The suggestions for practice and reading skills training fall into three categories:


Reading skills

Teaching proposals 20–23:

The suggestions presented here include exercise patterns which instructors may adapt according to the idiosyncracies of the first language and the specific requirements of their classes. Letters, words and short sentences should be largely automated so that the readers are able to concentrate wholly on the meaning of the text. Students who are already able to read fluently and well may forego this kind of exercise. They should receive texts and books of their choice to read during these practice exercise phases (see above #9 “free reading sequences”).


Reading fluency

Teaching proposal 24:

A text can be much better understood if read at a certain speed. Experience has shown that readers not only read faster and more fluently in repeated readings, but they also comprehend the content better. The same adage applies here as well: the more automated the learning process, the more readers are able concentrate on the text content and understand it better.

Fluent reading should be practiced in many short sequences, e. g. during a period of three to four weeks for 10–15 minutes each at the beginning of class. This training to improve reading fluency can absolutely be compared with conditioning in sports or with finger exercises for playing an instrument.


Reading strategies

Teaching proposals 25–27:

The third training part demonstrates how students can learn to focus on different texts and deliberately prepare themselves for reading. It provides suggestions and exercises about how to read texts, dealing with textual difficulties, and how to summarize and evaluate the materials read.

Reading strategies are to be discussed by the instructor in the classroom. Following this introduction, the strategies must be repeatedly practiced and solidified with different texts. This works best if the strategies are practiced on texts that are currently used in classroom instruction.

For additional reading strategies and information, see also “Teaching learning strategies and techniques for HLT” (volume 5 of the series „Didactic suggestions for HLT), where additional useful reading strategies are referenced in Part II and Part III.

20. Recognizing letters automatically

Procedure: The goal of identifying graphemes in the first language- most of those that students do not know based on their school language should be automated as much as possible and can be pursued with various exercises. …

Read more

21. Reading words faster and faster

Procedure: The goal of a mostly automatic identification of particularly frequent word images can be approached with different exercises. Examples: Reading words with obstacles (see exercise a below). Recognizing frequent mini words immediately (see exercise b …

Read more

22. Seeing sentences as a whole

Procedure: The goal of an increasingly fluent identification and interpretation of particularly frequent clauses in the first language can be approached with various exercises. Examples: From a dwarf sentence to a giant sentence (see exercise a …

Read more

23. Understanding what I read

Procedure: The text comprehension on the small-scale level of an individual sentence and/or a short text can be practiced with various exercises. Examples: Compare texts and pictures. Students receive two sheets; the first one contains eight …

Read more

24. Practicing reading fluency

Procedure: Prior to the training period of several weeks, the instructor informs the students about the goal and purpose of this training. S/he may certainly want to suggest at the same time that reading training in …

Read more

25. Strategies before reading

Procedure: Introduction, preliminary information: the teacher demonstrates a specific example of how to assess and get to know a text in three steps prior to reading it. Questions posed to the text include, for example: …

Read more

26. Strategies during reading

Procedure: The instructors demonstrate with one or several examples how to master textual difficulties and how to recognize main statements. This works best if the teacher models the corresponding steps and “thinks out loud” in …

Read more

27. Strategies after reading

Procedure: The teacher explains and demonstrates how to summarize content in various ways. This will be practiced with different texts (texts of 2–3 different levels, and 2–3 different kinds, e. g. non-fiction, history, etc.). The class …

Read more