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Motivating pupils to read books in English
| Код работы: | K010219 |
| Тема: | Motivating pupils to read books in English |
Содержание
?АЗА?СТАН РЕСПУБЛИКАСЫ БІЛІМ Ж?НЕ ?ЫЛЫМ МИНИСТРЛІГІ
?ОЖА АХМЕТ ЯСАУИ АТЫНДА?Ы ХАЛЫ?АРАЛЫ? ?АЗА?-Т?РІК УНИВЕРСИТЕТІ
Бал?абай Сабыржан
Motivating pupils to read books in English
ДИПЛОМДЫ? Ж?МЫС
5B011900- маманды?ы – «Шетел тілі:Екі шетел тілі (а?ылшын-?ытай)»
Т?ркістан 2017
?АЗА?СТАН РЕСПУБЛИКАСЫ БІЛІМ Ж?НЕ ?ЫЛЫМ МИНИСТРЛІГІ
?ОЖА АХМЕТ ЯСАУИ АТЫНДА?Ы ХАЛЫ?АРАЛЫ? ?АЗА?-Т?РІК УНИВЕРСИТЕТІ
А?ылшын филологиясы кафедрасы
«?ор?ау?а жіберілді»
А?ылшын филологиясы кафедрасыны?
ме?герушісі ?.?.к. ___________ Б. Т?рлыбеков
ДИПЛОМДЫ? Ж?МЫС
Та?ырыбы: Motivating pupils to read books in English
5В011900- маманды?ы бойынша– «Шетел тілі:Екі шетел тілі(а?ылшын-?ытай)»
Орында?ан Бал?абай Сабыржан
?ылыми жетекшісі
п.?.к., доцент Нышанова С.Т.
Т?ркістан 2017
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CHAPTER 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF READING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
1.1 READING MOTIVATION AND DIFFERENT METHODS OF ENGAGING CHILDREN IN READING BOOKS IN ENGLISH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.2 READING ALOUD TO CHILDREN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH. RESULTS. ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.1 QUESTIONNAIRE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2 “SILLY BILLY” PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 63
INTRODUCTION
Reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols an getting meaning from them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us.
Reading is widely used in the informative, esthetic purposes, reading scope of application in household, educational and industrial spheres where extraction of the information from the text through reading serves realization of various kinds of the active which motive is the satisfaction of the information need concluded in the text is even more various. Reading plays one of the major roles in the courses of foreign language training.
There are three main goals of reading. First, all aspects of our lives involve reading. Secondly, it is the main way to obtain information. The last goal is enjoyment. Without the ability to read, life functioning becomes difficult. It is this reason that educators stress the importance of reading; however, this is not always directly stated and understood by pupils. The problem is that children "who do not attach importance to learning to read will not be motivated to learn". It is stated that children who are successful in school are those who enjoy reading. Pupils who do not enjoy independent reading do not achieve the same successful academically or in life that those who like to read do.
Actuality of the project. My diploma work deals with the problems of beginners' or young learners' reading books in English language teaching. This diploma work focused on motivating children to read English books. Nowadays children read books only when teacher says them to read or give them as a homework. Only in schools you can see the atmosphere for reading books. But at home children never read books by themselves.
Aim of the project. What strategies will work best to motivate the unmotivated pupils to read? If I want pupils to be excited to read, what strategies should I implement that will achieve this. The first is what reading strategies should be implemented in the classroom. Upon researching, I found an overabundance of reading strategies that claim to make pupils successful. I want to find a few of these that stimulate reading excitement for all pupils in my class. The second is what motivational interventions work best. Some pupils enter the classroom ready and willing to learn. I want specifically target those pupils who enter the classroom lacking or without this readiness.
Subject of the project. I will try to provide some valuable facts clarifying why reading in English is important and beneficial and what makes a good teacher of reading. I will write about various active and passive ways and methods engaging children in reading in detail. The theory will be compared with the practice in the practical part of the thesis.
Object of the project. I would like to analyze needs and use the research results for the future reading programs in the basic school where I teach. The aim of my research will be to analyze ideas, problems and deficiencies which will occur and to suggest solutions of how to use the whole potential of the primary school pupils from the 3rd to the 5th grade in our school and strengthen their motivation to read books in English. Moreover, I would like to suggest ideas of how to motivate teachers of English to make story-based lessons part of their teaching.
