奈良教育大学学術リポジトリNEAR
ON TEACHING ORAL READING AS A PREPARATORY STEP TO SILENT READING
著者 Sato Hideshi
journal or
publication title
奈良教育大学教育研究所紀要
volume 7
page range 1‑16
year 1971‑03‑31
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10105/6215
ON T,.]ACHING ORAL READING AS A PREPARATORY STEP TO SILENT RE]ADING
Hideshi Sato Department of English I. The Aims of Oral Reading.
. For two years I have asked the prospective teachers in my class at Nara University of Education for a written answer to the question, 'tWhat is Reading?". Though their answers are quite diverse, all of them seem to grasp the fundamental idea that to read is to understand what is written or printed.
The foUowing are some representative definitions I have got.
Reading is a complex process in which we get some information from the printed page.
Reading is the ability to pronounce and comprehend a printed word) or words.
Reading is interpreting signs, letters, or symbols by
assigning meanings to them. •
Reading is receiving ideas and impressions from an author via ,the printed words.
The definitions quoted above are probably typical of the way most of the teachers define reading. If this is the case, it is essential that we acquire a better understanding of the concept
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To make sure, let me look up the word 'tRead" in the Oxford English Dictionary and IAIebster's New International Dictionary 3
of the English Language. Both of them admit two aspects of reading for comprehension and reading aloud. It is to be no- ticed that OED mentions the former first.
OED
5. To inspect and interpret in thought (any signs which represent words or discourse); to look over or scan (some- thing written, printed, etc.) with understanding of what is meant by the letters or signs; to peru$e (a document,
book, author, etc.). •
ll. To utter aloud (the words or sentences indicated by the writing, under inspection); to render in speech (any- thing written, a book, etc.) according as tine written or printed signs are apprehended by the mind.
To read a[Loud is frequently used to distinguish this sense of the vb. from 5.
3 W'ebster•
1 a (l) to look at or otherwise scan (as letters or other
symbols representing words or sentences) with mental formular-- tions Qf the words or sentences represented...(3) to form with the lips or utter aloud (such mental formulations) (4) to
understand the meaning and grasp the full sense of (such mental
formulations) either with or without vocal reproduction.
Let us agree then that the first object of reading lessons in English is to help the students to grasp the ideas of written or printed pages w'ith accuracy and speed. Heading is essentially the skill of recognition, but it imight be said Lhat ora[L reading, or reading aloud, which is the skill of conveying meaning by transforming written language into spoken language, is the skill of production.
Among the language teaching specialists in foreign coun- tries, therearesome who claim 'tReading aloud is a necessary evil..
(1) . . .
.. Let us deal with it quickly and have donett, msxsting that
we must teach the skill of silent reading as soon as possible since it is useful to our pupils throughout their lives.
However, I assume that it is absolutely necessary that the junior high school students in this country should be thoroughly trained in oral reading from the initial stage through the whole three years. The reason for this argument is most clearly stated by I. Morris. Some of the objects of oral reading can be
perceived in these remarks.(2)
l. The written language is the echo of the spoken word;
oral reading reproduces the originalL worded message and thus aids comprehension.
2. Even silent reading requires reproduction of oral
languages. 'It is generally supposed that articulation
occurs onlLy when we actually speak, that the sole function
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of articulation is to make ourselves heard in speech. But in reality we articulate not only what we say aloud, but also what we hear, what we read, what we think. "avhen we speak we articulate aloud, the muscles of our organs of speech actually move and produce a succession of actual sounds. When we listen with understanding to what someone is saying, when we read with understanding anything written ...., we articulate mentally, our speech muscles, without necessarily moving, are stj.mulated by the nerves communi- (3)
cating with the speech centre of our brain.i
3. 0ral reading with attention to stress and intonation is a form of interpretation; manner of reading is an Å}ndica- tion of comprehension.
