1. We have created a podcast about teaching EFL reading to complement this lesson. If you cannot see the podcast symbol below, try using a different browser. IE or Chrome will solve the issue.
Teaching EFL Reading Podcast - seven minutes
Click on the link to play the podcast: Teaching Reading Skills in the EFL Classroom
2. Basic Concepts
Teaching EFL reading is a bit different than the way native speakers are taught to read. While vocabulary is an important part of reading, teaching the reading skills of surveying, skimming, scanning, inference, predicting and guessing are just as important.
Research tends to indicate that a student's reading comprehension can be improved by focusing on teaching students skills in the following areas:
Vocabulary
Many languages do not have the word building concepts that English does. In teaching vocabulary, the idea of "root" words and prefixes and suffixes helps students build a larger vocabulary quickly. Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) help us create a variety of words from one base word. Many EFL students won't recognize that contain is the root word of container and containment or that desire is the root word of undesirable and desirability. When teaching new vocabulary, it is important to point out these connections and we can quickly help students expand their vocabulary with the base words they already know.
2. Surveying, Scanning, Skimming
In an academic setting, we rarely read an entire text word for word. More typical is that we look at the contents of a book, the chapters, headings, subheadings, sidebars, pictures, illustrations, words in italics and bold type and dive in to find the information we need. These are the concepts of surveying, scanning and skimming, moving from the big ideas of a text down to the specific details. The linked readings for teaching EFL reading below will give you more specifics on these skills. The video below will give you the simple details of scanning and skimming.
3. Guessing and Predicting from Context
Students also need to be taught to guess the meanings of words based on the context of the reading and to draw from the reading an ability to predict what might happen in the next paragraph. Links below will lead to more information on these skills. The short videos below are fun explanations of guessing and predicting.