Theoretical value of the project. I have always believed that active lessons connecting to the real world promote motivation and excitement for learning where pupils are treated as thinkers and doers. Pupils will achieve academic prosperity when teachers give them the opportunity to succeed. This disposition will create for a successful learning atmosphere. To fully implement my action plan, I need to utilize novel strategies that motivate pupils to read in a world where they believe that reading has a lackluster appearance. I also must understand what pupils need to jumpstart learning and promote social acceptance in the classroom.
It involves them into the learning process and thus they absorb the language naturally and with fun. The problem is that today’s children do not read much for pleasure in their free time and their ability to use the whole potential of books is very low. I chose this topic as I would like to find the most suitable and efficient methods and activities motivating children to read books in English.
Practical value of the project. When I was on practice at school I found out the fact that children in schools read books not for pleasure, they read books only for practice. Reading English books are very effective way of teaching and learning the language. Through reading or listening stories, children develop their imagination, creativity and making predictions.
Every week I gave my pupils a sheet of paper where a text was written. And I gave them a time to read it silently. During this activity I spend most of my time managing pupils who don't want to read. Some of the pupils sat with a sheet of paper on their hands and didn't read it. Some of them tried to escape from reading and asked permission to go out and they tried to kill the time. Others just tried to read it and understood what was written on it. Only a few pupils came to me and asked the translation of words. Reading can open new avenues for pupil thinking, driving their curiosity and building new ideas. As a future teacher, I want to be able to encourage all of my pupils to not only read but to love to read. I want pupils to be excited when they pick up a book. I want my pupils to be motivated to read!
I hope all the information and valuable facts gained from this diploma thesis will help me to improve and enrich my teaching practice and demonstrate children that reading in English is fun.
1 THE IMPORTANCE OF READING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Children are being told that books and reading are good for them. They hear it especially from their teachers at school. However, teachers should be able to motivate children to read. Reading books has both social and emotional value. It significantly influences the child?s language development and communicative skills. In one analysis of vocabulary development, through reading books and television programs, it was found that even in preschool children’s books it was noticed that there was more sophisticated vocabulary than in adult television shows. Moreover, it has been proved that early readers show better results on language screening tests than children who started to read later. By reading books, children can develop their fantasy and imagination, creativity, their general knowledge of the world, moral and culture values. Furthermore, reading enables the children to dream and enriches their lives. If teachers are capable of inspiring children to read, they can help them to think of books as a great source of new knowledge, pleasure and fun and thus encourage children to want to be readers.
According to Halliwell, language teaching should be combined with real life. However, teachers should bear in mind that reality for children involves fantasy and imagination as well. Therefore, the role of imagination and fantasy, being an indispensable part of all children’s books, are essential for children’s motivation to learn English.
To help children develop their language skills through reading books, teachers can provide children with books where varieties of language are incorporated. Some children’s books are focused on the sounds of language, and thus provide children’s language stock with new phonemes. Other books enable to develop syntactic complexity and the use of various adjectives and adverbs, such as the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Craft books force children to understand and follow directions. Picture books enable them to make their own stories. Realistic books, such as the book Silly Billy, deal with children’s everyday problems. Discussions of these problems encourage children to express themselves, their feelings and worries through the foreign language. Poetry and nursery rhymes help children to learn rhymes, introduce them to figurative language and encourage them to recite poems. The exposure to the language they hear and use, when discussing the language of books, leads to the children’s acquisition and immediate, spontaneous usage of the new language. The more of input they get, the more easily they automatize the language and use it without thinking about it.
One of the aims of all teachers of English should be their effort to motivate and support their learners to read books in English. Moreover, the teachers should be able to inform children how to read effectively, which is the problem for the majority of today’s young generation.
Using books in English language classroom is unquestionably one of the most effective means of teaching English. Nowadays modern concept of foreign language teaching offers various activities coming out from the usage of foreign language literature.
By reading books in the classroom and the use of various pre-, while- and post- reading activities such as storytelling, games or drama, children can start to view the reading as a pleasurable, interesting and fun activity. Krashen notices that reading for pleasure can lead to the comprehensible input. Moreover, the great advantage of using literature in foreign language classroom is its socialising factor as well as the fact that children have the opportunity to build upon their previous knowledge and experience. All of these make children feel safe and create a stress-free and friendly environment, essential for successful foreign language learning.