One of the reasons for negative opinions of the value of oral reading as a classroom procedure is that it tends to bring about what is called "parrot reading". It is very important for a pupil to read aloud so that the hearers can understand him, but it is extremely difficu]t for beginners to read with
accurate pronunciation and intonation, with the resulL that they cannot afford to grasp the meaning of what they are reading aloud. Therefore, it sounds Lnproper to me to give such direc-
tions as 'tNow, try to grasp the idea while reading loudiy.,t
In order to avoid trparrot reading" on the part of the
pupils, I propose that practice in oral reading be started
after they are through with comprehension work of the new material.
The following 'iTeaching Plan" follows the traditional pattern,
that is, reading exercise before comprehension, but the procedure should be reversed.
]. Presentation:
(l) Oral Introduction (2) PronunciaLion Drill
(3) Reading (Tape Listening and Chorus Reading) (4) Explanation
2. Consolidation (l) Chorus Reading (2) Tape Listening (3) Individual Reading (4) Questions and Answers 3. Assignment of Homework
The teacher has two objects in calling upon a pupil to read aloud in class. One is that he wants to see whether the pupil can vocalize the contents of the material to the degree that the rest of the class can comprehend him. In this sense, oral reading is a skill of production, as I mentioned before.
It often happens that, when a pupil reads aloud in class, a[Ll the others open their textbooks, their attention being dull. This is the reason why L. A. Hill denounces reading a[Loud by individua[L pupils in the following way,
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Ti...bVhat good does it do the students? If there is a class of 35 students and if the teacher does not speak at all, each student will spend 34 ninutes listening to his fellow- students reading with bad pronunciation, bad stress, bad rhythm and bad intonation... In addition, he himself will have one minute's practice reading aloud. Tw'hat will he learn from that? ...t, (4)
If the period of oral reading by individuals should be the time when the rest of the students can breathe relief and slacken their attention, it would be a mere waste of time.
When the teacher calls upon a pupil to read a[Loud, both the teacher and the rest of the pupils should close their textbooks, and listen very carefully to his ora[L reading, so that he may make an all-out effort to convey meaning only by sound, while
the rest of them may practice in hearing with close attention.
In this case the teacher should not be too critical of the individual sound, rhythm or intonation that the pupU utters.
For instance, if he has left out the article ta' or tthe' in
his reading, the teacher should be generous enough to cornmend him, saying "Very good" if his English is intelligib!e enough.
It can be safely said that the teacherrs attitude is desirable when he is severe in chorus reading, and permissive in indivi- dual reading.
The second object in oraJL reading is to ascertain whether
the contents of the passage read by the pupils have been under- stood correctly or not. Pause, intonation, stress, etc. can
be some criteria by which to check the degree of the pupils' understanding. This can be done by "Questions and Answers" in English or in Japanese just after their oral reading. For
instance, when the pupils are given tests in oral reading of English passages they have not read before, their degree of
reading with understanding can be measured by whether they have made a pause in the right place or not.
Since language is essentian-ly the cormnunication of meaning by sound, teaching of oral reading as a preparatory step to silent reading demands more serious consideration at junior and senior high school levels.
II. Evaluation of Oral Reading.
Evaluation of oral reading cannot be conducted by paper test. Of course their knowledge of pause and stress can be measured by paper test, but even if they can tell the right stress, pause, or intonation in paper test, we cannot evaluate their ability to read aloud with good rhythm, so that their English is intelligible to the hearers until they are made to read orally.
Suppose there are 40 pupils in one class. It would be
impossible to undertake an evaluation of their oral reading in
one or two school hours. In such suojective tests, there is no
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expectatlon of validity or reliability essential to any kind of test.
