Masaryk University Faculty of Education Bachelor Thesis Brno 2011 Jana Janečková Masaryk University Faculty of Education English Language and Literature Department Reading Activities for Basic Schools Bachelor Thesis Brno 2011 Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Author: Jana Janečková Annotation JANEČKOVÁ, Jana. Reading Activities for Basic Schools: Bachelor Thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, English Language and Literature Department, 2011. 81 pp. Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková. This bachelor thesis studies the impact of various reading activities on students of English at the basic school. The work shows that these activities makes the students' vocabulary larger, and their ability to understand a text is better, together with the fluency of reading. In the theoretical part, the term of reading is explained in detail. It deals with particular parts of reading and the stages which the pupils have to go through in order to become succesful readers. In the practical part of this thesis, I prepared various reading activities, which I did in my lessons with my students from year eight and nine. The aim was to develop the ability to read and understand the text, the ability to guess or derive the meaning of unknown words. Then I wanted my students to become more self confident in their independent reading and find out what can help them to create the need to read in their life. Keywords: authentic text, extensive reading, intensive reading, language skills, motivation, reading activities, reading material, reading process, reading strategies. Anotace JANEČKOVÁ, Jana. Čtenářské aktivity pro základní škole: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2011. 81 stran. Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková. Tato bakalářská práce studuje účinek různých čtenářských aktivit na studenty základní školy. Bakalářská práce chce ukázat, jak tyto aktivity rozšiřují slovní zásobu, zvyšují schopnost porozumění textu a zlepšují plynulost čtení. V teoretické části jsem se zabývala vysvětlením pojmu čtení. Zabývá se jednotlivými fázemi čtení a stadii, která musí žáci zvládnout, aby se stali úspěšnými čtenáři. V praktické části jsem vytvořila řadu aktivit, které jsem zkoušela s žáky osmé a deváté třídy ve škole, kde pracuji. Cílem bylo rozvíjet jejich schopnost čtení s porozuměním textu, schopnost odhadovat význam neznámých slov, zvýšit jejich jistotu při samostatném čtení a zjistit, co může pomoci vytvořit celoživotní potřebu čtení. Klíčová slova: autentický text, rozšířené čtení, intenzívní čtení, jazykové schopnosti, motivace, čtenářské aktivity, čtenářský materiál, čtenářský proces, čtenářské strategie. Declaration / declare that I wrote this bachelor thesis on my own and that I used only the sources listed in bibliography. I agree with the placing of this thesis in the library of the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University and with the access for academic purposes. Brno, 16 April 2011 Jana Janečková Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková for her valuable advice both on recommended literature and the practical part as well as her useful comments on the text. I would also like to thank my children for their support and patience. Jana Janečková Contents Introduction 8 I. THE THEORETICAL PART 9 1. Why do we read? 9 2. What is reading? 9 2.1 Reading in language learning 10 2.1.1 Reading for survival 12 2.1.2 Reading for learning 12 2.1.3 Reading for pleasure 12 2.2 How do we read? 13 2.3 Beginning reading 14 3. The three phases of teaching reading 15 3.1 Pre-reading 15 3.2 While-reading 15 3.3 Post-reading 16 4. Using a dictionary 16 4.1 The problem of vocabulary 17 4.2 Active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary 17 5. Choosing the appropriate text 17 5.1 Course books and text collection books 17 5.2 Authentic and simulated authentic texts 18 5.3 What makes a text difficult? 18 6. Motivation 19 7. How to improve reading skills? 19 7.1 Rapid reading 20 7.2 Timed reading 21 7.3 Skimming 21 7.5 Scanning 22 7.6 Reading for information or a detail 22 7.7 Bad reading habits 22 8. Intensive and extensive reading 23 8.1 Intensive reading 23 8.2 Extensive reading 24 8.3 Basic principles of extensive reading 24 9. The reading survey 25 9.1 Monitoring reading 26 II. THE PRACTICAL PART 27 I. Aims of the Research 27 3. Hypotheses 28 4. Class profiles 28 5. The survey of reading experiences 28 6. The results 32 7. Activities in lessons 33 8. Lesson Plans 34 8.1 Lesson Plan 1 34 8.2 Lesson plan 2 35 8.3 Lesson plan 3 37 8.4 Lesson plan 4 38 8.5 Lesson plan 5 39 8.6 Lesson plan 6 40 8.7 Lesson plan 7 41 8.8 Lesson plan 8 42 8.9 Lesson plan 9 43 8.10 Lesson plan 10 45 8.11 Lesson plan 11 46 8.12 Lesson plan 12 47 8.13 Lesson plan 13 48 8.14 Lesson plan 14 49 9. Extensive reading activities 50 9.1 The results of the survey 50 10. Conclusion 56 II. Resumé 57 12. Bibliography 58 Appendixes 60 Appendix 1 The Tortoise/Turtle 60 Appendix 2 The Big Turtle 60 Appendix 3 The Jaguar 61 Appendix 4 How the Parrot Got its Colours 61 Appendix 5 The Andean Condor 62 Appendix 6 The Condor, the Hummingbird and a Girl 63 Appendix 7 Bad Temper 63 Appendix 8 Mountain Story 64 Appendix 9 Sara's Story 64 Appendix 10 The Blue Whale 65 Appendix 11 The Fox and the Cat 67 Appendix 12 The Fox who Lost his Tail 68 Appendix 13 Bighorn Sheep 68 Appendix 14 The Wolf and the Goat 69 Appendix 15 The Stork and the Fox 69 Appendix 16 Queen Victoria's postbox 70 Appendix 17 The White Horse 70 Appendix 18 The Lion and the Mouse 71 Appendix 19 How the Eagle Got a Bent Beak 71 Appendix 20 Why the Owl Has Big Eyes 72 Appendix 21 How the Grizzly Bear Got his Hump 73 Appendix 22 Why the Rabbit Has a Short Tail 73 Appendix 23 Three Wishes 74 Appendix 24 The Postbox of King Edward VIII 75 Appendix 25 A Guide Dog 76 Appendix 26 Living Together 77 Appendix 27 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre (the beginning) 78 Appendix 28 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre 79 Appendix 29 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre 80 Introduction I have chosen developing reading abilities for my thesis because I work with children aged from 10 to 15 and I have to admit that they do not read much, some of them do not read at all. The question is why? Of course there are lots of other ways to spend their free time, for example computers, facebook, internet. But all these activities involve reading as well. Maybe reading of books seems to them as a little old-fashioned. They do not have necessity to read. Their parents probably did not use to read them when they were younger, so they did not learn anything about the magic world of words. I find very important not only to read to our children but to talk to them about it as well. Reading can help to understand the world, people's behaviour and the development of society. It can help to create imagination because when we read a story we have to picture it ourselves. We have to create our own portraits of people, their homes, the places they live in. I believe we should teach our children not only to understand the text but to think about it and let them ask other questions. I tried to pick up some ideas and find some activities in order to encourage them to read.I wanted to know if they would become more independent readers after this experience. I believe that sometimes the problem is only in a student's head, they just do not trust themselves enough. My personal aim was to persude them that they could read quite successfully. I decided to do these activities in year 8 and in year 9 because they have already learned the most important grammar and their level of English is suitable for my survey. I asked my student about the topics they are interested in and I chose various articles. Most of the articles were chosen according to the students' interests, but I chose some of them in order to develop their sence of tolerance, their understanding differences among people. Then I divided the reading materials into two parts. The first part was read at school and we did various activities coming up from the stories. The second part was read at home, I asked my students to write down the main characters, the idea of the story, whether they liked it or not and what exactly they enjoyed. I wanted my students to write how many words they had to look up in order to understand the story. My aim was to persuade them that they can read in a foreign language independently. I also wanted to know whether the number of the words they had to look up would be lower. We tried these activities in our English lessons, usually once a week. Some of them did not take the whole lesson but none of them was longer than 45 minutes. 8 I. THE THEORETICAL PART 1. Why do we read? If I wanted to be cynical, I would say that when we cannot read bold numbers in our bank account, we take a book in order to escape from the reality. Of course, I do not want to be cynical. Instead of it, I believe we read for pleasure, it is a way we can relax. Such a way is very easy for everybody, the only we need is a comfortable armchair, some spare time and a book of our interest. We all probably started with reading fairy-tales, because a child needs to believe that good will win and the bad people will be punished. While a child is developing, his/her interest is changing. Later he/she starts to be interested in adventure stories, fantasy books, then they read historical books and even later, books about society as they can learn a lot about the development of society from these books. It is the other reason for reading, on a certain time of our personal development we have our heads full of questions. We are lucky that there are lots of wise people , lots of wise authors, philosophers, who can answer our questions and they can stimulate us to think about following questions. Most of us start as listeners, we are introduced the magic world of fairy-tales by our parents, grandparents or teachers and when we can read by ourselves, we can read independently. The main responsibility depends on parents, so we should inspire our children to put questions and look for the answers. Teaching a foreign language, we should place special lessons devoted to reading in order to help the pupils with their independent reading and persuade them it is possible to read and enjoy a story although it is not in their mother tongue. Generally we can say that there are two main reasons: we read either for pleasure or information. 2. What is reading? Reading is one of the four language skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. Reading and listening are also called receptive skills because we receive a message. The word "read" is explained in dictionaries mainly as ability to look and understand written words. It involves making sense of the text, it is also a process of taking information from written text and following the writer's ideas. Although reading is sometimes called a passive skill because the reader does not produce messages, it requires beeing active in the process of reading. According to Williams (1991), the effective reader brings to the text: 9 - knowledge of the writing system : it means the ability to recognize the printed forms and the handwritten forms, he can put these letters into meaningful words - knowledge of the language: it is necessary to know the meaning of the words and a little about the grammar - ability to interpret: it is not enough just to understand the sentences but the main point is to understand the connection between them, we should be able to follow the writer's ideas - appropriate knowledge of the world as assumed by the writer: it means not only to know something about a particular topic but for the foreigners is also helpful to know something about the culture - a reason for reading that determines its style: there is a difference when we look for some information (a timetable), when we read for our pleasure (a novel), or when we read subconsciously (a warning sign), the student also reads just in order to learn a language or any other subject In short, reading means understanding the connection between sentences. The sentences are connected by grammar, vocabulary, and the knowledge of the world. A good reader can adopt his/her style of reading according to their reason for reading, it means that there are things that must be read very carefully, for example laws, various instruction for using a machine, things we have to learn by heart, etc., and on the other hand, while we read newspapers or magazines, we usually read most articles very quickly. 