Being a professional reading teacher and being able to engage children in reading in English is very demanding and responsible task. However, if teachers achieve their goals, they can cultivate children’s positive attitude to reading in English for a whole life. Good teachers of reading not only provide children with information about the advantages of reading in English and reading as such, they set a good example for children and value the habit of reading themselves. They are in regular contact with local libraries and visit often libraries and bookstores to be well-informed about a range of books being offered in our market. Moreover, they have accounts with online booksellers who inform them about new books coming out or special events planned for the future and book clubs that often discuss new children’s books. Furthermore, they discuss their opinions about the books with their colleagues and friends and participate in online discussions. In addition, keen teachers of reading in English have a possibility to become members of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. These organizations provide valuable information about books, ideas and tips for teachers, organize special events and conferences for teachers or offer grants for some special projects. They also allow teachers to discuss their thoughts, problems and ideas online and thus make new friends worldwide. Being a good teacher of reading in English includes a conscientious work on a teaching portfolio. Teachers should bear in mind their responsibility for materials and support they provide children with to motivate them for reading in English. Therefore, continual accumulation of books, picture books, finger plays, play scripts, puppets, ideas for various activities and projects, useful websites and other resources can highly facilitate and make their teaching process more effective.
Apart from all the items mentioned above, engaging children in reading in English requires mastering various strategies and techniques necessary for successful and effective work with stories. Morrow mentions several techniques that every teacher should apply in story-based lessons. These techniques are:
• reading to children and showing the pictures
• discussing stories read
• reading the same stories repeatedly
• using Big Books when reading stories
• reading to children in small groups and one-to-one
• engaging children
• retelling stories
• using buddy reading (e.g. looking at books with an older student)
• using partner reading (e.g. looking at books with peers and children who have the same cultural background)
• using choral reading (e.g. reciting a poem together)
• using echo reading (e.g. the teacher reading one line and the child repeating it)
• using tape-assisted reading
• integrating storybooks into content areas, in particular, art, music, and play
• engaging children in independent reading
• engaging children in independent use of story props for retelling stories
• modeling for parents of English language learners ways they can share books with children in their own language. One of the most important qualities of a good teacher of reading in English is his or her belief in the power of stories and their effect on foreign language learning. These teachers make story-based lessons a regular part of curricula, work with stories whenever possible and provide both children and their parents with occasions devoted to a magic time spent with a book. Only thus they can raise children’s curiosity and interest in reading in English and nurture passionate readers from them.
1.1 Reading Motivation and Different Methods of Engaging Children in Reading Books in English
There are various methods and techniques of how to motivate children to read books in English. It is one of the key tasks for teachers to evoke in children a love for reading and create their ability to choose, understand an evaluate books they read. Shin emphasizes that “when compelling and comprehensible reading material is available, direct encouragement can result in children reading more”. According to Ellis and Brewster, teachers should always notify clear possible outcomes before an activity or a group of activities connected with a book. Thus the work becomes more meaningful, understandable, motivating and stimulating for children. Gambrell, distinguished Professor of Education and reading specialist, and Marinak, Assistant Professor of Education, mention that researchers have recognized several factors influencing reading motivation. These are “self-concept and value of reading, choice, time spent talking about books, types of text available, and the use of incentives.” They also emphasize the research’s confirmation that child’s motivation is essential for successful reading. As far as self-concept and value of reading are concerned, Gambrell and Marinak found out that boys are as self-confident about reading as girls, however, they find reading less valuable than girls. Worthy and McKool notice that giving children the possibility to choose what they want to read increases their reading motivation as well. Furthermore, Gambrell highlights the importance of small group discussions that allow children to express themselves and discuss their opinions about books, which engage children in learning. “Reading is Fundamental,” the oldest and largest children’s and family non-profit literacy organization in the United States, supporting motivation to read of children and families in need by delivering them free books and literacy resources and providing sets of books to schools at no cost, suggests ten tips how to motivate young readers.
Promoting children’s reading literacy in English in an early childhood classroom can be divided into two groups. There are “active ways” (such as reading aloud to children or literacy play) and “passive ways” (such as classroom arrangement or a classroom and school library). All of these provide great opportunities for teachers to encourage children’s reading motivation. Moreover, all these methods help to create a friendly, stress-free reading environment.
To promote reading literacy in an early childhood classroom and to motivate children to read books in English, thoughtful teachers can provide children with various active ways that can become a rich part of every school day. Among these activities, family involvement, such as parents’ active participation in lessons, “school-to-home” projects, using of drama in response to stories, storytelling, reading aloud to children and school projects are ranged. All these methods highly influence children’s attitude to reading in English as well as enable teachers to nurture whole-life enthusiastic readers from their pupils.
