Formation of reading literacy in English classes

(Формирование читательской грамотности на уроках английского языка)

Зиля ХАБИБУЛЛИНА

учитель английского языка

гимназии №184 им. М.И. Махмутова

 г. Казани

The topic of functional literacy has been very relevant lately. In the Federal State Educational Standard of Basic General Education it is stated that in order to ensure the implementation of the basic general education program in educational institutions, conditions should be created that ensure the possibility of «forming the functional literacy of students (the ability to solve educational tasks and life problematic situations based on the formed subject, meta-subject and universal methods of activity)». However, based on the results of the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) studies conducted for 15-year-olds, it can be concluded that Russian students are strong in the field of subject knowledge, but experience difficulties during the transfer of this knowledge into real-life situations, and also show a relatively low level of functional literacy development. Psychologist and linguist A.A. Leontiev defines functional literacy as follows: «A functionally literate person is a person who is able to use all the knowledge, skills and abilities constantly acquired during his life to solve the widest possible range of life tasks in various spheres of human activity, communication and social relations.». The universal components of functional literacy are reading, mathematical, and natural science.

Let’s take a closer look at reading literacy. Reading literacy is the basic direction of functional literacy. Whatever assignment the student receives, you must first READ this assignment. The development of reading literacy is a very relevant and in-demand area. All schools in the country are working in this direction, preparing students for advanced study and graduates for the state exams. Reading literacy is the ability to understand and use texts, reflect on them, and read in order to achieve one’s goals, expand knowledge and opportunities, and participate in society. An important component of the English lesson is the student’s independent work with the text. The formation of reading literacy in foreign language lessons involves working on the development of the following competencies among students:

– the ability to find and extract the necessary information from the text, i.e. orientation in the content of the text (the ability to determine the main topic, general purpose or purpose of the text; choose from the text or come up with a title; formulate a thesis expressing the general meaning of the text; explain the order of the parts contained in the text; find the required information in the text, etc.);

– the ability to integrateandinterpretinformation,i.e. the ability to transform the textusingnewforms of informationrepresentation:formulas,graphs,diagrams,tables;compareandcontrastinformation of a differentnaturecontainedin the text;discoverargumentsin the textinsupport of the theses put forward, etc.;

– the ability aimed at understanding and evaluating what is read in the text, that is, to respond to the content of the text; to evaluate the statements made in the text based on their ideas about the world; to find arguments in defense of their point of view, etc.;

–the ability to useinformationfrom the text(tosolvepracticalproblems).

In their practice, school teachers face numerous difficulties for students when working with texts. Students often cannot identify keywords and the main idea of a text, and as a result, they cannot choose a title for this text, they cannot read diagrams and interpret information given in tables, that is, they are unable to transfer knowledge and skills from one area to another. As a result, when performing tasks in the «Reading» section the object of which is the ability to understand the main content of the read text, establish structural and semantic connections in the read text, and fully and accurately understand the content of the read text, students make numerous mistakes. Consequently, the results of the OGE and the Unified State Exam show that school graduates have an insufficient level of reading literacy, which in the future may have a negative impact on further education, work and social relations.

The main stages of working with the text in the formation of students’ reading competence are: •Pre-text (Pre-reading). •Text (While-reading). •Post-text (Post-reading).

1. Pre-text (Pre-reading) The objectives of thisstageare:

• Creating a readingmotive; •development of forecastingskills; •activation of backgroundknowledgeandremoval of languagedifficulties.

At this stage of reading, the following groups of exercises can be distinguished:  exercises for correlating words with a topic; exercises for understanding the lexical and thematic basis of the text; exercises in working with the title of the text; exercises in identifying internationalisms.

2. Text(While-reading)strategies. They are aimedatunderstanding the textandformingitsinterpretationby the reader,reflectingduringreadingonwhat the student is readingandhowwell he understands what he is reading.

Atthisstage, the teachercanofferthe following tasks: findinganswerstosuggestedquestions;  confirming the correctnessorfalsity of the statements,oridentifyingwhat is notmentionedin the text;  makingsuggestionsinorder; findingmatches;  completingamultiplechoicetask;  choosing the appropriateheadingforeachof the paragraphs; guessingthemeaning of a wordorwords from thecontext,whichof the proposedtranslations of the wordmostaccuratelyreflectsitsmeaninginthiscontext; filling in the missinginformation

3. Post-text (Post-reading)strategies. They are necessaryforcheckingreadingcomprehensionandserve as a means of controlling the formation of semanticreadingskillsand the possibleuse of the informationreceivedin the future.

Atthisstage, the following tasks may be suggested:  identifynew things from the text they have read; expressyouropinionabout what you have read; refuteoragreewiththe statements; proveorcharacterizesomething; make a plan of the text,highlightingitsmainthoughts; retell/summarize the content of the text; tell the text on behalfof the maincharacter; insertmissingwordsorexpressionsinto the text; make a sinquain.

The use of such tasks in English lessons contributes to the development of students’ functional literacy, reading literacy and comprehensive mastery of the main types of speech activity by students, as well as develops creative thinking, teaches students to be attentive and thoughtful towards the text. The formation of functional literacy by means of a foreign language is the key to the successful application of a foreign language in various fields of activity, the development of a student as a successful personality and his further self–development.