2.1 Reading in language learning Nuttall asked us a question why to read in a foreign language? (1982) The reason for reading influences the way we read. When we look for a connection in a timetable we just read the whole very quickly, when we learn something for our exam, we usually have to read it carefully word by word. As I could notice not only in English lessons, some children read but they did not realise what the sentence (or the article) was about. Some sentences are meaningless for them, especially when their knowledge of the world is very poor. They read but the words do not speak to them, in fact, they are functionally illiterate. So we should teach reading in connection with understanding, because such skill is for real life. Considering this lack of understanding the text they have problems even in Maths, although they can count they do not know what to count. Some ot them cannot read maps, graphs and 10 timetables either. These abilities are elementary for our guidance in the world so we should be aware of them. At the beginning of learning we should establish the relationship between sounds and letters, so it is valuable to use recorded texts and listen to it while reading at the same time. It helps to realize the pronunciation of the written word. Through reading we can practise what we have already met, vocabulary, grammar. We can concentrate either on the way the language is organized, using useful vocabulary or we can make stress on repetition and drill. But mostly we are not interested in grammar and various grammar structures. The main reading goal is reading for meaning, to find the author's meaning, so reading involves comprehension. When the readers do not get the message, they do not read. We can read to find specific information in different texts, so we prefer reading for a purpose to reading for pleasure. We want to get something from the texts: facts or ideas. We can find enjoyment and pleasure through reading stories and novels or feeling of friendship or family community from letters and messages. Sometimes we can avoid danger, there are various warning sights, useful advice on toys. As Williams (1991) points there are some different roles of reading: „So that the learners can have further practice of language that they have already met through listening and speaking. So that learners can practise language in order to re-use it in writing. So that learners can learn how to make sense of texts, in order to extract the information they need from them. So that learners can find enjoyment through reading. So that teachers can relax from time to time in the classroom."(Williams 13) Reading is important because pupils can control the speed of their reading themselves, that is good from psychological point of view. They can read in privacy so that they feel more comfortable, they can make breaks, they can plan their reading so that they feel responsible. Byrne (1988) comes with other reasons why reading is important. It is because it offers another area for success. We have to concede that all the pupils will not be good speakers but they can be good readers. Reading is a skill which students will use on their own, it is a key to their independent work. It is also the skill which will be used in the long term. Not all the pupils will have many opportunities to speak in future but all of them will be able to read. We have to admit that the students will not be able to produce pieces of writing at the high linguistic level, that they will not be as good speakers as native speakers are, that they will not 11 be able to understand everything they hear because of high speed of talking but they can become successful readers. Wallace devides reading purposes in a little bit different way (1992): 2.1.1 Reading for survival Sometimes it can be almost a question of life, for example a „stop" sign on the roads. Other important examples can be „ladies", „gentleman", „way out". It involves also instructions on baby food or instructions how to take various drugs and possible complications, warning signs on factory machines. We read such instruction usually very carefully. 2.1.2 Reading for learning When a language is taught as a second or a foreign language, readers can read aloud to the whole class. It is one of the ways to practise pronunciation, fluency and check understanding when the students translate the text. As I can see in my lessons, some students cannot translate the article only by themselves. Although nowadays there is a tendency not to translate much, I do not agree with it, because I can see that mistakes in translations lead to mistakes in using grammar and various grammar structures. Translation is also necessary for productive language skills: writing and speaking. The pupils should be able to build a sentence. My own experience is that the older students are, the more they want to translate as they want to make sure that they understand properly. But this kind of learning is not only school related. 2.1.3 Reading for pleasure At first readers should read for pleasure in their mother tongue. The important thing is fluency. To gain fluency we need to build larger vocabulary because frequent using of a dictionary makes us slow and reading boring. It is easier to remember a word with a connection with another word so reading has a positive impact on bulding larger vocabulary. Lots of pictures or photographs explaining new words are very helpful because pupils can easier remember a word with the help of visuals. The other good point is they can read at their own pace, they can make breaks if they feel tired and they do not have to concentrate on every word, the main goal is general comprehension. 12 2.2 How do we read? Ur (1991) comes with some interesting assumptions about the nature of reading: „ We need to perceive and decode letters in order to read words. We need to understand all the words in order to understand the meaning of a text. The more symbols (letters or words) there are in a text, the longer it will take you to read it. We gather meaning from what we read. Our understanding of a text comes from understanding the words from which it is composed."(TJr 138) De we agree or not? What comments can we have? It is not easy to recognize especially handwritten forms of some letters or letters which are not written in Latin alphabet. Sometimes we cannot deal without a context in order to be able to identify the sence of the word. Some people's handwriting is too special so that it becomes illegible. Ur (1991) shows that without a helpful context we depend od decoding letters in order to understand words but with a meaningful context we can bring our own interpretation to the word according to the sense of the text. That is why reading activities should prefer reading for understanding to exact decoding letters. I think we need to understand most of the words and we should understand the key words. But we do not have to read all the words in order to make sense of the whole more quickly so we should go for the overall meaning. For the next point we can do this experiment: Which text do you read longer time? A. agree alone beer best chicken chocolate clean companion cook B. How fast did you manage to read and understand these words? We can add this question: Which text is easier to keep in our memory? We can see that when the smaller units are joined into meaningful sentences or paragraphs, reading is much faster and we can remember it more easily. Another very interesting point of our reading abilities is that the order of the letters in words is not important, the only important thing is that the first and last letters should be in the right places. It is because we do not read one letter after another, but the whole word. Let us try to read the following sentence: "Diptese atetpmts to snrtetghen radenig and cmepornosihen in the cossorlam, mnay sudtntes cnitoune to flal binehd". Isn't it a great progress in our reading ability? Because when we started learnig reading we did not read "squirrel" but "s-q-u-i-r-r-e-1". 13 The meaning of the text is not only in the words but our understanding depends on our previous knowledge of the world generally. When the students do not know a word we should stimulate them to think of the logical sense based on what they have already known. Such background knowledge is important especially while reading a special text, fox example to be able to understand an article about chemistry, we need to know more or less about this topic. It is typical that we read silently. The occasions when we read aloud are rare. Pupils are expected to read aloud only in foreign languages lessons. Although it is said that it does not help them to be better readers, I think that it can help them both with listening and understanding the text. According to my experience, a lot of pupils have troubles with listening. When they read and listen to the story at the same time, they learn to listen the words better. We read flexibly, it means slowly and carefully when we want to decode a difficult text but on the other hand we read quicky when we look for information. Foreign language learners tend to read all kinds of texts carefully as they believe that they must understand everything. Some of them are interested in every single detail. But we usually do not notice such details in our mother tongue, in our daily lives. We just skip them. 2.3 Beginning reading Ur (1991) recommends to start reading after the pupils have some knowledge of spoken language because reading is quicker that time. Thanks to the knowledge we can choose more interesting tasks. The most practical is to start with single letters. Such a collection of common and useful letters enable pupils to form a lot of words. We should teach the most common sound of the letter as well. We do not have to teach the alphabetical order until the learner does not need to know it for dictionary use. So a child has to learn to recognize letters at first. Then it learns to connect them to various words and sentences. If these sentences are connected with the same idea, reading becomes easier. We do not have to understand to every single word but it is possible to guess the meaning of the unknown word from the context. We can also guess unknown words according to their position in the sentence, visual support, and similar words in the mother tongue. We can ignore some words if we understand the sense of the article. If a word is really important we can be sure that we meet it again and we will be exposed it until we keep it in our mind. 14 3. The three phases of teaching reading Williams (1991) distinguishes these three phases of teaching reading: 3.1 Pre-reading The aim is to arouse interest in the topic, to bring learners a reason for reading, to provide some language support. It does not mean that the teacher has to explain every new word but he has to make sure that the pupils will not be disappointed by difficulties. That is why the teacher should ask himself about students' previous knowledge and experiences and how they can be used. He should think about the reason why his students should want to read the text. Various visuals (photographs, maps, pictures) and auditory resources are also useful. The students are expected to come with some ideas about following and they can compare and predict what can happen. Pre-reading stage can take the form of presentation or discussion. It can establish what the pupils already know and what their opinions about the topic are. All background knowledge is helpful. We should be aware of possible culture distinctions which could lead to misunderstanding and explain them before reading. Prepared students can complete the task better and with less efford, they can participate more and they gain confidence in their ability to learn a foreign language. 