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Teaching reading: Research into practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2014

John Macalister
John Macalister*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealandjohn.macalister@vuw.ac.nz
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Abstract

In pre-service and in-service language teacher education, and in curriculum-related projects in second and foreign language settings, a recurrent issue is the failure to relate the teaching of reading to reading as a meaning-making activity. In this paper, I will consider what current research on second language (L2) reading has actually succeeded in bringing to the classroom. In doing this, I will examine the three obvious candidates for inclusion in a reading programme: extensive reading, reading fluency development, and intensive reading. For each of these I will give my perspective on what's getting through to teachers, and what isn’t, and my best guess as to why it isn’t. This leads to suggestions about areas for further research and other actions that need to be taken to improve classroom practice.

Type
Thinking Allowed
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , July 2014 , pp. 387 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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