Krystle Harkness

          As a second language teacher and learner I believe that a key aspect of teaching a second language is motivating students to want to learn and experience their new language.  While there are many different theories as to how to motivate language students, in my practice I consistently turn to books in order to do this.  In my experience as an elementary school English teacher and a library English teacher reading books and fostering a love of reading can be an excellent motivator for students of all ages and levels to learn and experience their new language.  Thus, my goals as a language teacher are threefold.  First, I want to help students to gain fluent reading skills in English.  Second, to develop a habit of pleasure reading in English.  And finally, to encourage my students to become confident in using their English skills through continuous assessment, teacher and self-evaluations and feedback.

           

          According to Stephen Krashen’s (1982) input hypotheses second language learners need a large amount of comprehensible input before they can become skilled users of a second language.  Open access to authentic literature provides language students with a huge amount of input.  While not all authentic literature is comprehensible, if chosen carefully and well scaffolded there a many sources of comprehensible input available within authentic literature.  Literature presents students with new  and interesting vocabulary words, complex grammar and can even help their spelling skills.  Additionally, it will build upon their existing knowledge base in all subject areas.  So, as they become more familiar with their second language they can also boost their knowledge in all subject areas and apply that knowledge to their first language context as well.  Additionally, the work of Paul Nation has shown that reading in the target language can be a great source of vocabulary for language learners.

Fostering a love of reading and more specifically a love of second language reading can be accomplished successfully through welcoming students into a calm and quiet environment surrounded by books.  Students need to feel comfortable to ask questions and ask for help.  Teachers need to provide students with books, the skills to choose them and the confidence to read them.  In order to facilitate this in my classroom I use several different approaches including reading to students aloud, reading together as a group, partner reading, independent reading, and literary discussions.  I make sure that my students have a wide variety of books available for them to choose and I also make recommendations to them when necessary.  The possibilities are wide, open and endless when it comes to using literature for language teaching and I will continue to explore many facets of this in my classroom now and in the future.  I want to encourage my students to come to class with curiosity, an open mind and an openness to experience the world through someone else’s eyes.

 

            Finally, in my classroom, assessment is a continuing process.  It is all collected informally but it never stops.  Types of assessment include reading logs, book reports, self-assessments and one on one reading time with the teacher.  Book reports and reading logs can be assembled together to form a portfolio that shows the journey of how a student has progressed in their reading journey to longer and more complex texts and also toward deeper and more advanced understanding, comprehension and enjoyment.  As my students move through this process they become more aware of their own English abilities and that brings them a confidence that they did not have before. 

 

            Just as Dr. Seuss famously said reading can take you anywhere, beyond the limits of your own imagination, reading can let you experience the world through another language, another point of view. 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Krashen, Stephen D. 1982. Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.

 

Nation, I.S.P. (1997) The language learning benefits of extensive reading. The Language Teacher 21, 5: 13-16.