3.2 While-reading As Williams points:"The aim is to help understanding of the writer's purpose, the text structure, and to clarify text content."(W"illiams 38) There are a lot of exercises (various questions, filling charts, making lists, taking notes, multiple-choice questions, reading for details, practise skimming or scanning, filling missing words, either given or not, continue the story, etc.) The teacher should ask himself/herself about the function of the text, how the text is organized and developed, what language should be learnt and what reading styles should be practised. He/she should encourage pupils to use various reading strategies in order to read more effectively and keep their enthusiasm. We can start with general understanding of the text and continue to smaller parts (paragraphs, sentences, words, interesting and useful structures). According to Williams: „the larger units provide a context for understanding the smaller units - a paragraph or sentence, for example, may help the reader to understand a word."(Williams 39) 15 3.3 Post-reading The first step is to clarify the meaning of any unclear sentences and help pupils to realize their relationship to the writer's general message. The pupils who are more effective readers can help the confused pupils to reveal some unclear points, and pupils can examine various contextual and word clues together. It is good not only for cooperation in the class but students learn better when they explain some troublesome things to each other than when they just listen to the teacher's explanation. They feel more involved and more responsible. The aim is to talk about what we have read and to connect the text to the children's previous experiences. We can ask if they liked it and why, what they suppose to happen next, if there is something challenging or threatening etc. We can compare the differences between our predictions and the story. The pupils should be ecouraged to ask any questions and explore the topic from several perspectives, they should feel free to express their personal reaction. 4. Using a dictionary Students are recommended to check the meaning of the word after they have tried to find it themselves. When a student meets a word which he cannot interpret himself, naturally he looks for its meaning in dictionaries. However, frequent using of a dictionary interrupts not only reading but our process of thinking as well. Reading aloud in class, which is followed by translation, seems to be old-fashioned and useless, as we only hardly ever read aloud in our mother tongue. Despite it, I do not think it is useless, especially connected with translation. Some children are not sure about the meaning of the story, and it is better to slow down and read it together with them. When they understand, they are more motivated. If they do not understand, they lose their interest and enthusiasm and they often start to disturb. To help pupils to overcome the troubles with new words we can ask them to underline them and look at the previous and following words, to use contextual clues to guess the general meaning. We should persuade them not to look up every single word. The question is how to use a dictionary effectively. Dictionaries do not offer the same amount and the same kind of information. I think, they should be chosen according to the age, the student's needs and the level of language. The useful one provides various examples of using a word in different meanigs and pupils should be trained to select such information. According to my experience, my pupils use online dictionaries the most. It is natural, all of them have computers at home. 16 4.1 The problem of vocabulary One of the biggest problem for foreign language students is that their vocabulary is not large enough. An average person is said to be able to recognize about 50 thousand words in their mother tongue. But a student is seldom expected to know over 3,500 word in a foreign language. The solution is to read more and learn the words by meeting in context. Another thing which is helpful is understanding the meaning of affixes and the way they are used. Such knowledge makes your vocabulary much larger and richer so we should make the students aware of affixes as soon as they can realize them. Another useful thing is understanding compounds, it is worth drawing attention to the ways they are formed. One of the way to support understanding can be using pictures or real things, the other is choosing suitable texts, according to the level of language. 4.2 Active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary As Nuttalls points (1982) when we think of our own vocabulary, we will see that there are two main groups: the first we know well and use it, the other we recognize and more or less can understand although we are not sure enough to use it. This is quite natural and students should not worry about a word, which they do not know. If it is important, they will meet it again. However, there is a group which can be called throw-away vocabulary, words which are not worth learning for us. It is an individual question and it will depend on our ground for learning. A skilled reader can divide the words into those groups. At first he should be given some advice. He needs to recognize that he does not understand and why, then he should identify the source of difficulty. It can be using of idioms, transfer of meaning (metaphors) or words with several meanings. Sometimes it is not a word itself what is difficult but the use the writer makes of it, for example irony can be often misinterpreted. 5. Choosing the appropriate text 5.1 Course books and text collection books Typical texts in a course book usually present specific linguistic items, that is why they are artificial. The advantage is that those articles are written according to the level of most students and their topics are connected with the course books units. The vocabulary is usually 17 connected with the previous students' knowledge, grammar structures follow what students have already learned. Everything is in fluent stages. The syntax is appropriate to the level of pupils' language. When they have to struggle with decoding sentences, they become tired and lose their interest. But the students are able to read a little more difficult language although they do not use it actively. We do not have to worry about a bit higher level of proficiency. 5.2 Authentic and simulated authentic texts On the contrary, an authentic text was not written for language learning purpuse, so it is more natural. In future, a student is expected to deal with real language outside the classroom. He may be prepared better for it by working with real language inside the classroom. But we cannot expect that such a text will lead to better results in learning just by itself. As Williams says:"They will not magically lead to greater learning of language or language use. Nor will they necessarily lead to greater interest or greater attention on the part of the learners."(Williams 26) It does not guarantee success automatically. Simulated authentic texts imitate authentic texts but they are usually easier. Sometimes an authentic text is simplified either by replacing difficult words (structures) and omitting unimportant details or re-organizing an article in order to make it clearer. The sentences are usually shorter as well, without complicated connections of compound and complex sentences. The reading material should not be too difficult for most of the class, we should be carefull of the level of the language. If the text is too difficult, the students will not understand enough and they will be either frustrated or bored. It can lead to discouragement. The topic of the text should be adequate to children's knowledge of the world, the child uses its background information to help understand the meaning. We should stimulate children to think ahead, to predict and to keep their interest. 5.3 What makes a text difficult? Nuttall (1982) points some things which can make a text difficult. It can be the code, the language in which it is written, the writer and the reader should share the same code. Then it can depend on amount of previous knowledge of the subject especially when the text is written in too technical language. Such poor background knowledge causes the most of troubles. Sometimes the information is not completed, we can understand but it is not easy to explain it. 18 The vocabulary can be a source of difficulty for readers whose vocabulary is limited. To make sure that the lesson will be effective, students should be pre-taught at least the key words. If not, some of them could be lost at the very beginning. That is why it is important to have certain things in common, the minimum is they have to write and understand the same language. 6. Motivation The teachers's task is to discover the children's needs and interests and choose the texts according to it. Another way is to be interested in young people's life in general.We can ask to make simple projects about their interests and the books they have read, the films they have seen or they can introduce their favourite stories in lessons. It is very useful when the parents are involved as well, students can write about their parents' favourite stories and charecters as their homework. Each child should have its work displayed on the board, children like watching them. Movies, based on books, can ecourage children's interest as well. When students love some films, they are willing to read a book or a few chapters. According to my experience, they seldom read a story at first. They usually watch the film and when they enjoy it, they are likely to read either a whole book or a part of it. We should give the pupils a variety of texts: stories, letters, newspaper articles, or some popular lyrics of music they like. They are happy when they understand their favourite songs. It is important to make them ask questions: what they learned, whether they agree or disagree with it, and if there is something what the writer did not say. 7. How to improve reading skills? We can ask the children to read the text silently and at the same time to read the text aloud. At first we can help them to keep the speed and secondly it is good for the children to hear the new words. Some pieces of reading were released as records as well, so students can listen to these recordings while reading. Before reading they should be given the most important key words. After that we can ask them to guess the unknown words. It is also useful to draw pupils' attention to the way sentences are linked together, texts can be more varied in length and pupils should change their reading speed. Ur (1991) points on some characteristics of efficient reading. The text should be accessible, learners should understand basic information without looking up words. Reading 19 speed depends on different reading purposes, so we should provide as many opportunities to read as possible including various types of reading, slow, fast etc. The aim is to recognize common words or word combinations automatically. As Williams (1991) says:"The learner should be able to skim, scan, read intensively and read extensively according to his reasons for reading."(Williams 20) When we want to help our pupils to improve their reading skill we should identify their weaknesses either through diagnostic tests or observation. As I could see the main troubles are: pupils read word by word, which slows them down. They focus too much attention on form and to details. They do not have large vocabulary, they keep overusing dictionaries, they do not think much about their background knowledge, and they do not think logically. 