Building Positive Attitude Toward Reading for ESL Young Learners

Once I entered the room, they appeared very nice and quite. Although they were surprised of my presence as a substitute teacher, they welcomed me warmly with cheerful smiles on their lovely faces. But this peaceful situation did not last long until some were crying after quarrelling with their friends, some were jumping on the desks, some were playing hide and seek while I was paying more attention to those who sat still and read attentively. In other words, it was a chaos. If only I knew that things were going to be different in a short time, as an inexperienced teacher, I would have thought twice to teach this amazing, incredible, enthusiastic, unpredictable group of learners. Especially, that day’s topic was reading a short story telling a little boy’s sixth birthday party. For me, it was the hardest teaching experience I’ve ever had, being lost in an unmanageable situation contrasted with the most difficult but the most important skill to be taught and learnt, according to Paulston and Bruder (1976). There are some ways that can be applied to build ESL young learners’ positive attitude in
reading.

The ever-energetic level of English learners.

One way to be able to build students’ positive attitude in reading is to equip teachers with the knowledge of early literacy, a term widely used in current educational literature, which describes how young children gradually become aware of the uses of written language in their environment (Ashworth and Wakefield 2005). This early literacy explains when children are ready to begin any reading programs. Some programs that follow the audio-lingual approach delay reading or any exposures to the printed words until the students are fluent, somewhat within a limited repertoire, in phonological system of the target language. This Kind of program may be true only for first grade children who are simultaneously learning to decode graphic symbols (Paulston and Bruder 1976). Other programs state that reading could only be taught when children were developmentally and physically ready to gain the so-called readiness skills (letter recognition, recognition of the sound-symbol, correspondences, etc). This readiness occurred as a result of maturation after children began formal schooling and were ready to be taught the specific skills that would enable them to read.

Another way requires teachers to be familiar with children’s unique characteristic so that they can choose suitable reading selections. Klein (2005) explained that teaching young learners is different from teaching adult. Young children tend to change their mood every other minute, and they find it extremely difficult to sit still. It is also very difficult for them to maintain their motivation for a longer period of time. According to Cameron (2003), students may have different forms of motivation but not all are so motivated that they can continue their study of English without losing whatever motives they had in the beginning. On the other hand, they show a greater motivation than adults to do things that appeal to them. For those reasons, teachers should really consider and carefully choose the selections of the reading text. Texts with many unknown and difficult words are somewhat frustrating, if not discouraging. Others may be at the level of grammatical and organizational difficulty. It is just like Day and Bamford’s quotation, “reading gain without reading pain.” So it is very important that the selections should have high interest value to the students and the simplest way of establishing this is by asking the students to choose books that they can read quickly and easily. The content should not contrast with the students’ own cultural values (Anderson 1972). It seems that it is easier to read what is interesting and ideologically compatible, at least at the earlier stages. This will increase their confidence and motivate them to be more comfortable with the process of reading.

Setting goals of reading lessons will also help young learners focus more on what they read. Meyer and Sugg (1980) explained that every lesson requires a clear goal setting. Students should always, at all stages, know what they are doing and why they are doing it. This is necessary not only so they will feel a certain satisfaction about their achievement at the end of the lesson, but also for good motivation throughout the lesson. Research has also shown that students are more attentive to do their work if the teacher explains the goals of the lesson. To reach this goal, the teacher should guide and transform the tools for the students to be able to read by themselves and to get some information from the reading passage as determined in the objective of the lesson.

Next, reading activities should be arranged and modified, if necessary, to meet the students’ level of ability so they are able to draw some knowledge while they are enjoying their reading. One kind of reading activities that can be offered is extensive reading for which they can read large quantities of easy material in English. In this case, they read for information and enjoyment, with the primary goal of achieving a general, overall understanding of the reading material (Ono, Day, Harsch 2004). Students are allowed to select their own reading material and are encouraged to stop reading if the material is not interesting or is too hard. By giving such freedom, they will gradually learn to expand their reading comfort zone, the range of materials they can read easily and with confidence. The resource of the materials may include children’s books, comics, or online texts. Students can also be introduced to language learner literature, reading material specifically written for language learners. They are simplified books, fiction and non-fiction, in which the content is controlled to match the learners’ language ability. Besides reading for pleasure, students may also increase their fluency and their vocabulary knowledge. That is why it is important for teachers to pay attention to what the students are reading and to make sure that they are not struggling with texts that are too difficult. It makes sense to help build students’ confidence and fluency with easier books, bearing in mind that books that were at one time too difficult will later become easier to read.

