DELTA LBA 2 - Language Skills 14th October 2005

Motivational Factors in Developing Reading Skills.

Focus:

I will examine the ways in which motivational factors affect the development of

reading skills in English as L2. I use ‘motivation’ as Dornyei (2001) defines it –a

convenient umbrella term covering needs and reasons for learning, along with

positive attitudes and attributes of the learners. I will consider three main areas:

 Firstly, habits in L1 reading which may be transferred to L2.

 Secondly, the significance of text selection in motivating readers.

 Finally, different strategies in reading and how motivational factors can play

a significant role in their success, or contribute to their failure.

Reasons for choosing this area:

In my teaching experience I have often found learners have difficulties reading, and

are reluctant to work on improving this skill. For many students reading in English is

important; whether for future study, work, exam preparation, integration into an

English environment, or simply transferring a pleasurable activity from L1.

In my personal experience, I am aware of my reluctance to do any reading in French,

despite being reasonably proficient in the language and a prolific reader in English. I

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therefore empathise with students who demonstrate a similar unwillingness, but am

keen to help them overcome this as many of them have specific reasons for

developing better reading skills.

I feel that a deeper understanding of motivational factors would help me, and other

teachers, develop better strategies to maximise learners’ engagement with reading

skills work.

Analysis of Motivational Factors in Reading:

 Reading habits:

It is often assumed that students with good reading skills in L1 will be able to

transfer these into L2. My personal experience would lead me to disagree with this

to an extent. Perhaps this is true for students whose mother tongue shares the

same script and has similar discourse patterns. However, learners whose first

language has a very different alphabet -Arabic, Farsi, Russian, or character system

- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, may not be able to use the same approaches to reading.

Training your eyes to move in a different direction across a page, and within a word,

is challenging. Knowing where one phrase or chunk of language ends, and another

begins, when the punctuation system is unfamiliar, takes time. These problems can

only be addressed through extensive exposure to the target language. However,

students may be unwilling to expend the necessary effort if the task seems too

difficult, and the benefits are not clear.

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Learners who do not read much in their native language might need additional

support in L2 reading. If they have affective issues, for example, lacking self-

confidence and doubting their own ability to master this skill, they may be

disinclined to read in English. Motivation is not static, but ebbs and flows with

experience. Past success and failure, and a corresponding judgement of one’s own

capabilities will influence how a student approaches a new task. The teacher needs

to demonstrate the accessibility of the materials, build confidence and create

purpose.

 Significance of Text Selection:

It is important to acknowledge the significance of text choice, both linguistically

and in terms of topic. If the learners can relate what they read in class to a real-

world situation (Dornyei: 2001) they may be keener to engage with the text. It is

not always possible to use authentic materials; there may be text-book constraints,

or lack of availability of alternatives. In Oman, Bahrain and the UAE, the Ministry

of Education have to approve any materials used in class for reasons of cultural

censorship. Nevertheless, whenever possible, the diversity of students’ interests

(Paran: 2003), and real-world needs, should be taken into consideration and

materials adapted or personalised accordingly. If learners are invariably expected

to read something in English that they would find boring and irrelevant in L1, they

will lack interest and motivation.

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The learners should also be encouraged to do extensive reading in English. A class

library means students can choose a text they find interesting. This is the most

natural way of reading, for pleasure and general comprehension, rather than task-

completion. We can train students in strategies, but they only get sufficient

practice through independent reading of a range of material (Hedge: 2000).

The students need language input and reading automatically increases their

exposure. Native speakers develop their lexical range through reading and L2

students need to do likewise. Readers are very motivated to understand lexis within

an interesting text. However, it also needs to be appropriate linguistically. There is

nothing more de-motivating for students than to be given material that is

inaccessible and of a currently unattainable standard. Nuttall (1996) points out that

to develop reading ability, the chosen text should be slightly above the learners’

current linguistic level, which fits with Krashen’s model of comprehensible input

being “i + 1”. However, learners also need to read at their intellectual level in L2 to

prevent loss of motivation (Hoey: 1991).

Mastery of an aspect of reading, whether awareness of developing skills or

increased comprehension, creates a sense of learner autonomy and increases

motivation (Dornyei: 2001). Motivation needs to be both generated and maintained;

reflecting on tangible progress is satisfying and will encourage students to continue.

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 Reading strategies:

There are many reasons for reading (Hoey: 1991): evaluating content; studying;

translating; informing yourself about a new subject. These are only some of the

most common uses and each requires a different method of processing. Proficient

readers approach texts in ways they consider most appropriate for that genre and

their purpose. When reading quickly, they look for structural clues and overall

understanding, without trying to retain detailed information or rereading anything

incompletely understood. Careful reading to make connections, assimilate

information, or challenge the premise, may make use of bottom-up processing.