7.1 Rapid reading Some foreign language learners read too slowly in the foreign language. But as Williams (1991) reminds we cannot say that there is a good reading speed depending on the number of words we can read in limited time. The speed of reading is changeble according to their purpose in reading and the difficulty of the text. It was found that rapid readers read in groups of words, they can chunk a text into small sense units. The trouble is that some learners do not know language well enough to be able to chunk effectively. They sometimes read a text, especially a difficult one, word by word. So it is useful to teach vobabulary in useful connections of common words. Rapid reading is just a series of skills, so it means they can be trained and developed. It can be learned in any age, of course that pupils should master how to decode language at first, it is at the age of 7-8, adults need some time to unlearn possible bad reading habits. We have to practise to increase our "eye span", which means our visual field, the horizontal and vertical range we can see. It is good to focus our eyes on the middle of group of words and try to see the words on both sides. At first the line of words will be short. Speed readers do not skip the words and speed reading does not mean just skimming, scanning, and key-wording. These techniques are tools which allows them to select materials, to help them to decide whether they should read the rest, in short they help to read more effectively. They acquire the ability to vary their speed in reading different materials for different purposes. Of course, not exactly as Woody Allen said: "I took a software in speeding reading once. I was able to read War and Peace in 10 minutes! It is about Russia." 20 7.2 Timed reading We can encourage reading speed when we read a text aloud and the children follow it and read it silently. The students should not read word by word but in groups of words as it is more effective and faster. They can measure the time and count the words to each other. Extensive reading at home is a good support as well. According to my experience, some students can feel stressed being measured, so we should not force those pupils. It can be useful only for self confident and ambitious students, but we should be aware that they do not have to be the best readers at the same time. 7.3 Skimming It is reading for gist, we use it when we need identify the main idea. The reader goes through the article very quickly in order to get a general idea, what the text is about, how it is organized, or if it is suitable for us. We do not look for an answer, we are not interested in a particular question. It is a helpful study technice, we use it when we have plenty of texts to read and only limited time, so we have to decide what is worth reading and what can be put off. A good guidance is noticing words in bold, in italics, underlined ones, titles, etc. As a practise of the ability the children can be shown various texts and asked to say quickly the main idea, or who is supposed to read it. 7.4 Previewing It is similar to skimming, it gives us a sense of the text, which means level of difficulty, topic, lenght, author's style, etc., so it allows us to decide whether to read it or not. Before that, it is good to realise a purpose for reading, we should have a specific reason for reading the article. Then we have to notice the title, headings or subheadings as they support us with the main summary. It is also useful to look at the first and last paragraphs in order to know an introduction and conclusion of the ideas. Various visual aids (maps, illustrations, charts, graphs) can help us to create a picture of the topic too. Reading non-fiction we should be aware that usually the most important information is at the beginning and end of each section. The details are mostly in the middle. Reading news we can find the most important information at the beginning, the details follow according to their importance. Reading letters we should know that the most important parts are mostly in the middle. All these techniques can help us to save our time. 21 7.5 Scanning This is reading for specific information. The aim is to go through the article quickly in order to find a particular word or symbol, specific information, e.g. a name, a date etc. We do not read the text, we just move our eyes over it very quickly, looking for the information we want. As soon as we find it, we stop. Suitable texts are dictionaries, guides, timetables, advertisements, or any articles. The children can be intruduced the topic, then encouraged to think of possible questions and after that asked to find the answers in the text. 7.6 Reading for information or a detail As the information can be presented in various ways, we do not have to check understanding only by questions. Other ways are using visuals, graphs, pictures, maps, and photos. The advantage of these transfer activities is that the reader is not forced to go through a number of questions and he/she does not to write the same number of answers as evidence of understanding. This is the reason why information transfer activities can be more interesting and less tiring. There is a positive effect on pupils'motivation and involvement as well. The children can be asked to read something and to match the information to the right picture, or complete the information into the map, label a diagram, draw something according to the description, finish the picture following some notes, fill the chart, etc. Then we can follow with listening and speaking activities based on similarities and distinctions resulting from presentations. 7.7 Bad reading habits Some reading habits can slow down the proces of reading. One of them is subvocalising, which is forming the sound of words, even reading them very silently. If a reader subvocalises, he usually reads word by word instead of smaller sence units. Another bad habit is finger-pointing. Children use it in order to put their concentration on the word they are reading and they mostly point word by word as well. We can see finger-pointing in foreign language students more often especially when their writing system is different. It can be possible to help such students whem we use bigger size of letters preparing various texts. Regressions is another reading habit which can slow down the process of reading. It occurs when our eyes move back in order to check previous words. It can be either a sign of responsive reading or uncertainty. 22 Generally we can say that a bad reader reads words, he/she reads everything slowly and carefully, and reads one word at a time. He/she has a limited vocabulary and vocalizes words. He/she often re-reads sentences in order to be sure of their sense. They have lower level of comprehension because they cannot derive the meaning of unknown words from the context. On the contrary an efficient reader reads ideas, he/she changes reading speed to need, can see and read groups of words. He/she has a large vocabulary and visualizes ideas. They keep reading but they can sort texts according to their purpose. It is not true that they have to read slowly to have a good comprehension. 8. Intensive and extensive reading 8.1 Intensive reading It is reading for accuracy, a language learning activity, where the language is examined. It is used in order to develop specific reading skills and it is appropriate for difficult texts. Students are asked to read a piece of a text with a specific task which forces them to pay attention to such a text. They are led by their teacher and the aim is to reach detailed understanding of the text and to notice how the meaning is carried. Pupils are recommanded to notice and learn not only grammar structures but useful collocations, idioms and the grammar in general. It is more a language study method than a way of reading. Then the students are expected to analyse the text in order to find the information, it means what, when, why and where happened. They should recognize these facts and the seqence of them. They should even recognize the purpose of writing. This kind of reading requires something as reading between the lines. It can help readers to generalise from the text and transmit the ideas into situations in their lives. Intensive reading is a method of studying a language, it is good because it is slow and readers have time not only to look up unknown words but to study difficult sentences in order to understand their grammar. However, we should never forget that it is only a part of learning and the most important task is not to analyse the every single detail but to get the general meaning, the quicker the better. Too much intensive reading can be boring, pupils who are forced to read everything intensively, can stop reading English in order to protect themselves from boredom, and it can develop bad reading habits as well, for example the habit of paying more attention to the grammar and vocabulary than to its meaning, or reading English very slowly. 23 8.2 Extensive reading It is reading for fluency and for pleasure when long pieces of text are read with changable attention. The purpose of extensive reading is to train pupils to read fluently in the target language. It means reading in quantity and for enjoyement, without the help of their teacher. Students usually read in their free time, at their own pace, independently and they can choose the texts according to their interests. Such texts should be adequate to their language level and new vocabulary is introduced in a way that the meaning can be derived from the context. The aim is to help them to enjoy reading, to get the overall meaning of what is read, to develop good reading habits, and to build up vocabulary. Day (2004) points that:" Research studies show they become better and more confident readers, they write better, their listening and speaking abilities improve and their vocabulary is richer. They develop positive attitude toward and increased motivation to study new language."(Day 1) 8.3 Basic principles of extensive reading Day (2004) writes about some basic principles of extensive reading: The reading material is easy, which is the most important principle. There is only a few unfamiliar items of vocabulary or grammar. A variety of reading materials on a wide range of topics. Different kinds of reading material is good for flexibile approach to reading and students read for different reasons (entertainment, information, passing the time) and in a different ways (skimming, scanning, more careful reading) Learners choose what they want to read. Self-selection of reading materials is the basic of extensive reading and students are in a different role than traditionally. Learners read as much as possible. Reading speed is usually faster than slower. Learners are encouraged to ignore or guess a few unknown words, dictionary use interrups reading. The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information, and general understanding. Reading is individual and silent, students read at their own pace. Reading is its own reward, but teachers may ask students to complete a follow-up activity after reading. The teacher orients and guides the students, they also keep track of what and how much students read and their reactions. 24 The teacher is a role model of a reader. (Day 2-3) 9. The reading survey I am not going to ask my students to read the whole book as it is not a realistic expectation. Every year I ask my students from year 8 to write a few sentences about their favourite book. When I asked them for the first time I was surprised that half of them told me they had never read any book. These pupils were not weak, their results were quite good, but they just were not used to read. That was the reason why I did not want them to read the whole book. The other reason was that I could hardy find a book which would be interesting for all the students. Instead of it, I chose various articles and only some parts of a particular book and I hoped that everyone would enjoy at least some of them. I preferred shorter text as I did not want to discourage them. But in future classes I will not be afraid of longer pieces of reading. First, we can do some previewing in order to establish students' interest by asking questions such as (Gail, E., Mckae, J., 1991): What is the title of the book? What it can be about? Who is the author? Do you know anything about him? Is it an old or a contemporary story? Then I would like to tell them something about the book and the author or some other background or culture information. At the beginning I would like to start reading with them and ask them to finish it at home. The teacher can read aloud and the children follow him. We can change the speed of reading in order to encourage the children to read silently faster. Later they will be asked to read all text as their homework. They will be supposed to keep Reading diaries. They can write down some vocabulary which they found useful as well. Before reading I wrote on the board a few questions which could help children to bring their previous knowledge about the topic, to realize their personal experience and develop imagination and general understanding. It is a fun to ask the children to write down whatever they read in English outside class, for example advertisement, words connection on T-shirts, graffiti, stickers, movie titles, labels etc. Unfortunately, there are lots of such words around us. People overuse them in order to pretend they are more educated than they really are but the only they show is that they cannot speak Czech. 