1

TOPIC 3




READING SKILLS IN THE MALAYSIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM
&
SELECTING, ADAPTING AND PRODUCING ACTIVITIES &
MATERIALS FOR DEVELOPING READING ALOUD AND
COMPREHENSION SKILLS



SYNOPSIS

Topic 3 introduces you to the key concepts and issues related to teaching reading in
the Malaysian English primary curriculum. The module provides insight into the
nature of reading skills, strategies for metacognition, and describes characteristics of
effective reading pedagogy in the primary school context.

This will be followed by a section on selection, adaptation and production of activities
and materials for various reading activities.


FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS










Session Notes: During this module it is expected that course participants will
self-study and be prepared to do these activities in the tutorial in groups or pairs
to construct additional meaning with classmates.







Reading Skills

Reading
Comprehension Skills

Reading Aloud Skills

Reading skills in the Malaysian primary school
English language curriculum

2

Reading Activity Chart
Check and review your answers below.
Answers may vary.

Reading
Activities
Reading Aloud Silent Reading Skimming Scanning Comprehension
Objective


Reading aloud is
used to practice
enunciation, stress,
intonation and
reinforce what has
been learnt in class.
Reading aloud allows
pupils to hear
contents several
times and rephrase
their English
pronunciation and
enunciation internally
and in spoken
language.

Silent reading can
be used for a variety
of purposes, including
reading for specific
information,
enjoyment, and self-
study.

Silent reading gives
pupils the choice to
select what they want
to read, that brings
joy and interest to our
pupils.

Skimming is
used to check
readers get the
main idea, or
gist of a text.


Skim a
newspaper
report if you
wish only to
understand the
main events
Scanning
means to read
to locate
specific
information.


Move your
eyes across
sentences and
entire
paragraphs,
noticing only
the clue words
to locate an
answer.

Comprehension is
used to check
readers
reconstruction of
texts that have been
read.

Teachers ask for
reconstruction of
meaning, inferences
predictions, and
conclusions to be
made inside the
lessons to show
pupils cognitive
process.

Technique







How & why
do I do it?

Usually a group
activity

Usually an individual
activity


However can be used
in class or in groups
to achieve learning
outcomes.



Look for the
most important
ideas.

Read for main
ideas.

Skip facts and
details.

Read the title or
legend of
graphics.

Read the
beginning and
last paragraph
or summary

Scan for a
specific word,
phrase, name,
date, or place
name, etc.

Use the arrow
scanning
pattern
straight down
the column.

Focus on the
first letter of
each line.
Questions to follow
up, and discussion.

What would you do
if you were the main
character in this
story?

Comprehension can
be shown by asking
pupils to write in
their own words or
draw a picture of
the story sequence
in lower primary.


Problems
with the
approach









Teacher needs to be
sensitive to pupils
who cannot read
aloud well.

Reading aloud can
make readers
nervous and therefore
does not accurately
represent student
reading ability.
Teachers cannot tell
what the student has
learnt or read without
a system of
evaluation and
checking to ensure
pupils are actually
learning from what
they read.
I can learn to
skim without
actually
understanding
any of the text.

Difficult for the
teacher to
determine what
the student
knows.
I can learn to
scan without
actually
understanding
the meaning in
the text.

Difficult for the
teacher to
determine
what the
student knows.
Some pupils can
read, but do not
understand what
has been read.
This is really difficult
for the teacher to
ascertain.

Therefore, teachers
must ask for
reconstruction of
meaning,
inferences,
predictions and
conclusions to be
made inside the
lesson. Pupils must
not be allowed to
just repeat
verbatim.


3



Effective readers

read silently and aloud
have a clear purpose in reading
read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word
concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and skip the insignificant parts
use different speeds and strategies for different reading tasks
perceive the information in the target language rather than mentally translate them
guess the meaning of new words from the context, or ignore them
use background information to help understand the text.


Reading Comprehension: The Process
1

Be prepared to discuss the reading comprehension process.
Next, read the skills, examples and complete the task that follow.

Skill Example Question Types

Main ideas and
supporting details




Main Idea: The main message the author is conveying to the
reader.

Supporting Details: The information that "backs" up the main
message.



What are the main ideas in this
text?
Who are the main characters?
What details support the main
ideas?



Inference,
predicting and
drawing
conclusions

Inference is using all the clues in the text and arriving at a
conclusion of what will happen. There may be some degree of
truth in the decision made. Inferring is reading between the
lines.


Inference and prediction are NOT the same. Inference allows
for many more questions than prediction.


