Nonfiction Reading

Introduction

?????Ceranic (2009) expounded that many secondary students are unwilling active readers as they struggle to grasp the meaning of the text and comprehend and use vocabulary and grammar to enhance their reading pleasure. Challenging their apathy and disinterest by building comprehension skills like selecting extracts and using good quality questioning like unpicking the wording of comprehension questions to decipher particular tasks such as language, structure, and comparison of texts promise approaches to keep them interested and engaged and in addition using real-life examples and getting students to appreciate media as texts will significantly enhance their reading enjoyment (Ceranic, 2009, pp. 79-84). This week's reading has informed me that preparing my students for new vocabulary before they read a nonfiction piece might take me to implement a pre-teach vocabulary and use context clues to support their reading enjoyment (Einstein, 2003, pp. 1-4).

Two ways to prepare students for new vocabulary.

?????Here are two ways to prepare students for new vocabulary before they read a nonfiction piece:

?????1.?Pre-teach vocabulary: One strategy is to?pre-teach the vocabulary?students will encounter in the text.?Before reading?the nonfiction piece, could you?give students a list of new vocabulary?words and their definitions? Pre-teaching vocabulary will give them an idea of the?key terms?they will encounter in the text and help them better?understand?the?concepts presented. I usually give my students practice activities to help them learn the vocabulary, such as flashcards, word-matching exercises, or sentence completion exercises in teaching them Academic English (Chowdhury & Ara, 2021, pp. 123-132).

?????2.?Context clues:?Another strategy is to teach my students to?examine context clues?to determine the meaning of?unfamiliar words.?You can model this skill by?reading?a passage?aloud?and asking students to?identify words?they do not know. Then, could you show them how to use the surrounding words and sentences to make an educated guess about what the word means? I encourage my students to use their?prior knowledge?of the topic to help them make these guesses. For example, I will get my students to work with a partner while reading a text. I will connect each pair of students to brainstorm the types of writing they must do in higher education. Then, I get my students to write down as many ideas as possible about the topic. I give my students a time limit, so they are not concerned about how they write, the accuracy of their grammar or spelling, or the order of ideas. I gave them a statement from the nonfiction text to get them started (McCormack & Slaght, 2012, pp. 22-36).

Effectiveness of strategies

?????These strategies are effective because they help students?build their vocabulary?and?comprehension skills.?Pre-teaching vocabulary can give students a?head starts on understanding?the text and can make the reading experience less daunting. In addition, teaching students to use context clues is a?valuable lifelong skill?they can apply to future reading and learning experiences. Finally, by providing students with the tools to understand new vocabulary, they will feel more confident reading and comprehending nonfiction texts (Ceranic, 2009).

Conclusion

?????In this forum, I have expounded on two strategies I used in my classroom to teach and prepare my students for new vocabulary before they read a nonfiction piece. These strategies have enabled me to increase my students' participation; some become active readers (Einstein, 2003).

References

Ceranic, H., 2009. The English Teacher's Handbook. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Chowdhury, T. A. & Ara, A., 2021. Pre-teaching Vocabulary in Teaching Reading Skill: A Hindrance to Learner Autonomy? Indonesian Tesol Journal, 3(2), pp. 123-132.

Einstein, C., 2003. Activating comprehension: Nonfiction in the classroom. Educators Publishing Service, pp. 1-4.

McCormack, J. & Slaght, J., 2012. English for Academic Study, Extended Writing and Research Skills. 2012 ed. London: Garnet Publishing.