25 9.1 Monitoring reading Each student is asked to keep their Reading diary. The have to write down the name of the article they read, the name of the author (if they are known), main characters, the main idea, whether they liked it or not and why, the number of the words they have to look up in dictionary in order to understand the text. The pupils were allowed to use Czech if they wanted to express some ideas which they could not formulate in English. The main goal for me was comprehension, I did not want to discourage them by pointing on mistakes in grammar. The children are also asked to recommend their favourite piece of reading. Each child is told before to be prepared for a short interview, the others are asked to make a few questions. The aim is not only to find out whether they really have read it but practise speaking and listening as well. Pupils should be able to retell the story in their own words, just in short. This activity can be done either with the whole class or in pairs. Then a child is asked to prepare this activity for the rest of the class. He/she takes a story, chooses several (not too many) important points, write them on separate stripes of paper and the others have to put them into the correct order. The more difficult version is to leave out one important point and ask the children to guess it and put it into the right place. I also like the idea of choosing a favourite paragraph or a part of the story. It is nice when the children can share their reading experience. Monitoring should never be too strict, the teacher has to keep in mind that extensive reading is for pleasure, pupils should not be under stress if they understood properly and wheather they can be punished. If somebody does not enjoy a story, he/she should be given another story until he/she finds something interesting and enjoyable. The important thing is to be interested in pupils, to talk to them not only about the subject we teach but also about their interests, to know what music they listen to, what films they like, what their hobbies are, what they think about the world and the adults, etc. Sometimes it is very suprrising and very flattering. There is not usually much time to talk to each other these days, parents, especially mothers, are very tired after their busy days but children miss such discussions very much. It is nice to tell them what book we loved at their age, and which characters we admired and why. All of that can help to build our relationship. I would like to continue with reading activities in my future classe and I am going to prepare more pieces of extensive reading, different both in level and in length. 26 II. THE PRACTICAL PART 1. Aims of the Research The aim of my work was to persuade my pupils that they can read quite independently in a foreign language and they can enjoy such reading as if it was in their mother tongue. I wanted to show them that they do not have to worry. 2. School I did the research in the school where I work, it is a basic school in a central village called Dřevohostice. Dřevohosice ia s bigger village (or a small town) with about 1600 inhabitants. Our school is attended not only by children from our town but there are smaller villages around and these children attend our school as well. Nowadays there are only about 190 pupils in our school, I am afraid the number is not going to be higher in future. We have only one class in each year. Our pupil start learning English in year 3, they have 3 lessons a week. In year 7 or 9 they can choose a subject called English coversation but it is not compulsory. After year five the best pupils usually leave our school and they continue in a grammar school in the town of Přerov. Our school is a participant of Comenius programme, the other partner schools are from Hungary, France and Spain. In May 2010, there was a meeting in our school, ten of our students could have Hungarian students at home. In June 2010 we visited the school in Hungary, in the town of Miskolc and these pupils stayed in the families in return. English was the only possibility to talk to them. In November we visited the school in France, in the town of Compiegne. That time our pupils could not live in families, they could only stay with French students during the days. In May we are going to Spain, unfortunately our students will not stay in families either. Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity to practise their ability to "survive" in such conditions. Our project is called "Fairies do exist", first year we concentrated on tales about fairies, which we translated, illustrated and printed as a book. The book was given to each country at the meeting in France. This year we are writing a tale of our county, and finally in Spain we are going to write one common fairy-tale about the king who has got four daughters (the number is because of four participant countries), and the big celebration of his birthday. The main idea is that the best presents usually cannot be bought, the best presents are values like respect, tolerance, love, friendship, generosity, hospitality, and sympathy. 27 3. Hypotheses 1. The students who do various reading activities and practise reading strategies at school become more independent and self confident readers. 2. The students' attitude to reading in English will be better after such reading experiences. 4. Class profiles I tested the reading activities only in year 8 and in year 9, because the level of Engish in year 6 and 7 is not so high, the pupils have not learned the grammar, which is used in the texts. The pupils in year eight have only three lessons of English a week, the pupils in year nine have three lessons a week as well plus one lesson of English conversation. I think it is not enough, because there is plenty of grammar to go through, so I would appreciate one more lesson of English in both years, which could be devoted only to reading. Something like in learning the Czech language, our pupils have three lessons a week and one more lesson just for reading and literature. So I had to practise the reading activities in our ordinary lessons, usually once a week, from September to December. First, the students were asked to answer these questions. In both classes there are 21 students, so I asked 42 students together. They did not have to answer all the questions. In year 8 there are 21 students, 10 boys and 11 girls. The girls' attitude to learning is much better and so is their behaviour. Some of these girls are very good and responsible students. But they are too silent and shy, they never have any questions. In year 9 there are 21 students, 12 boys and 9 girls. Their learning results and their attitude to learning are avarage. Naturally some of them are cleverer students and some of them are weaker. The good point is that they cooperate better and they are not so shy. The first five questions are based on Bramford and Day (2004). I wanted to know something about my students' reading histories and make them aware of the role of reading in their lives. As I hoped my students enjoyed talking about it and listening to the others as well. I asked them in our lessons of English. 5. The survey of reading experiences 1. What are your first memories of reading? 2. Did anyone use to read to you? Who? 3. What did they mostly read? 28 4. When did it take place? 5. What kinds of reading did you enjoy the most? Do you still like it? 6. How much time do you spend reading in a week? 7. What kinds of texts do you usually read?(novels, magazines, newspaper...) 8. Who is your favourite writer? 9. Do you prefer reading in your first language? 10. Do you have any positive or negative feelings connected with reading? 11. What kinds of reading do you enjoy now? What is your favourite topic? Their answers: 1. What are your first memories of reading? Most children remember reading at school, especially in year 1, some of them remember reading fairy-tales at kindergartens, after lunch when they were expected to sleep for a while. Then it was at home, they remember their fathers and mothers reading fairy-tales and they always looked forward to it. Only a few of them remember listening to fairy-tales which were read in the radio. 2. Did anyone use to read to you? Who? Twenty-two students replied that it was their mother who read to them, only five that it was their father, three that both their parents, eight that their grandmother. Four pupils answered that their syblings used to read them. Of course all of them remember their teachers. 3. What did they mostly read? They preferred fairy-tales, the most popular were the stories about the Little Mole, then various rhymes and proverbs. Generally they like classic national fairy-tales, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. The fairy - tales which comes from Germany are very popular as well. They do not enjoy modern fairytales because they miss the classic characters, like princess and witches, kings and queens. 4. When and where did it take place? It was mostly in the evenings, at home, especially in bedrooms before going to bed, sometimes in the kitchen. They remember their granny reading them, mostly when they were spending some days off at her house. The pupils remember reading at the kindergarten after 29 lunch when they had to go to bed. Then they remember reading at school, especially in primary classes. I was pleased that all the children have these precious memories. 5. What kinds of reading did you enjoy the most? Do you still like it? If not, why? My students, when they were younger, enjoyed fairy-tales the most. They preferred classical tales written by Božena Němcová, Václav Čtvrtek, Karel Jaromír Erben, Josef Lada and others. They did not like too frightening stories because of bad dreams. Then they liked various rhymes as they could easily learn them by heart. Now they do not like reading fairy-tales very much because they see them childish and they feel to be adults. 6. How much time do you spend reading in a week? These answers differ: two hours a day - two students, twice a week - five students, once a week (at weekends) - six students, just ten minutes a day - seven students, just while they learn - eight students, only subtitles while watching a film - two students, only sms messages - eight students, and four students do not read at all. How much time do you spend reading in a week? • two hours a day • twice a week • once a week (at weekends) • just ten minutes a day • just while they learn • only subtitles while watching a film • only sms messages • do not read at all 7. What kinds of texts do you usually read?