Reading as a source of language learning

I believe that we can all agree on the fact that, when learning a foreign language, reading has an essential role even though sometimes it may be difficult to apply it.

From my experience as a learner, I remember that there wasn’t too much reading at school. In Catalan and Spanish lessons there were several reading comprehension exercises and another important task that students had to carry out was done over the summer holidays, when we had to read and summarize a book. It wasn’t until secondary school that we started to do the same with English books. Before that moment, English summer homework was based more on grammatical aspects.

Besides, students never got the chance to choose a book because all the books were chosen by the teachers. I understand the advantages of this method from a teacher’s point of view, since it’s easier for them to check and grade a summary from a book they know rather than coming across numerous unknown titles. However, not every person is interested in the same genres of book and more often than not students found these books uninteresting and the tasks boring.

It was still somehow useful because it helped me learn some vocabulary, but if I had been given books that I could find appealing I would have been more prompt to reading, would have paid much more attention to the text and would have taken much more benefit from it. That is why it is very important that students find the plot interesting, otherwise the experience is not as profitable as it could be.

In my teaching practice at a private English school, I have worked with children from the ages of 3 to 10 and storytelling has always been very present. Since it’s a private school which tries to teach English in a natural way rather that in a traditional and grammatical-based methodology, it has its own storybooks and we don’t use other texts sources.

With very young kids I tell them stories using an illustration book. Since they can’t read yet, they just look at the pictures while they listen to me. The stories are obviously adapted to their age and the experiences they may live at that age and they love to listen to the stories over and over again. This repetition helps them learn new vocabulary and structures in a delightful way as well as becoming more aware of the correct pronunciation of the language.

Once the kids are older and able to read themselves, each of them is given a storybook so that they can practice home on their own. This way they can also improve their spelling because they can see every word written down.

Nevertheless, I believe that it is significant for students to be in contact with a variety of texts so that they can make the most of the reading experience. And, as teacher, we can give them a list of books they may enjoy but we should also give them the chance to choose what books to read. This way they will probably enjoy them more and we will also teach them to be more responsible and mature.