The truly reliable evaluation of oral reading can be a-
chieved only by, aceumulaticms cf observation results made during each class hour. For exaJnple, the teacher call$ upon one pupil to read aloud one or a few paragraphs (the reading amount should be varied according to the grade they are in), telling the rest of the pupUs to listen to him carefully, and observes and
re'
cords how intellibly and pleasantly he has read. For such an eva[Luation 3-ranked grades (2-1-O) would be enough. If the teacher takes pains to keep the records in his mark-book, there will be accumulated a great deal of data for evaluation. When the teacher has time to spare for tape-recording oral reading of several pupils after schoolL, he will be able to know mo]re about their individual trouble spots in terms of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress, speed, rhythm, pause and intonation. L'fficient and handy cassette taperecorders enable us to do this kind of instruction easily.
III. IVIodel freading.
In junior high schools it is customary to introduce new
sentence patterns, vocabulary, as well as the outline of the
contents during oral presentation. Then comGs the reading
procedure. There are five sorts of reading conducted in junior
high schools.
1. Model reading 2. Chorus reading 3. Free reading 4. Individual reading ' 5. Silent reading
Reading is done in the order of l-2-3-4-5, but free reading is sometimes omi.tted. The most important thing to remember is to repeat reading for consolidation toward the end of the class.
I find two meanings in model reading. One is to show the pupU the TTmodelt'--- the end result of oral reading through the teacher's own reading. The other is to help them understand the idea of the new material by his reading. The new material the pupils hear is always the English coming out of the teacherts lips. In this sense, the teacher takes the place of a native
speaker. Herein lies the significance of model reading.
There is a tendency that tapes or records are used in place of the teacher's model. 'nfeigh'ing the pros and cons, I am against the use .of tapes for model reading. It is true that the more modest the teacher is, the more likely he is to think that the
pupils should have more chances to hear genuine EngÅ}ish spoken by native speakers. However, it must be remernbered that tape--
recorded English is spoken at natural speed as is done by average native speakers, with the result that the pupils are led to the
next procedure--chorus reading-- with quite an insufficient
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knowledge of intonation, pause as well as comprehension of the contents. In short, taperecorded English becomes merely a flow of meaningless sound to most of the pupUs. In my opinion tapes as model reading should be ful]y utilized either at consolida- tion period (that is, toward the end of the lesson after full
comprehension of the text is achieved or in Review. The teacher should make it a motto,to let his pupils he&r his ow'n good
English, which can be acquired through listening to the model tapes again and again.
When the teacher plays the taperecorder in class, his ears and eyes musb go to the pupils, not to the machine. It is incumbent upon him to learn the whole material by heart. If the teacher cannot turn his eyes away from the text while doing model reading, he cannot hope to catch the pupils' response exactly. If he does memorize the material he is reading, he is aware whether they understand what is being read or not. It is good to let them put in oblique lines where pauses are made, or put accent marks on the stressed words, but after that it is desirable to do model reading once again at natural speed, so that his pupils can get used to the stream of speech.
After model reading comes the teacher's explanation of the
rnaterial, followed by reading exercise as was mentioned before,
though from rny personalobse' rvation this order is not yet preva-
lent in this country.
IV. Chorus tteading.
There are pros and cons on conducting chorus reading in class. Robert Lado as well as L. A. Hill is in favor of chorus reading, because it allows everyone to practice every sentence, (5)
He is right on the ground that if however large the class is.
the teacher takes up individual reading just after model read- ing, the average pupils will be given a shock when they have not prepared themselves well enough. A child who cannot sing by himself in a music class is known to sing pretty well if he is made to join in a chorus. Chorus reading or repetition in English teaching may have the similar effect. Some of the shy students who would otherwise not recite can gain some degree of confidence before they can recite individually.
Thus we can say chorus reading is a useful pedagogical device, but I must emphasize it should be used more sparingly as the students advance in grade.
If the teacher's model reading is accurate enough and his guidance is to the purpose, most of the third graders in junior high schools (ninth graders) would have mastered English rhythm almost perfectly. As more and more complex sentences appear in their textbooks, they find it morc difficult to read in chorus
with good rhythm and proper intonation. This fact tends to lead the teacher to doubt the significance of chorus reading, perceiv- ing that they no longer take interest in chorus reading itself.