(novels, magazines, newspaper...) Ten students answered that they read magazines, four students read novels, four students read books about war, two students read sci-fi stories, eight students wrote that they read only 30 sms and facebook, twelve students read only when they have to learn something, four people replied that they do not read anything. What kinds of texts do you usually read? learn something 8. Who is your favourite writer? Writers who were mentioned are these: Rowling (7x), Tolkien (5x), Miller (5x), Meyer (4x), Nemcova (3x), Lindgren (3x), Twain (2x), Hugo (2x), Verne (2x), Storch (2x), May (lx), Capek (lx), Erben (lx), and 4 students answered that they did have any favorite writer and it was not important who the author was. Favourite writer in 6 •4—' c •o 5 3 0 4 0) o n o E 1 2 £ 1 :1L IIrrJ • Row ling I Tolkien • Miller • Meyer I Němcová • Lindgren I Twain • Hugo I Verne I Štorch • May • Čapek I Erben I no favourite writer 31 9. Do you prefer reading in your mother tongue? All the students naturally prefer reading in their mother tongue because it is easier for them, they have larger vocabulary and they do no have to think much. While they are learning any other foreign language (some of them can choose learning Russian or German in year 7), they find such reading difficult, as their vocabulary is limited and they do not know the grammar much. The worrying point is that when they read in a foreign language they feel as if they were learning and not just entertaining. 10. Do you have any positive or negative feelings connected with reading? Except one students all the others have pleasant feelings connected with reading, because it was the time for rest, they could enjoy their parents' company and they loved listening to somebody. The person who has unpleasant memories was not good at reading at school, so at home he was forced to read and read. In spite of it he still loves listening to somebody else's reading. They liked reading at school as well because it was relaxing and pleasant. But few pupils replied that they did not like listening to a classmate who could not read fluenty and properly. Such broken reading can spoilt even the best story. 11. What kinds of reading do you enjoy now? What is your favourite topic? Most students like reading about animals, what was surprising for me. Teenagers feel to be adults and I did not expect them to read about animals because it can be seen as childish. Maybe they like the topic because we live in a village and nearly everybody has its own pets at home. They usually have dogs and go for walks with them nearly every day, they take care of their pets themselves. I am afraid that these animals sometimes replace their parents' company because our lives are too busy.Some of them like stories about various people, especially about famous ones, some enjoy articles about sport, and about something new in the world of science. 6. The results I tried to pick up most of the articles according to these answers, the pupils' interests and I hoped that everybody could find something interesting there. Then I chose some articles according to The school educational programme. The aim was to talk about tolerance, about various differences among people, to think about special needs of some people, and to encourage understanding those distinctions. I also wanted to add a little bit of history. 32 7. Activities in lessons There are possible reading activities, some of them are based on Ur (1996), some of them come from my teaching experiences. I do not like true/false sentences, so I left them out. I do not like true/false sentences because they are everywhere, in each book, and you do not have to understand much, you can just guess, so the development of thinking is controversial. The pupils have to be trained to deal with other reading task which occur in exams, for example multiple choice questions, choosing the best answer and those answers are given in different words, puting the missing sentences or paragraphs into the text, filling the missing words, either given or not, or finding the meaning of new words in the text. They should not only to answer the given questions but to think up their own ones. It is useful to focus on making questions, pupils often do not know what to ask about either how to ask about a particular point. The activities which I prepared should not take longer than 45 minutes but they can be shorter. We practised some of these activities in our lessons. 33 8. Lesson Plans 8.1 Lesson Plan 1 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to find the answers for the given questions, to practise reading for detail Material: Text (appendix l),copies of the article and some pictures of exotic animals Procedure Stage 1: predicting from pictures Time: 3 min Interaction: the whole class The teacher puts some pictures of exotic animals on the blackboard and asks the students to guess the animal which we are going to read about. Stage 2: exchanging information Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are encouraged to say whatever they know about turtles (even in Czech). It is important to recall the background knowledge because they can guess the meaning of the unknown words easily. Stage 3: looking for five new words Time: 5 min Interaction: individual work The teacher asks the students to look at the text roughly and ask about the meaning of five unknown words. Their meaning is written on the blackboard. The rest should be guessed. Stage 4: reading and translation together Time: 15 min Interaction: the whole class The group reads the article together and finds out the meaning of other words. Stage 5: answering questions Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students are asked to answer the questions first by themselves and then to compare their answers in pairs. They have to discuss the different answers and agree on one correct answer. One of the answers cannot be found in the text. The questions: 1. Where do female turtles lay eggs? 2. Where do the largest of them live? 3. What is the difference between turtles and tortoises? 4. Was there anything surprising for you? 34 Reflection: These are the new words explained on the blackboard: dig, shelter, hatch, survive, and during. The students guessed the meaning of the others thanks to their background knowledge. They could answer the first three questions without troubles, as they check their work in pairs and they have to agree on one possibility. They were surprised mostly by the age of some of the species, and they could not understand how the female turtles can remember the way longer more than 1000 km. At the beginning the pupils paid attention but after 25 min the better pupils were bored because they saw their work stereotypical and they answered without interests. I think, I should have preparred two levels of difficulties, the longer text and more questions for the more independent students. 8.2 Lesson plan 2 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise making questions, the ability to ask what they want to know Material: Text (appendix 2), copies of the article, cards with questions words Procedure Stage 1: yes/no questions Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students revise making yes/no questions and using auxiliaries. Stage 2: wh-questions Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class First the students revise the meaning of question words wit either with English or Czech word and they have to write t Then they focus on making questions. i cards. They are given cards le meaning on the other side. Stage 3: reading the article Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students read and translate the article together and help each other to guess the new words. Stage 4: making own questions Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students are given 10 minutes to make as many questions as they can. Each question should be gramatically correct. Stage 5: checking questions Time: 8 min Interaction: the whole class The pairs of students read their question. They can get 1 point for each correct question. 35 Reflection: The questions made by the students: When did the world have two parts? How many parts did the world have? Who did the birds catch? Where did animals live? Where did people live? Where were fields? What did they have to find? What did they want to build? What did the animals build? The students did not enjoy the story very much and they could create only very simple questions. Although I think that yes/no questions are easier to form, they preferred making wh-questions. Having been asked why, they replied that yes/no questions are boring, because they could not learn anything new. The wh-questions are more interesting as you have got a concrete answer. But they still knew the answer. For the next time it will be better to prepare two versions of one story, some information will be left out, for each group this information will be different. So the pupils from the group A will have to ask the pupils from the group B for the missing information while they do not know the answers. We can make only wh-questions in this activity. I hope that this way will be more interesting and that it will keep their curiosity into the end. In addition, it will be good to prepare two levels of difficulty, the simpler one for slower students and a more demanding for the quicker ones. The winning pair got 6 points for 6 correct questions. 36 8.3 Lesson plan 3 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise the ability of making the sense of the whole sentences and the article by putting the given words into the text. To practise work with dictionaries. Material: Text (appendix 3), copies of the article, dictionaries Procedure Stage 1: comparing cats Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked to say whatever they know about various cats and the way they differ, e.g. some of them are big, small, dangerous, etc. The aim is to arise their interest, recall some vocabulary and that what was learned in Biology. Stage 2: vocabulary Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students are given dictionaries and they have 10 minutes to find the words they need the most. They work in pairs in order to practise cooperation and make the process quicker. Fox example, one of them is looking up the words, the other is writing them to the text. The task: fill these words into the text: runner, rainforests, teeth, mothers, cattle, continent. Stage 3: reading together Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students read all the article in order to check their solutions. Reflection: The students worked in pairs and tried to fill the missing words as quickly as they could. Then they discussed their answers in order to realize their mistakes (if any). I wanted them to say why they had chosen the particular word. Then I wanted them to realize what they had known about jaguars before and what information was new. I think, it is useful for learning to keep thinking of their background knowledge because it helps to guess the meaning of new words. For the second time, I would ask them to work separately from the very beginning because the weaker students just wait what somebody else finds. They can write their points on a piece of paper and after 3 min to change their answers with their neighbour, everybody reads one point, which has not been read so far. I think, the intensity of cooperation will be higher and even weeker pupils will be more involved. 