Predicting is making an educated guess on what will happen
based on your background knowledge. Predictions are
answered at the end of the story.


Drawing conclusions is using evidence in the story to draw
logical conclusions about what happened. The author often
gives away hints during the story and this makes it exciting to
read. When we draw a conclusion, we take the clues the
author has given us and use it with what we already know from
our experience to help us understand what is happening in the
story.


What clues lead you to think
that?
How does that character feel?
Why did the author write this
story?
What would you do if you were
the main character?



Predicting Questions
What is happening in the story?
What will happen next?
What else could happen?


1
This section adapted from google web search July 2012.

4



Sequencing

Sequencing refers to the identification of the components of a
story, such as the beginning, middle, and end, and also the
ability to retell the events within a given text in the order in
which they occurred.
The ability to sequence events in a text is a key
comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. The
ordering of events in a story, along with connecting words such
as once upon a time, then, later, afterwards, and in the end,
are good examples of textual features.
Teacher may organize a lesson that pre-teaches transitional
vocabulary to showcase sequencing in reading.


What happens first? (Once
upon a time). How do you
know?
Where is the middle of the story
(then, later, along with)?
How does the story end (In the
end)?

Cause and effect



Cause and effect is to demonstrate to children that our
actions have measurable results and they need to make a link
between actions and effects.

We teach cause and effect every time we help a young child
recognize a relationship between two things, or when we
demonstrate that one event is the result of another.



What happens if you go outside
in the rain without an umbrella?
What happens if you dont eat
lunch?
"If you drink your milk, you will
grow big and strong!"
"If you clean up your toys, you
can go play outside."


Synthesizing

Synthesizing recognizes that the thinking process evolves
during the learning process. The reader's thinking changes as
they gather more information. New information makes the
reader re-evaluate and increase what they know.
Synthesizing is closely linked to evaluating. Basically, as we
identify whats important, we interweave our thoughts to form a
comprehensive perspective to make the whole greater than
just the sum of the parts.

See Vygotskys (1978) zones of proximal development for
further information.

Ask for a prediction, inference
and then when the pupils realize
the story changed they can
revise their reading schema.
Reflection can also be another
way to synthesize information
after the lesson.
Reflection: KWL:
What I know
What I want to know
What I learnt from this story

Evaluating



Evaluating and determining importance has to do with
knowing why youre reading and then making decisions about
what information or ideas are most critical to understanding the
overall meaning of the piece.



What is the most important
information in the story?
What order do events occur in
this story?
Draw me a timeline of events to
show what you think is most
important.


5

Example: Predicting Outcomes & Drawing Conclusions


Predicting outcomes and drawing conclusions are two specific types of
inferencing skills. In both instances, the reader has to make use of information
and clues from the text and combine these with his previous knowledge to either
make a prediction or to draw a conclusion.



Predicting Outcomes


The prediction equation






Drawing Conclusions




information and
clues in the
reading
what you
already know
PREDICATION
information and
clues in the
reading
what you
already know
CONCLUSION

6

Cause and Effect


There are several cause and effect patterns. Writers may explain causes only,
effects only or a cause and effect chain.



1) Causes only

This type of explanation focuses on two or more causes of one effect.

Example:














2) Effects only

This type of explanation focuses on two or more effects and one cause.


Example:

















good
eating
habits
cause
effect
exercise
cause
good
health
strength
cause
effect
good
coordination
effect
gymnastics

7

3) Effects only

In this explanation one cause leads to an effect, which causes another effect, and so
on.













Reading Aloud
5


Definitions

enunciation: 1) To articulate or
pronounce (words), clearly and
distinctly
2) to state precisely or formally
pronunciation: the act, instance or
manner of pronouncing sounds
intonation: the pattern or melody
of pitch changes in connected
speech, especially the pitch patter
of a sentence
rhythm: a pattern of beat, accent
evident in speech forms. Flow,
pulse, cadence of speech. In
music, rhythm, the beat.
2


Reading Aloud Benefits

encourages independent reading
increases the quality and quantity
of independent reading
helps pupils with pronunciation
creates interests in books
is useful for pupils to read
independently
improves listening and provides
pronunciation practice
enables teachers to model good
reading
helps pupils internalize language
and structures they will apply to
their own reading one day.







2
Definitions, Dictionary.com, July 2012.
cause effect
cause
practising
soccer
you get to play
on the school
team
your skills
improves

8

Criteria for Evaluating Text for Reading Development

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow.

