principles of Teaching Reading

Reading is an important skill in learning a foreign language. Students can improve their English and expand their vocabulary of class by reading on their own. Unfortunately, many teachers believe that teaching reading to children causes them to lose their motivation to learn English. This view is usually based on teacher's experience in using reading materials in the course book that are pften long, boring, and filled with difficult words. However, reading can be fun and motivating if the language and the task are at the right level for the students and if the teacher uses the appropriate method and approach.

Two principles that are useful in teaching reading to elementary school students are the word approach and the whole language approach. The following principles for teaching reading to young learners using these approaches:

1. The word approach is used in introducing new vocabulary. Teaching a written word and its pronunciation without teaching its meaning is in effective.

2. The word approach can be done with look and say activities or through word recognition games such as matching words and picture.

3. In the whole language approach, children do not read works in isolation but in connection to other word. They read sentences that have meaning.

4. Combining word and whole language approach is a good idea. Pre-teaching a story's vocabulary using giving the reading text to students help them understand the text.