37 8.4 Lesson plan 4 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to get the overall meaning, not to follow word by word, to think about people's feelings, to enjoy drawing Material: Text (appendix 4), copies of the texts, coloured pencils Procedure Stage 1: arising intrest Time: 5 min Interaction: one student As I know that one of my students keeps parrots at home, I asked him to tell us a bit about his hobby, bring some photographs and the others could ask him as well. I think, it is good for the atmosphere in class when they know each other better. Stage 2: reading the article Time: 5 min Interaction: individually The students are asked to read the text by themselves and they are encouraged to concentrate on overall meaning. I wanted them to realize that they do not have to understand every single word but they still understand the sense of the article. Stage 3: checking understanding Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked to retell the sentences in their own words (they can use Czech if it is necessary) in order to check whether they understood well. Stage 4: thinking about people's feeling Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students are encouraged to answer the questions, to think about various reasons and explanations of people's behaviour. The task: Give advice. Do you know anybody who is sad because they have no friends? What can we do in order to help these people? Is there any advice you can give to those people? Have you ever been sad because of not having a friend? Can you draw and colour this animal? Stage 5: drawing pictures Time: 10 min Interaction: individually Finally the students can draw pictures of parrots. They can think up their names, the country of their origin, etc. These pictures will be displayed on the board in the classroom. Each child should have the oportunity to show his/her work and it is good for feeling responsibility because they know that the work will be observed by the pupils from the other classes as well. 38 Reflection: This topic was interesting for my students. Nearly everybody feels lonely from time to time. They suggested to talk to such people more, to invite them somewhere. I wanted to know how they choose their friends, why they sometimes pretend friendship although they do not like the person, why they sometimes follow somebody who they do not like. The reasons are these: they are afraid of being different, of laugh, they do not want to show their real feelings as they do not trust some schoolmates. I always try to encourage them not to be afraid to be different, to trust themselves. They enjoyed drawing because this activity is not typical in our lessons. They love having their work displayed and observing their schoolmates' drawings. On the other side, the boy, talking about his parrots, said a lot of information in very short time so there was anything to ask about. Next time, I would interrupt him in order to give some space to the others to practise their own questions. 8.5 Lesson plan 5 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise reading for detail Material: Text (appendix 5), copies of the article, dictionaries, the video-clip with the song „01d Turkey Buzzard" from the soundtrack of the film Mackenna's gold Procedure Stage 1: listening to the song Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students just listen to the song and enjoy the nature of The Grand canyon. Then the teacher asks whether they have heard the song before and seen the film. If they are interested, it is possible to tell them a few words about the movie and the plot. Stage 2: reading the article Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students read and translate the text silently, they are asked to use dictionaries only if they really cannot undestand the sense ot the sentence. Stage 3: looking up details Time: 8 min Interaction: pairwork The students go through sentences carefully in order to find the extra word which does not belong to the text, (appendix 5) Practise reading for details: There is one more word in each sentence. Cross it out. 39 Reflection: The students could find the words immediately although the text contained a lot of new words. They found the article interesting. They enjoyed the song and the nature as well. As the pupils did their task sooner than I expected, for the next time I would prepare some more sentences containing some mistakes, for example in spelling. It would be good to prepare a higher number of sentences for the quicker readers. 8.6 Lesson plan 6 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to read with comprehension and give an opinion based on reading, to think of people's behaviour Material: Text (appendix 6), copies of the text Procedure Stage 1: brainstorming Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked to name any possible differences among people in order to realize these distinctions. If they hesitate, they are given examples, such as some people are talkative, others are shy, some people love being among others, some tend to be alone, etc. Stage 2: reading Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students read and translate the text, they try to guess the meaning of new words and get the idea of the whole article. Stage 3: giving opinion Time: 10 min Interaction: individually The task: Give your opinion about the text. Then find the connection with following idea: Sometimes, two people fall in love and they do not realize and do not want to see that they are totally different. They can have quite different background, habits, style of life, values, life targets and whatever else. What can they get over if anything? Write your ideas. Reflection: Only a few students came with an idea. They wrote that people want to live in a town or in a village, some of them want to have children, some of them do not, some of them want to build a career, some do not want to work much, nothing more. They did not enjoy the story. I think it was my fault. Maybe they are too young to be aware of the importance of those differences or I should have chosen a more suitable text. Generally I think, the task was not appropriete to their age and life experience. 40 8.7 Lesson plan 7 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to read with comprehension, to compare answering of two types of questions, to think about moods Material: Text (appendix 7), copies of the text Procedure Stage 1: brainstorming Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked what people are like and the teacher writes these features on the blackboard. They recall some useful vocabulary describing human natures. Stage 2: reading Time: 8 min Interaction: individually The students read the text silently. As there are only four new words (hammer, nail, fence, and scar), the teacher can draw pictures of them on the blackboard. Such vizualization can help to keep the meaning in our minds. Stage 3: answering the questions Time: 15 min Interaction: individually I. type What was the boy's problem? What did his father give him? How many nails did the boy hammer the next week? Did he learn to control his temper? II. type When do you have a bad temper? Why? What can help you when you have got a bad temper? How can we help to such a person? Have you ever met a person who helped you? Stage 4: talking together Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked to reply the questions very quickly and then to decide, which questions were easier to answer, which questions were more interesting and why. Reflection: Most students agreed that although the first type of questions was easier to answer, the second type was more challenging, because there was a connection with their personal lives. I wanted to show them that we can answer the first type even if we do not understand the text very much but it can be often boring. We usually do it mechanically. 41 On the other hand, we have to think about the second type of questions. We have to search in our memories, we are given time to stop for a while and think about ourselves. Most students have a bad temper when they have lots of homework or they were given bad marks at school, when they had an argument with their friends, when the weather is bad etc. But I was told one quite different answer. One boy told me that he was always afraid returning home as he did not know what he could expect. (I often talk to him so I know his father is extremely strict.) What helps? Listening to music, talking to friends, going out, playing with their dog or just going to bed. We can help if we are interested, when we talk to people who seem to be lonely and sad. Helpers were mostly good friends, so the teacher could point on importance of having a good friend. Surprisingly some pupils would ask their parents for help. I was pleased because it was said that teenagers do not often trust to their parents in those questions. I was satisfied with the lesson because everybody was involved, the pupils did not lose their interest and all of them discussed the topic. 8.8 Lesson plan 8 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise guessing the missing words according to the context, to think about the moral of the story Material: Text (appendix 8), copies of the text Procedure Stage 1: warm up Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students do not read the story, they just look at the title and try to guess what the story is going to be about. Stage 2: reading Time: 10 min Interaction: individually The students read the text by themselves. They are supposed to guess most of words and understand the sense of the article wihout difficulties. Stage 3: filling the words Time: 5 min Interaction: pairwork The students fill the missing words into the text and check each other in pairs. It is not necessary ro read and translate the story with the whole class. 42 Reflection: The students filled the words without troubles, they found the task easy and funny, as it was based on the principle of echo. Thinking about the moral of the story was more difficult. I tried to explain to them that whenever we want to change anything we have to start with ourselves. When our behaviour is different, the others will change. Sometimes only a little but they will. We cannot to change the reality, the only what we can change is our attitude. It was not the purpose of the task to be difficult. I wanted to prepare the exercise which is possible to realize for everybory in order to encourage the slower students. 8.9 Lesson plan 9 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise looking up difficult words in a dictionary, to think about people's special needs Material: Text (appendix 9), copies of the text, dictionaries Procedure Stage 1: talking about pets Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The teacher asks the children whether they have some pets at home and if the pets have ever been ill. The children talk about their experience. Stage 2: looking up new words Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students are given dictionaries and they look up difficu ones. t expressions, mostly medical Stage 3: understanding the story Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class As the article is not easy to understand, the class read and translate it together. Stage 4: special needs Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students discuss following questions: Have you ever met a person who has to use a wheelchair? Do you know such people personály? What troubles can these people have? What is difficult in their life? Is there anything that can help them to improve their life? 43 Reflection: The students looked up new words more effectively than before. At first they had even troubles with the order of the letters. Usually one of them looks up and the other writes so their work is quicker. Quite a lot of students saw a person on wheelchair but they did not think about their life much. They pointed to various difficulties: stairs, furniture, pavements, travelling, shopping, all kinds of housework, and lower opportunities in their social and private lives. They realized that their life style is distinct, because the ways to spend their leisure time is limited, it is not easy for them to live alone. Their labour possibilities are distinct as well, they can do only some jobs if they want to continue in their career, they can work from home using computers, they can make some things using only their hands and various tools. How to help? They do not need our sympathy but understanding, more possibilities to meet other people, to work, to be helpful. I always feel satisfied when my students think about somebody else's troubles. Surprisingly one of the girl had the same experience. Their dog was ill and it had to spend the rest of its life on such a special wheelchair too. It was not easy to get such a wheelchair, they had to search on the internet (just like the family in the story), then they had to train the dog using it, and finally the dog got used to sitting in it and its life was better. The pupils were involved for all the lesson although the article was not easy. I think, the reason was that nearly everybody saw a person on a wheelchair but they did not think that the animals can have the same troubles. Thanks to this unusual topic they were interested for the whole lesson and I think their interest helped them to understand the text. 44 8.10 Lesson plan 10 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise reading for specific information, to realize that the same information can be conveyd differently Material: Text (appendix 10), copies of the text, dictionaries Procedure Stage 1: brainstorming Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students try to remember everything they know about whales in order to recall background knowledge. This information can come even in Czech. Stage 2:reading Time: 15 min Interaction: pairwork The students read article, they are ecouraged to look up unknown words only when they cannot guess and derive them from the context. Stage 3: looking for specific information Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The students look for the answers, they are advised not to look for the exactly same words. Multiple choice questions: Appendix 10 Stage 4: checking the correct answers Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The children read and discuss their answers, they explain their choice. Reflection: The students chose the correct answers, but first they looked for the answers which would be expressed by exactly the same way. That is why they are not used to solve such exercises, as it is difficult for them to express the same idea in different words. It needs larger vocabulary than they have (using synonyms and the ability to express an idea in various ways) and I believe that it is useful to practise them more and I am going to continue with these types of exercises. To succeed in these exercises, the pupils have to develop their vocabulary, practise using synonyms and looking up the words with similar meaning. They were surprised by the speed of swimming, they did not expect such big animals to swim so fast, and by the fact that their youngs can gain so much in a day. Finally I asked them whether they know any other animals which are endangered as I wondered what they remembered from Biology. 