Does anyone else associate intensive reading as what was done in English classes when different writings - especially novels, poetry, and essays were totally torn apart and picked to the bones with analysis and what one professor used to call "deep reading"? The description of it reminds me of deconstructing literature. We never did that, however, with news writing ... which can provide most important information, especially for an L2 at a certain level and above, but which can be wickedly tough to read due to use of acronyms, jargon, or wide-ranging vocabulary (especially in top-tier news like New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, etc.). It would seem that intensive reading of appropriately leveled, and topically focused articles would provide good text for intensive reading for L2 students.
Although it seems to be my luck that as I study readin' & writin' this semester, my service learning classes - so far - are all conversation, I still find that L2 students hunger for information on current events, and that their only real source is tv because reading a paper is so difficult for them. Seems newspapers & magazines - physical or on-line - would be an ideal source of material for intensive reading.
I welcome comments on this.
Great point, Sharon. I've also been thinking of intensive reading as a type of deconstruction of literature. One of my college professors called this type of analysis and writing an "explication" of a poem, for example. I don't really know what goes on classes for English majors, but I guess they do a lot of this.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, it appears that native speakers are often required to do intensive reading and analysis of FICTION in English classes, whereas most ESL Reading books include numerous intensive reading tasks on NON-fiction articles.
I agree with you both that as we advance in our education we tend to only pull apart fiction texts. However, as I think about standardized tests growing up, I do think that at some point we either learn to use these skills on non-fiction or at least practice applying them. I think that as we become more educated, the details of non-fiction are thought to be "obvious" while fiction works are more cryptic.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, thinking about Sharon's situation of teaching conversation classes while taking our class focused on reading & writing, I think that you can still incorporate reading & writing into these classes, while maintaining a conversation focus. Thinking about the article on Super Bowl ads from last night, our group came up with several good discussion points, not to mention all of the great ideas from the rest of the class. Maybe intensive reading is something you could incorporate every so often for the first half of class and build off of it for your conversation time for the rest of the class.
That's a great idea - using a "Super Bowl" type text for conversation class - especially for those of us who will be here next year, because the Super Bowl will be here and Arlington will, likely, be turned upside down. How would you suggest structuring it? After an icebreaker, ask a few Q's & answer any initial Q', give them a very short reading from the article ... or a re-written composite (maybe pair them up for the reading), and then open the floor for discussion, debate, and time to answer cultural/informational Q's? I may try this with the upcoming World Cup ... Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLori makes an interesting point about standardized tests, such as the GRE, SAT/ACT and TOEFL.
ReplyDeleteWhen we see advertisements for such 'prep' classes, it is likely that the instructors will attempt to share Intensive reading techniques with those attending the course.
And since the materials used in such courses will obviously not be exactly the same as the actual test questions, we see that such activiites should make "tomorrow's" reading easier--in this case, the "tomorrow" is one's upcoming test date!
So, Ruby, I think you've actually done a lot of this type of effective teaching and learning, right?