reading a text in class

[Tdol]

I agree with Jeremy that reading aloud is not a very natural activity and doesn't, IMO, give much practice for pronunciation. Also, when you read a text aloud, how much of it do you absorb?

[silversea]

yes, reading aloud prevents readers from gaining the gist of the reading text thoroughly since the reading process is so complicated such as strategic process, metacognitive awareness etc.
I am interested in how to teach students to become strategic readers so that they can enhance their reading capacity by themselves. Any suggestions?

[marchwind]

I think the articles presented in class can serve two purposes. They can be short, thus you can get the students to speculate about them, do pre-reading exercises etc., scan it, ask each other questions about it, and possibly read aloud if you have time and if there are doubts. Reading aloud DOES help to fix words in your long-term memory. If they are long, they need to be read at home to be discussed in class or they will take up too much time. I agree that there are classes that won't read articles if you assign them for homework. It really depends on the class you are working with. However, I think that reading SHORT articles aloud can be useful , especially if you choose the students in a random order.

[KTatar]

I just wanted to say that this thread I stumbled across when searching for "Summarize" activities was very interesting, esp. the opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of reading aloud. Thank you.

[ICAL_Pete]

I'd agree, reading out loud is pretty pointless in my opinion. Reading really needs to be functional and that should be passed on to the class, giving the students specific activities which will reflect the real world reading they will need to do.

Skimming - get them reading for gist as we do when we scan a newspaper or magazine.

Scanning - reading for detail so we can say when a performance starts or which bus goes to the town center.

Extensive reading - for pleasure and to get the main summary or overview of what is happening.

(I wouldn't include intensive reading unless specifically required.)

And of course all the meta skills. This link Reading - the ICAL TEFL wiki might be useful if you are thinking about reading strategies in the classroom.