Furthermore, reading should be taught in meaningful and real-life related contexts so it will be easier for children to understand the content of the material. Paulston and Bruder (1976) said students need the vocabulary of what is relevant to their world. It is easier to learn to read when the cultural background is familiar and the students can draw on cultural information in the decoding process. This is what teachers should realize that procedures and techniques of teaching reading are used to decode meaning –lexical, structural and cultural- from graphic symbols (Bumpass 1963). According to Goodman, readers may draw three kinds of information. The first is graphophonic information, the sound-symbol relationship, which is assumed that the students already know but taught to encode the pronunciation. The second is syntactic, the information implicit in the grammatical structure of the language. Native speakers already know the grammar of their language and draw on this knowledge in their reading. The foreign student needs to be taught how to do this. Third, there is the semantic information. Readers draw on their experiential conceptual background to supply a semantic component of the message. To do this, the reader needs access to both lexical and cultural meaning. On the very elementary level, especially young learners, however, reading serves primarily (1) to introduce basic grammar pattern and vocabulary items in context and (2) to reinforce this basic knowledge. Those are why Smith (1972) stated that reading is learned rather than taught, and that one learns reading by reading, in the mother tongue as well as in a foreign language. In short, the reading process should be relevant to the children’s everyday life while it also helps develop real language knowledge.Then, creating a concrete and visible means of monitoring the reading progress can be very motivating. This can be done by keeping reading logs which help both teachers and students check the reading progress. Some teachers, (Ono, Day, Harsch 2004), have found it useful to monitor the progress based on the weeks of a school semester (see Appendix 1). Others require students to provide a very brief summary of each book entered into the log in order to monitor general comprehension (see Appendix 2). According to Latha (2005), students may be required to submit brief, structured book reports which are written under specified headings. These may include a listing of main ideas and supporting details, the discussion of favorite characters, the readers’ personal opinion, and a short section on vocabulary extension. By doing this, reading activities will become more focused and enable children to become more coherent and concise in their responses. Finally, when young learners are in the process of learning reading, they should be engaged in supportive atmosphere and environment for them to create good reading habit. The teacher should be a role model as a reader. Day and Bamford (2002) claimed that “effective extensive reading teachers are themselves readers, teaching by giving example of the attitudes and behaviors of a reader.” If the teacher is an English native speaker, he should consider reading extensively in the students’ first language If English is a foreign language to the teacher, then read English with the students. As Nutall (1996) observed “reading is caught, not taught.” So the more students read, the better reader they become. Shirley Brice –Heath (1983) believe the successful teaching and learning depend on eliminating the boundaries between classroom and communities. The teacher can not begin to promote a reading program without prior knowledge of the community’s attitude toward reading. Meeting and discussing with parents at the outset of the reading program promotes parental involvement in their children’s reading outside school.

Therefore, by applying the ways mentioned previously, it is hoped that teachers can build ESL young learners’ positive attitude toward reading. Whenever the lesson is delivered successfully, it does not mean only for the good of the children’s present skill and knowledge but also for encouraging a life long involvement with books and reading (Latha 2005). When young learners are provided with insightful and careful orientation and guidance to reading (Ono, Day, Harsch 2004), they are not only improving many aspects of their overall reading and language ability; they are also opening a door to the variety of worlds that reading can present. According to Culbreth (2004), preparing a child to be a good reader is one of parent’s greatest gifts. As Jenny Nash, author of Raising a Reader, (as quoted by Culbreth, 2004, p. 115) states, “you can find companionship in books, counsel, solace and delight. You can spend hours alone in a room listening to the quite music of the written word.” Reading can give children those magic moments and much more.





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