Why teachers need to assess texts?
Even if you have little control over the choice of textbooks, it helps to be aware of
their strong points and limitations so that you can exploit them effectively, supplement
them if necessary and perhaps argue the case for their replacement.

The three main criteria for evaluating texts for reading development:
suitability of content
exploitability
readability

Suitability of content
The most important criterion is that the text should interest the readers. It is possible
to develop reading skills on a text that bores you or the readers but interesting
content makes the learners task far more rewarding. EFL readers are increasingly
offered well written gripping stories, presented to look like real paperbacks, which
attract pupils to read out of class.

Find out what pupils like
One way to double check is to find out what pupils actually read, bearing in mind that
books read in the L1 may tell you more about reading tastes than those in the foreign
language. Find out which books are borrowed most often from the library: this is
usually a good indicator of preferences. Keep an eye on what pupils read in class. If
pupils want to read this material, half the battle has been won. You can take care of
text with literary merit once pupils already enjoy reading.

Selecting texts for classroom study
It is often better to begin with material chosen chiefly for enjoyment (intrinsically
motivating) until reading skills improve. And even if you are training pupils
specifically to read, for instance, university level medical texts, you may get better
results if you use simpler and more motivating materials to begin with. School

9

textbooks often provide simple models of academic discourse; it is useful to have a
collection of them on subjects suited to the class.

Exploitability
Also known as facilitation of learning, exploitability is the most important criteria after
interest (intrinsic motivation). Pupils learn by focusing on the meaning and purpose
of the text. The focus of a reading lesson is how language is used for conveying
content for a purpose. We want pupils to develop the ability to extract the content
from the language that expresses itto become effective readers.

Simulating real-life purposes
Authentic texts can be motivating because they are proof that the language is used
for real-life purposes by real people. How can the text be used in a foreign language
environment? In the case of functional texts, this is straightforward: a travel
brochure, magazines, newspapers, etc. Text of this kind lend themselves to
outcomes of integrating many skills.

Readability
This often refers to the combination of structural and lexical difficulty. It is important
for the teacher to assess the right level for the pupils you teach; to do this you must
assess the pupils themselves.

Many teachers have to cope with classes where the gap between the strongest and
weakest pupils is very wide. A library for extensive reading should cater for the full
range of levels of pupils in the class. Most teachers, however, work in circumstances
where it is not possible to provide differentiated materials for regular classroom use.
We shall assume you will have to compromise by choosing material that suits most of
the pupils in the class, and that you compensate for this by giving individual attention
to pupils who are behind the others, or are capable of handling more difficult
materials. Be prepared ahead of time with strategies to teach reading to both the
advanced and emerging readers in the classroom.




10

Structural difficulty
Readability also involves structural difficulty, which is harder to assess. New
grammatical forms (tenses, structural words, etc) often cause no problems if the text
is comprehensible in other respects. A more likely cause of structural difficulty is
sentence length and complexity. Experienced teachers can usually assess whether
a text is structurally about the right level without using formal methods. But it is also
possible to work out its readability index. This is a way of assessing a text by giving
it a kind of score. To make use of it, you first need to work out the readability index of
texts that you know are suitable for the students. This gives you a yardstick against
which to measure the readability of texts you are considering using.

Calculating the readability index
Typically, measuring readability is based on counts of average word length and
sentence length. The assumption is that if you pick a typical stretch of 100 words of
text, the more syllables there are in it, the more difficult it will be. This is because
more syllables = longer words, and longer words tend to be less familiar. Similarly,
the fewer the sentences in the 100word stretch, the more difficult it is, because
fewer sentences = longer sentences, and thus more complex ones. To assess
books, the viable methods suggest you choose three typical 100-word passages from
the near the beginning, middle and end and average the count of these.

Cloze as an indicator of readability
A readability index is useful because it enables you to compare new texts with
familiar ones which you know are at the right level. An alternative measure is the
cloze test; it does not permit you to make comparisons, but is often favoured because
it needs little computation and is useful in an extensive reading program.

A text for classroom use should be such that a typical student could score about 45
percent on a cloze extract; it would be challenging but not too difficult to read with
support from the teacher. For independent reading (self-study), texts need to be
easier; students should be advised to choose books on which they score at least 60
per cent.



11


Example: Cloze Test

In cloze tests, the words are deleted systematically. The interval at which words are
deleted is usually between every fifth and every ninth word. However, if every
seventh word has been deleted in the first few sentences, then every seventh word
must be deleted for the rest of the text. The most common purpose of the cloze test
is to measure reading comprehension.