A child’s reading motivation can be significantly influenced by effective teacher- parent cooperation. Efficient cooperation on both sides leads to the support of children’s love for reading and successful foreign language learning. According to Hurtov?, et al., it is important to integrate parents into their children’s learning process. There are various methods and techniques how to involve parents in supporting their children’s reading motivation in English. The parents’ role is crucial in this process as they are children’s first teachers. They can spend more time with their children than teachers at school. Thus they should be very careful about their children’s attitude to reading and time devoted to reading at home. If they want to get a proper grasp of children’s that is published by Masaryk literature, they can subscribe periodicals such as “Lad University, Faculty of Education in Brno. It is proved that children who come from families in which reading is a part of their everyday lives find reading important. They can see that their parents are used to read books before going to bed or they read newspapers daily and therefore these children come to school with the expectation that they will become readers like their parents.
Some children, especially those from economically disadvantaged families, have neither such a strong reading model nor enough exposure to reading literacy at home. Parents have never read to them before going to bed or even do not have books at home. These children are seriously disadvantaged at school. As a result of that, each proficient teacher must be sensitive to the social context of the classroom and try to find ways how to make each child from the class feel responsible for the classroom friendly, stress-free reading environment.
If teachers and parents are able to cooperate with each other effectively, they can highly influence children’s motivation for reading in English. Teachers can advice or recommend parents what they can do to support reading books in English at home, such as to read to their children or tell them stories in English, if they can speak English, or they can give them tips for reading with their children. En example of such recommendation with tips for parents can be seen below.
TIPS FOR READING WITH YOUR CHILD
1. Find a relaxed time and setting
2. Talk about the book s you read.
* Look over the cover, title, author, picture and predict what you think may happen and why you like the book.
* As you read, share connections to your life.
?This picture reminds me our trip!!!
?Oh, I remember feeling like this!!!
* Ask questions from your children. For example:
?Do you know anyone like this?
? How would you feel?
* After reading, share your favourite parts. For example:
? I really liked ..... .
? .... was so funny!!!
Figure 1: Tips for parents for reading with their children
It is beneficial for parents to come into the classroom and take part in English lessons and activities based on reading literacy promotion. Parents can read aloud to children in English, help them to publish and bind books or tell them simple stories in English, especially family stories. If parents cannot speak English, they can observe teachers how to work with books and ask them for books with CDs they can take home, listen and read with their children. In general, parents can make their families’ lives part of the curriculum. Careful teachers try to involve parents in the school activities and programs focused on motivating children to read books in English. According to Wasik, all children have a chance to become more successful readers when teachers involve parents in the reading literacy programs. Morrow notices, that teachers’ task is to make parents welcome in schools. On the other hand, they should bear in mind difficult position of working parents who cannot participate in lessons so often. For those parents, varieties of times, during which they can come to school, should be provided, to enable them to spend at least two hours twice a year at school. Furthermore, teachers can provide workshops for parents to discuss activities in the school reading literacy program in English where teachers should recommend parents how they can help their children at home. In addition, they can provide parents with a list of books in English which could be useful for their home libraries or which they can borrow from the local libraries.
Reading motivation can be highly reinforced with the parents’ help at home. Teachers can provide parents with materials, recommendations and ideas for engaging children in reading books in English at home. Three great examples for home-directed reading motivation activities or school-to-home projects are “home books,” “book baggies” and “family literacy bags.” Home books are simple books, usually made by teachers, with pictures and very short and easy storylines. They can be made from one sheet of paper. Teachers can send them home regularly for children to read them aloud to their parents. Before sending them home, teachers read the book through several times with the children at school
to help them to be able to read it at home on their own. It is inevitable to ask parents to be patient if the child struggles with reading aloud. Parents should read the books with their children as many times as possible, however, not to overload the children with reading the books longer than the teacher recommends.
These books are a great practice for reading aloud in English. Furthermore, they do not disadvantage parents who cannot speak English as their task is merely to listen with interest what their child is reading. The child has read the book at school many times so mostly no extra support for English is required. Moreover, children are very often keen to explain parents what the book is about, which is another incentive for reading motivation.
Book baggie consists of a simple paperback book in a bag, an activity sheet with instructions, such as to draw a favourite character, and a CD with a recording of the book. Teachers can buy these book baggies in publishing houses like Oxford University Press. Children can take them home for several days. Parents are asked to read the book with the child and help with the activity sheet. After that, the child brings the book baggie back to school where the bag is repacked and passed to another child.
