Teaching reading

Reading is an integral part of the lives of many people. Reading skills are used in a range of situations and for a multiplicity of purposes, including work, education, and also in building and maintaining social relationships. However, reading has changed dramatically in the last 25 years or so. Reading is no longer done solely from a printed page but also from a variety of screens. New text types have become common (such as receiving and writing short messages to build a text as we read), and the process of publishing has been revolutionized, often cutting out layers of the editorial process. In this chapter, we first of all set out what reading involves and how reading in the first language is both similar to and different from reading in a second language. We then consider how reading is generally taught in language classrooms around the world, critiquing the model that has dominated for generations of coursebooks and their users. In the final section of the chapter, we look at some of the ways in which that model can, and indeed must, change so that our learners are prepared for the new challenges of reading in the 21st century.