Reading for Second Language Acquisition
We know how important reading is for language learning - so let's start to promote reading in our foreign language classrooms.
There are so many articles out there, which provide us with evidence about the importance of reading practice. Here are just a few abstracts and quote I found interesting.
Reading in a second language calls for fast, automatic word decoding and access to the mental lexicon (dictionary); this means working on building speed and fluency and on learning to recognise at least 10,000 words in the new language.
Learners can build speed and fluency by learning vocabulary systematically and by doing lots of easy (‘extensive’) reading. Learners will also read better in their second language if they learn about text characteristics, and if they know how to handle a variety of strategies for getting meaning from texts.
Background knowledge about the second-language culture will make comprehension easier as well.
( Abstract from Reading in a Second Language by H.Catherine Walter)
Reading, even at a slow pace exposes students to more sentences, grammar, and new vocabulary per minute than the average, short class, TV show, or song.
This is why students who read foreign books are able to speak more fluently than students who don’t, despite having done the same amount of classes.
( Abstract from Daniel Dong)
We acquire spoken fluency not by practicing talking but by understanding input, by listening and reading.
(Dr. Stephen Krashen Principles and Practices of Second Language Acquisition)