In this way, all children are working on a different book until they read all the book baggies provided by the teacher. Later, parents can be invited to school
and together with their children and other children and their parents discuss and share opinions about the books. It is desirable for teachers to announce such a “book baggies session” before starting the whole process of sending the baggies home to strengthen parents’ encouragement and responsibility for reading the books with their children. These baggies are again a great tool for parents who cannot speak English as the stories are very simple and comprehensible. Moreover, CDs with a recording of the book on them function as a good reading model for both children and their parents.
Similarly to book baggies, family literacy bags help to encourage reading in English at home and support the role of parents as teachers. By reading with their children every day and discussing what they are reading, parents can highly promote a delight of reading in English even if they cannot speak English much. Family literacy bags are “a theme-based collection of books and related interactive activities that kids bring home from school to share with their family” (“Family Literacy Bags: A School-to- Home Project”). Teachers can arrange and relate these bags to the topics or grammar that is discussed at school at that time. Therefore, these packs are a great opportunity not only for reading motivation but also for entertaining foreign language learning. Several elements of a suitable literacy pack can be listed:
• An engaging theme — one that will spark thinking, creativity, and observation skills
• Three or four theme-based books (fiction and nonfiction), selected at an appropriate reading level
• Related interactive activities, for example: puzzles, sorting/matching cards, dramatic play props, art supplies
• Letter to parents explaining the purpose of the literacy bags and a brief list of reading tips
• Parent response form (optional)
• Checklist of the contents to make returns to school easy
• Colourful, inexpensive backpack to store and transport everything. One with a clear plastic sleeve is perfect for slipping in a labelled drawing or photograph that illustrates the theme
Furthermore, several benefits of using family literacy bags can be specified:
• Strengthen the family-school partnership
• Help parents to become more aware of the class curriculum
• Allow all parents — regardless of culture, circumstance, education level, or English language proficiency — to feel that they are involved directly in their child’s learning
• Provide parents with a structure and model for reading with their kids
• Establish a regular family reading routine
• Make reading fun and interactive, igniting an enthusiasm for literacy
• Build an awareness of the breadth of books available for children
• Show parents how to connect what you read in books to what is happening in the world around
• Stimulate conversations around reading
• Encourage home-to-school communication (“Family Literacy Bags: A School-to-Home Project”)
To allow children to act out stories is a very effective incentive for engaging children in reading in English. Since children usually love acting, dramatization is a great motivation for them to read a book in English in advance. Drama is a very effective way how to bring the story into life. Moffetts emphasizes that dramatazing a story significantly helps children to understand its meaning. Furthermore, he highlights the importance of reading or hearing a story before dramatazing it. Children need to have a chance to absorb the story first.
Dramatic plays both encourage children’s interpretive imagination and involve them spontaneously in the stories. Teachers can provide children with various props, such as puppets or costumes, or props including reading, such as the book of spells. These props help children get into characters, motivate them for reading in English and support their dramatic play at the same time. Moreover, many children’s books, such as the books We’re Going on a Bear Hunt or The Three Billy Goats, are simple and have easy repetitive patterns, actions and chants that are beneficial for children to practice and act out.
Reader’s theatre is a great technique of how to both motivate children to read in English and practice children’s oral reading in English, reading fluency and comprehension in a natural amusing way. It is a strategy that allows children to improve their reading aloud in English. Generally, no props or costumes are needed as the reader’s theatre is based on performing by reading scripts aloud. Without using props, children learn that only by changing their voice and using their facial expressions and emotions they can convey the meaning and make the story to be more dramatic. The goal of this approach is to practice children’s reading skills in English. However, children have a real reason for reading aloud, so they practice for purpose, which is extremely motivating for them. The main goal of this strategy is to develop children’s reading fluency in English, which highly influences comprehension. This is achieved by entertaining and enjoyable re-reading. Furthermore, reader’s theatre is an effective opportunity for engaging struggling readers in reading in English as this technique is based on the continuous practice and reading from scripts. Therefore, these children do not have to be afraid of failure because no memorization is required. Finney, an educator who gives seminars about improving reading instructions, provides several tips for teachers who want to try reader’s theatre with their children:
• Choose only scripts that are fun to do with lots of good dialogue. Boring scripts are no better than boring stories.
• Start slowly and spend the time necessary so pupils feel comfortable in the performance mode. Provide opportunities for pupils to practice. Pupils do not memorize their parts; they alwa....................... |
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