Journal 1 (Teaching Second Language Reading)
< Journal 1 >
Suppose your younger brother, nine year old, did not read in English yet, so your mother decided to send him to Hakwon. But 3 months later he ended up feeling that English was simply nightmare. He hated doing phonics workbook and memorizing words. He didn't want to go to Hakwon anymore. Your mother was now anxious and worried about her son. Your mother asked for your help. How would you help your brother enjoy reading in English?
He must have been bored by learning many rules and patterns of phonics. So the first step for him to enjoy reading English is giving him some interesting activities in English. At first, I will use Total Physical Respond (TPR) method. For example, If I speak some words and then indicate the objects in English, my brother will repeat after me. Based on these easy TPR activities, I can add more actions to this method, using very short and funny story. We can speak very short English story as well as express the story with our body gestures. As a boy, he will be excited to act physically. In addition, it can ease his burden of learning English.
After that, he can move to the next step, reading. Although we did some TPR activities, he still cannot read the text well, because we just spoke the short story. So I will give him a written short story which we used in the previous TPR activity. Of course, the story has to be fun. We can read aloud the story two or more times. And then, I will give him another similar short story where 90~95 percent of the words are similar to the first book. The stories will not be far from his daily life, because he can be afraid of unfamiliar contents. If he doesn't understand some meanings of words, I can explain it with pictures, which can easily help him to know the meaning exactly. Sometimes, showing pictures makes him catch the meaning without long explanation.
Another way of his enjoying reading in English is to use songs. Usually young boys and girls sing a lot. It's more easy to speak in English in songs than just normally speak. And it can decrease my brother's hostile feelings for English. The melody of song will make him remember the English words and phrases well.
Besides, to improve recognizing words in the songs and spelling awareness, I will use alphabet blocks in a game instead of teaching phonics. My brother will assemble the alphabet blocks in a right order and then make a word block. Through this game, he may not think the English as an academic or boring study. Instead, he will think reading and speaking and listening English as a play. It can make him open-minded.
Throughout these activities, he can naturally learn new English words and its meaning. Probably he can use those words in his real life!
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