A bottom-up approach in reading involves examining and understanding lexis,

collocations, syntax, morphology and cohesive devices to derive meaning from the

text. Paran (1996) sees this as the most important strategy to develop. He feels

proficient readers need to be less reliant on context, which only compensates for

weak linguistic knowledge, and more focused on decoding. However, in this approach,

there can be an assumption that students are motivated to gain detailed

comprehension and understand nearly every word. This is not necessary, unless the

students’ goal is translation, and can lead to them getting bogged down by sentences

they do not understand. It also seems to undervalue the experience and knowledge

of the topic area that the learners have.

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A top-down view of reading starts by activating the readers’ schemata, or

background knowledge, of the subject. The topic could be introduced through

pictures or discussion, and the learners would be encouraged to share what they

already know and possibly predict the content. This approach is aimed at developing

a desire to read the text. Motivation is not exclusively about developing enthusiasm;

however, generating interest through arousal of curiosity is inherently motivating

(Dornyei: 2001).

In a top-down approach, the students would also consider the text type, and

therefore the possible structure and function at discourse level, before reading.

This is to activate their schematic knowledge of the genre.

Recent research has shown these distinctions to be somewhat arbitrary. When we

read, there is an unconscious interplay between bottom-up and top-down processing

(Richards: 1990). It is useful for learners to look at the text in different ways, but

an interactive approach which gives equal attention to these strategies seems most

appropriate. If the student is over-reliant on one method then it may be at the

detriment of their overall comprehension (Carrell: 1988). The reader has an active

role in extracting meaning from the text, and proficient readers automatically

combine approaches to achieve their purpose.

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Problems Learners’ Face:

1. Cultural & L1 issues:

One key problem which learners face has already been dealt with above; the

difficulty students have if their L1 is written very differently from English and

they cannot necessarily transfer reading ability.

Another problem is when learners have very different schemata from the writer.

There are inherent assumptions in any text, and if students do not recognise these

or understand the cultural content then it is difficult for them to access the

meaning. If the learners wish to integrate into an English speaking society, they may

be motivated to gain the necessary cultural understanding (Brown: 1994). However,

if they are instrumentally motivated to acquire the language as a means of attaining

personal goals – the cultural dimension may not be interesting for them and could

de-motivate the learners if they find the text impenetrable.

2. Lack of lexical awareness:

Lexical cohesion is established through bonded sentences and lexical repetition. If

learners do not recognise links and make the connections across sentences and

paragraphs, they cannot make the necessary semantic connections to understand

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the text (Carrell: 1988, Hoey: 1991) which will affect their “summary” of the

meaning.

Another issue is over-reliance on dictionaries, so students find it difficult to either

guess the meaning of new lexis from the context, or reject the word as unnecessary

for overall comprehension. Students who have a Latin-based language as L1 will be at

a distinct advantage, as many complex items of vocabulary will be similar in their own

language, although care must be taken in establishing differential meaning. However,

students from a non Indo-European background definitely need to develop

strategies for overcoming potential lexical block. Without this skill learners are

liable to lose motivation as they will read very slowly and be so focused on the

individual lexical items that they cannot absorb the content.

3. Validity:

Students’ levels of aspiration are dependant on the likelihood of success and the

importance they attach to that. (McDonough: 1968) For this reason, students need

to be convinced of the value of the set task, and able to see the link between the

classroom activity and a real-life need for that reading skill.

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Motivating students to Develop Reading Skills:

The standard approach to reading involves tasks for pre- while- and post- reading

which seems to be a useful model. Careful consideration of each of these stages is

necessary to ensure students are developing their reading skills.

Some textbooks (see appendix 1) include texts which only display the target item of

language e.g. narrative tenses, or future forms; or act as a springboard for another

activity (appendix 2). These text-based lessons can therefore end up focusing on

pronunciation, or discrete items of grammar or lexis (Nuttall: 1996).This is not

adequate if the aim is to build reading skills.

Another issue is that some course books rely on certain types of reading tasks,

which do not necessarily aid students in developing reading skills. True/False or

Multiple Choice comprehension questions may simply highlight discrete areas of the

text, or could in fact be completed without reading (appendix 3). Alternatively,

textbooks may not provide a task which leads to unfocused reading and encourages

students to try and understand every detail (appendix 4). Learners need a relevant

task to motivate them to read purposefully.

The students need to focus on developing specific sub-skills like skimming, scanning,

inferring, or increasing reading speed. Texts need to be chosen which naturally lend

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themselves to these types of reading. For example, in daily life we might scan TV

listings and decide what to watch, skim a magazine article for entertainment, or

read a newspaper and infer the journalist’s viewpoint. If the students can see the

relevance of the task to the text, then they will be more motivated to participate.

