacher leads pre-reading activities to build interest in the text, such as in the characters, places, themes, and actions. The teacher must be careful to provide just enough to stimulate curiosity but not so much that the need to read is removed.
Role of Student
The student assumes total responsibility for developing reading ability .
The student reads without the use of a dictionary.
The student usually chooses their own material and moves along at their own pace but must push themselves in order to show greater progress.
Advantages
- develop a "reading habit"
- gain more confidence in reading
-improve their attitude towards reading and become more motivated to read
- feel more autonomous over their own learning and more likely to take more initiative.
- become more " independent readers", being able to read for different purposes and being able to change reading strategies for different kinds of texts
- become more aware of what's available to them to read and how to access materials
- expand sight vocabulary
- acquire "incidental" grammatical competence - that is, it may be acquired even though it was not directly taught
-build background knowledge
- increase reading comprehension
- improve overall language competence
- be more prepared for further academic courses because they have read large quantities
Activities:
Intensive reading exercises may include:
looking at main ideas versus details
understanding what is implied versus stated
making inferences
looking at the order of information and how it effects the message
identifying words that connect one idea to another
identifying words that indicate change from one section to another
Activities that may occur:
Role of the teacher
The teacher chooses suitable text.
The teacher chooses tasks and activities to develop skills.
The teacher gives direction before, during and after reading.
The teacher prepares students to work on their own. Often the most difficult part is for the teacher to "get out of the way" .
The teacher encourages students through prompts, without giving answers.
Advantages
It provides a base to study structure, vocabulary and idioms.
It provides a base for students to develop a greater control of language
It provides for a check on the degree of comprehension for individual students
Disadvantages
There is little actual practice of reading because of the small amount of text.
In a class with multi-reading abilities, students may not be able to read at their own level because everyone in the class is reading the same material.
The text may or may not interest the reader because it was chosen by the teacher.
There is little chance to learn language patterns due to the small amount of text.
Because exercises and assessment usually follow intensive reading, students may come to associate reading with testing and not pleasure.