Develope Reading Skills

• Hear a word before you can say it
• Say a word before you can read it
• Read a word before you can write it (Linse 2005)

What this tells us is that young learners need a firm foundation in auditory and oracy skills before they can become proficient readers and writers of ANY language. Learning to read and then to write means the young learner has to link what they have heard or spoken to what they can see (read) and produce (write).

A very useful list of ideas for creating a ‘literate environment in the classroom’ as this may be the only place young learners see print in the foreign language. This list includes:

• Labels – labelling children’s trays, desks, coat hooks, as well as furniture and objects around the classroom and school.
• Posters – colourful posters are especially eye-catching which could include a rhyme that is being learnt, advertising something, e.g. reading, cleaning teeth
• Messages – for homework or ‘Don’t forget to bring …’
• Reading aloud – by teacher or older child

Some other activities that will help to make reading ‘pleasurable’  include:

• Focusing on reading fluency may include timed repeated reading 
• Running dictation (in pairs, so all learners are involved in reading).
• Learners making their own story books (or comics) to share with each other 
• Creating backstories for character in a puppet family and creating a class binder to refer back to when reading peers stories about the family. This can be developed over a semester with learners taking in turns in small groups to create dramas to share with the class in written form, so peers read, and can be followed through with role plays.
• Motivation – ask your learners to bring in materials they enjoy reading – whether it is football results, recipes or song lyrics, use these as a springboard for discussion and reading.
• Make it purposeful – if learning food lexis, bring in packets / tins of food, read where different kinds of food originate from, and classify them by country or by noun basis (countable/ uncountable).
• Extensive reading is where learners read a lot of easy material in the new language. They choose their own material and read it independently from the teacher. This develops confidence in their abilities and promotes an enjoyment of reading for pleasure.