Today's teaching, tomorrow's text: exploring the teaching of reading

Abstract

Most learners experience the teaching of reading in the classroom in the form of intensive reading activities, where learners are provided with support, typically by the teacher, to make sense of texts that are too difficult for the learners to read successfully by themselves. After reading, learners are usually expected to answer a series of comprehension questions. The problem with this approach, critics say, is that it does not in fact teach learners how to read. While comprehension questions can be used effectively in the teaching of reading, their effectiveness depends on the teacher having a clear understanding of the goal of the reading lesson and the conditions that need to be met if learning is to take place. This article discusses and exemplifies these concerns and proposes a framework that can assist teachers plan lessons that help learners to read better.