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Properly speaking, directions and corrections to their oral reading should be made for individual students, not to the class as a whole. Therefore it is no easy task, and very unnatural, to correct errors in oral reading of each individual student while conducting chorus reading. It must be borne in ndnd that chorus reading is a necessary evil. Then how can we observe the oral reading of each and every student in the form of chorus reading? The first thing to do is to divide the class into some groups, each group consisting of less than ten students.
The class can be divided into right half and left half, and then into front rows and back rows. This being done, the teacher can easily find out who does not join in the chorus, and guide him properly on the spot.
It would not be advisable for the teacher to keep standing at the teacher's desk while guiding chorus reading. It is re- qulredofhim that he should come down among the rows of the students. It often happens in lower grade classes that some students read too loudly, so that the others' voice cannot be heard. They should be kept undcr control. P. Gurrey points out (6)
that "the sentence in chor'us must always be spoken softly,"
which is rather contrary to T. Yambe's remark that "chorus read-
ing should be done el,gsgi,zoud! , speedily, clearly and in complete (7)
I fear that natural rhythm wUl be broken if the Unisontt .
students so much mind reading in unison. They should be guided
in oral reading so as to keep the same speed as the one they have acquired in oral production drill before reading the text.
Another pit into which they are liable to fall in oral
reading is r'parrot reading", or only pronouncing the symbols they see in the text without thinking of their meaning. A careful teacher would detect whether his pupils are falling into parrot reading, if only he pays attention to their mouths. If he finds out such pupils, he may as well ask them the meaning of the sentence they havq vocalized.
In many cases, chorus reading is conducted not in groups but in one whole class, with the result that it sounds noisy and
ineffective, bringing about a kind of public nuisance to the adjacent classrooms.
In chorus reading I think it rnuch better to drill them in
reading aloud one sentence until they can read it satisfactorily well, and then go on tothe next sentence, rather than read
through the whole paragraph two or three times from beginning to end, as is done in many schools. In junior high schools it is wiser to spend much more time in group reading than individual
reading. If practice in group reading is insufficient, we have to take far more time in corrections for individua[L reading than is expected, the whole lesson ending in breaking off halfway.
As soon as chorus reading is finished, most of the teachers
take to individual reading, but as a preparatory step to it some
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prefer to let the pupils have free reading, thereby the teacher can go round among his pupils to watch them practice and correct their errors individually, especially those of slow learners.
In free reading it is a good practice for every pupil to read in a whisper, holding his palms over his ears, so that he should not be disturbed by the others' voice. Free reading, if properly done, wUl be as effective a procedure as individual reading.
V. IndividuaJ. Reading.
The first consideration of the teacher for individual read- ing is that those good at reading should be called upon to read first, and then the rest of them. In the beginnerst class a small portion of the text should be assigned to as many pupils as possible.
It is not wrise for the teacher a[Lways to fix the order of individual reading, though some teachers are in the habit of telling the pupUs to read in the aJLphabetical order, or row by
row. The teacher must see to it that all the students are
attentive to any classroom activities. It is clear that we had
better call the pupns at random in order to maintain their
aJLertness. If the teacher habituaJLIy takes his time to decide
on who is going to read next, it will eause a break of active
parvticÅ}pation on the part of the pupils. Therefore the teacher
may as well think of the student B as the next reader, while
the student Ais reading the text. .
Corrections of individual reading would be better made when the student is through with it, not when he is halfway. The
mistakes made by Japanese students have many things in comrnon in respect of pronunciation, pause, stress, rhyt hin and intonation,
so it would be very thoughtful of the teacher to have the class as well as the student assigned re--read the sentence that includes those trouble spots.
In order to read aloud successfully, the student's eyes
must go four or five words further ahead than the words they are reading aloud. Thus the higher the speed of silent reading, the better will be the reading aloud. As for sU-ent reading, which is the end of all reading activities, I would like to discuss it in details in my following paper.
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