Pre-Reading:

If it is possible for learners to have an element of choice in what they read they will

feel more motivated (appendix 6). However, realistically this is not always possible,

and students will read what the teacher has selected. It is therefore crucial to

activate their schemata before reading to raise awareness of issues and, through

collaboration, add to existing knowledge. Students need to read critically. Text-

previewing activities for genre and culturally specific content are essential to

overcome potential problems.

Prediction is one way of activating prior knowledge. It is motivating to make a good

guess, and helps students develop confidence in reading alone. This can be done

through looking at pictures, the title or doing activities which expose students to

text incrementally e.g. on the OHT and asking students to predict what will come

next. This also increases awareness of genre and likely structure. An alternative is

giving students the first and last line of a paragraph and asking them to guess what

ideas might be expressed in between (Carrell: 1988). This should increase motivation

by giving the students a clear purpose for reading, checking their predictions, and

creating interest.

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While-reading:

It is important that students feel they have a purpose for reading. If they feel the

task is valid, they will be motivated to complete it. Often simply noting personal

reactions to content is sufficient. This could be done by simply putting a tick, cross

or question mark in the margin at appropriate points.

Problem solving creates interest and involvement and gives learners a real reason to

complete the task. Asking students to determine the order of paragraphs, or

unscramble two mingled texts, can help them overcome their reluctance to read, as

they are not faced with an extended piece of written English.

Unscrambling a text also makes students more aware of the cohesive devices used in

writing and shows the internal organisation of information. It makes them pay

attention to discourse markers showing sequence, organisation, or viewpoint.

Students can track the bonding of sentences (Hoey: 1991) by looking for repetition

of lexical items, and also, at a more advanced level, for paraphrasing. You need to

find three or more lexical links for the sentences to be considered connected. Even

a beginning level learner can identify three words that are the same in different

sentences. If they can track the content bearing lexis, they can identify key

sentences and get the main idea more efficiently despite reading in a non-linear way.

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Post-reading:

The students need to synthesise knowledge after reading, through discussion,

writing interpretations or closer examination of a passage. This is their opportunity

to reflect on what they have understood, and deepen their knowledge of language

and content. This should be as natural as possible and so there should always be a

factor of reacting to, or evaluating the content (Paran: 2003).

Learners also need to develop strategies for inferring meaning of unknown lexis

(Nuttall: 1996) to increase reader autonomy and help them with future reading

tasks. They can use structural clues to establish the function of words, and look at

surrounding text to establish probable meaning from context. They can develop this

skill by doing cloze exercises, where they have to fill in the missing word, or

guessing the meaning of imaginary words in a paragraph. (Train Bing: appendix 5).

Carrell (1998) also recommends using texts like The Clockwork Orange, or

Jabberwocky, to encourage students to ignore difficult words that do not impede

the overall comprehension of the text.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, effective teaching is motivating (Dornyei: 2001). This means taking

students’ needs into consideration, and being principled in text selection and task

allocation. If students can see the overall relevance of the reading then they will be

motivated to participate and develop the necessary skills.

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Word Count: 2517

Bibliography:

Alderson, J,C & 1984 Reading in a Foreign Language

Longman
Urquhart, A, H (Eds)

Anderson, N 1999 Exploring Second Language Reading Heinle & Heinle

Brown, H,D 1994 Teaching by Principles. Prentice

Hall Regent

Carrell, P, & 1988 Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading

CUP

Devine, J & Eskey, D

Celce-Murcia, M.& Olshtain, E 2000 Discourse & Context in Language Teaching

CUP

Dornyei, Z 2001 Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. CUP

Grellet, F 1981 Developing Reading Skills CUP

Hedge, T. 2000 Teaching & Learning in the Language Classroom

OUP

Hoey, M 1991 Patterns of Lexis in Text

OUP

McCarthy, M. 1991 Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers

CUP

McDonough, S 1968 Psychology in Foreign Language Teaching GeorgeAllen&

Unwin

Mera Rivas, R 1999 Reading in recent ELT coursebooks ELTJ 53/1 OUP

Nuttal, C 1996 Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language

Heinemann

Paran, A 1996 Reading in EFL: facts and fictions ELTJ 50/1

OUP

Paran, A 2003 Intensive Reading ETP 28

Prowse, P 2003 Extensive Reading ETP 27

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Richards, J, C 1990 The Language Teaching Matrix

CUP

Textbook Sources:

Collie, J & Slater, S 1995 True to Life Elementary CUP

Doff, A & Jones, C 1997 Language in Use Upper IntermediateCUP

Gairns, R & Redman, S2003 Natural English Oxford

Greenhall, S 1994 Reward Pre-Intermediate Macmillan &

Heinemann

Jeffries, A 2001 Clockwise Advanced OUP

Kay, S & Jones, V 2000 Inside Out Intermediate Macmillan &

Heinemann

Soars, L & J 1987 Headway Upper Intermediate OUP

Soars, L & J 1996 New Headway Intermediate OUP

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