Chapter/: Teaching Reading: Task File

TASK FILE
Chapter/: Teaching reading

A Reasons for reading (page 99)
List the last five different reading tasks you have done (e.g. I looked at the TV guide to see what
time a programme was on) in column 1 , and then say if the same kinds of reading would be
useful for your students or not. Give your reasons.
Type of reading Useful? W hy/why not?
B Different kinds of reading (pages 99-100)

Look at the following texts for elementary students and complete the table which follows.
TEXT A
Three and a half hours later on that same day I sat down with Inspector Portillo in the
dining room.
“Good morning, Miss Biggleswade,” he said.
“Good morning,” I answered nervously. Why did he want to see me? Why were the police
talking to everybody?
“I know about you,” he said.
“You do?” I asked.
“Yes. You’re the player with the double bass.”
“Without the double bass,” I said.
“Yes,” he laughed, “but we’re looking for it.”
“Will you find it?” I asked.
“I hope so.” He isn’t cold at all, I thought. He’s very nice. I like him. Then, suddenly, he
changed. “Now, I have some questions for you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“That is not an intelligent question, I think,” he said, “someone has died. We always ask
questions.”
“So you think I’m stupid, do you?” I was angry and very, very tired.
“No, of course not. I am very sorry,” he said. I looked into his face. He really was sorry.
“Forget it!” I said, “I’m just tired.”
“Yes, so am I,” he laughed, “now, can I ask you some questions?”
208 Jeremy Harmer How to Teach English © Pearson Education Limited 2007
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Task File
TEXT B
South America is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
It is a lot bigger than Europe and two times bigger than Australia.
The Amazon River is 6,448 kilometres long but it isn’t the longest river in the world. The
Nile in Africa is 6,695 kilometres long.
South America has got the biggest rain forest in the world (in Brazil) where twenty per
cent of all the world’s trees grow. It’s also got the world’s driest desert - the Atacama Desert
in Chile.
Lake Titicaca - in the Andes between Peru and Bolivia - is the highest large lake in the
world.
The Andes mountain range is the longest on Earth. It starts in the south of Chile and
finishes in Venezuela. The Andes mountains are higher than any mountains in North
America, Africa, Australia or Europe.
South America has got half of the world’s animals and insects. It has also got the biggest
spider - the goliath bird-eating spider. It is bigger than a page of this book and it really can
eat small birds and snakes!
The tropical rattlesnake from Brazil is more dangerous than a spider (to humans). It is
the most poisonous snake in South America!
Three of South America’s biggest cities are in the top ten biggest cities in the world.
Text A Text B
a What level would the text be
useful for?
b Is the extract designed for
extensive or intensive reading?
c How would you describe the
genre in which the text is
written?
d What would you get the
students to do with the text?
C Reading skills (pages 100-101)

Match the skills with the reading aims.
Reading for detailed You are an 18-year-old history student. In a school history
comprehension magazine you see an article about reassessing the Cold War
in terms of Third World politics.
Reading for pleasure You are trying to decide what movie to take your 7-year-
old niece to see. You check your local newspaper.
Scanning When you are in the dentist’s waiting room, you see an
article about your favourite singer in a magazine.
Skimming You have heard about a singer/artist and you are mildly
interested in their life. You look them up on the Internet
when you don’t have much else to do.
Jeremy Harmer How to Teach English © Pearson Education Limited 2007 209
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D Reading sequences (pages 102-107)

Look at the reading text and answer the questions which follow.
Your sleep and you

Miriam Ketlaway reports
How much beauty sleep do you need? According
to Philip Sedgew ick, research fellow at the Sleep
Disorders Clinic at the Department of Mental Health
at St George’s Hospital, most of us need roughly
eight hours a night if we want to stay healthy. And
we need to have a regular routine too.
Problems for tired people:
• more chance of bugs and infections
• shift workers (people who work at different times of day and night) get more
infectious d iseases than the rest of us.
• more chance of stress
• more need for energy food like chocolate, coffee, etc. Students in the USA say
tiredness causes overeating. In a survey of hospital nurses across the country,
ninety per cent of those w orking on the night shift gained weight.
• irritability, grum piness
REM & Non-REM Things not to do in bed (according to

• REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. sleep experts):
That’s the time we dream , when we • eat
sort out all the m em ories, thoughts • read
and feelings in our head. Non-REM is • watch television
often called Deep Sleep. • work
• without REM people become • drink caffeine
forgetful, irritable and less able to • sm oke cigarettes
concentrate. • have alcohol (It interferes with REM
• deep sleep provides us with physical sleep. It can make you tired and
and mental recovery. irritable the m orning after the night
before.)
Canadian sleep researcher Harvey Modofsky, at the Toronto Western Hospital took
blood from sleeping people and he found that sleeping bodies were fighting
infection better than those that were aw ake and in a recent study of 9,000 adults
in the UK, those who slept between six and a half and eight and a half hours a
night were more healthy than those who slept less.
a What level do you think it might be suitable for?

b What kind of comprehension tasks could you do with it?
c How would you get students engaged with the topic of the text?
d What language, if any, would you focus the students’ attention on in the reading text for a
study exercise?
e What would you do after the students had read the text?
210 Jeremy Harmer How to Teach English © Pearson Education Limited 2007
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Task File
E Encouraging students to read extensively (pages 109-110)

Rewrite the following statement so that it reflects your own point of view:
Students should always give detailed feedback on books which they have read for pleasure
(e.g. readers).
Jargon buster
Copy the chart with your own definitions for the following terms (column 1 ) and explain their
relevance to teaching (column 2 ).
Your definition Relevance to language

learning/teaching
Genre
Genre an alysis
Authentic text
Graded reader
W ebquest
Jigsaw reading
Reassem bling poems
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TASK FILE

Chapter/: Teaching reading

Type of reading Useful? W hy/why not?

B Different kinds of reading (pages 99-100)

C Reading skills (pages 100-101)

D Reading sequences (pages 102-107)

Your sleep and you

REM & Non-REM Things not to do in bed (according to

a What level do you think it might be suitable for?

E Encouraging students to read extensively (pages 109-110)

Your definition Relevance to language

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