45 8.11 Lesson plan 11 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise matching words to the definitions, to read with comprehension Material: Text (appendix 11), copies of the text, dictionaries (monolingual) Procedure Stage 1: brainstorming Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students are asked what characteristic features are said about various animals. They usually bring in the idea that foxes are clever. Stage 2: definitions Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The children work with dictionaries, they have to look up not only the meaning of the words but the meaning of the definitions as well. Match the words to their definitions: Appendix 11 Stage 3: checking the definitions, reading the whole story with role play Time: 10 min Interaction: the whole class The students read aloud the new words and their definitions, then they read and play the story. Reflection: The students are not accustomed to working with monolingual dictionaries, so they could not find the meaning of the words so easily as if they were given Czech meanings. The work with a monolingual dictionary lasted longer than I expected because it needs a certain level of English. It is a useful exercise for future work with a monolingual dictionary. I am going to introduce such exercises more often. The other useful thing is to practise making definitions for given words from very simple ones to a little more complicated descriptions. The reading aloud with role play was interesting for the pupils because they could change their voices, which was enjoyable for them. It is also a helpful way to notice who is going to be a good actor in future. We are going to prepare a short performance for younger pupils, the play will be presented in English and shown at the end of school year. 46 8.12 Lesson plan 12 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise skimming, to think about the best title Material: Text (appendix 12), copies of the text, a picture of a trap displayed on the blackboard Procedure Stage 1: skimming Time: 5 min Interaction: individually The children read the story by themselves very quickly to get a general meaning. They take no notice of the words they do not understand as it is not necessary to understand every single point. Stage 2: brainstorming Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students come with their ideas. Reflection: The titles suggested by the students: The bad advice. The dangerous trap. The lost tail. The clever fox. The students enjoyed this activity as it was neither difficult nor long and, in fact, there were no bad answer. I believe it is important from time to time just relax and enjoy reading and not to be under stress. Next time I would ask the pupils to write the titles on the blackboard in order to check the spelling and make sure that everybody came with his/her idea. Some pupils, when they asked to work alone, do not do anything, they just sit and wait for their schoolmates' ideas. I think I should not have brought only one story, next time I am going to come to the class with several stories because it would be more interesting. The pupils can write their titles on separate pieces of paper and they have to recognize and match suitable titles to the correct stories. They will take more oportunities to practise skimming and the lesson will be more enjoyable. 47 8.13 Lesson plan 13 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise putting given sentences into the text Material: Text (appendix 13), copies of the text, a picture of a bighorn sheep displayed on the blacboard, dictionaries Procedure Stage 1: reading the basic of the Time: 5 min Interaction: individually text The children read the given text in order to get an overall meaning. Stage 2: new words Time: 10 min Interaction: pairwork The student try to guess the meaning of unknown words, they can use dictionaries only when they really do not know. Stage 3: filling the sentences Time: 15 min Interaction: pairwork First the students translate the given sentences (appendix 13), and then they try to put them into the text. They are recommanded to notice the previous and following ones, and keep the main idea. Reflection: The students are not used to do this type of exercises so it took them longer time than I expected and I had to help them. They were asked to focus on the sentences before and after the gap because they could find some clues in those sentences. They had to put the sentences into the text according to the clues. Finally they managed to do it but as it took longer time, some of them did not pay attention all the time. Despite of it I am going to bring other similar exercises as they occur in textbooks of higher level and in various tests, so it is neccessary to practise the strategy. As the exercise was difficult, for the next time I am going to choose simpler articles. I am going to leave out either sentences or very short paragraphs. It could be useful for such exercises to practise looking up the key words, to realize connections between sentences and their fluency. I think I did not choose a suitable story. The story should have been more enjoyable, funny and with some action in it. All of it would help the pupils to put the sentences into the text. 48 8.14 Lesson plan 14 Age: 14-15 years old students Level: elementary Aim: to practise drawing a comic and making suitable sentences Material: Text (appendix 14), copies of the text, coloured pencils, some pieces of paper Procedure Stage 1: reading Time: 5 min Interaction: the whole class The children read the story by themselves. Stage 2: drawing Time: 15 min Interaction: individually The students take any scene from the story and draw a picture according to it. Stage 3: speech boubles Time: 10 min Interaction: individually, pairwork The students think about a suitable sentence, they can work eit help each other. ler individually or in pairs and Stage 4: reading the boubles Time. 5 min Interaction: the whole class The students read their sentences and enjoy their schoolmates' ideas. Given answers: Appendix 14 Reflection: They found this activity funny as they mostly like drawing and they did not have to worry about bad answers. On the other hand their answers were very simple, they had a problem to produce a complicated and longer sentence. I think we should support and practise constructive ideas and creative abilities but I should have choosen a longer article. As reading has a positive influence on writing too, we should encourage pupils to write a few sentences based on what they read from time to time. I found the task very easy even for slower pupils. For the next time I am going to prepare a fairy-tale with a lot of pictures, each pair will be given two or three pictures, and they will think up some speech. They will have not only to write some speech but to find the correct continuity among the pictures and put them into the correct order. The pictures will be displayed on the notice board in the classroom. 49 9. Extensive reading activities - homework (appendices 15-29) There are the texts which the students were asked to read at home. The students were asked to keep reading diaries. They wrote down the names of the stories, the main characters, the idea, their feelings after reading, and whether they liked it or not. If they wanted, they were allowed to write about their feelings even in Czech because I wondered what their real feeling were like and some of them could express themselves without restrain better in Czech. The main point was to write how many words they had to look up in dictionaries in order to be able to understand the general meaning. I supposed that the number will be smaller and smaller. They had to read usually one story a week. After the week we talked about what we read, and they were given another story. I wanted all the pupils to talk about their favourite piece of reading, to tell the others what they liked. It means a short interview. In this interview we can verify not only whether they read it but we can practise speaking and listening as well. Various activities can follow, for example, to put a few main points into the correct order, to fill an important point, which was left out. At the very beginning they were afraid of independent reading at home, they did not trust themselves that they can master it without help. But after some time they could see that it was possible. Some of them were involved really actively and it was interesting to read their feedback. 9.1 The results of the survey In the following chart we can see how many words they had to look up in their dictionaries in order to understand the sense of each article. At the beginning there were more students who had to look up a greater number of words. But in the process of the reading programme the number of the pupils who had to look up less words was increasing and the number of the pupils who had to look up more word was going down. Their ability to guess or derive the new words was getting better. 50 The results of the survey - the number of words which they had to look up to be able to understand 0 - 1 0 11-20 21 -30 31 - 4 0 The Stork and the Fox (appendix 15) 10 18 6 8 Queen Victoria (appendix 16) 12 19 5 6 The White Horse (appendix 17) 12 20 6 4 The Lion and the Mouse (appendix 18) 14 21 4 3 How the Eagle Got a Bent Beak (appendix 19) 16 13 8 5 Why the Owl Has Big Eyes (appendix 20) 19 15 5 3 How the Grizzly Bear Got his Hump (appendix 21) 19 13 7 3 Why the Rabbit Has a Short Tail (appendix 22) 22 12 7 1 Three Wishes (appendix 23) 23 11 7 1 Love Story, Elizabeth II (appendix 24) 18 18 6 0 A Guide Dog (appendix 25) 23 12 5 2 Living Together (appendix 26) 24 13 4 1 Ch.Bronte - Jane Eyre (the beginning) (appendix 27) 20 14 8 0 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre - Thornfield and Mr Rochester (appendix 28) 26 12 3 1 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre (appendix 29) 28 9 5 0 51 When we finished various reading activities both at school at home I asked my pupils to answer these questions. I wanted to know whether they liked the reading lessons and if they feel any personal improvement if they feel more independent readers. Personal experiences yes mostly yes don't know mostly not not Did you enjoy extensive reading? 12 9 10 3 8 Did the reading strategies done at school help you with extensive reading? 14 11 8 4 5 Did you feel your improvement of reading and understanding? 15 13 5 3 6 Could you guess the meaning of unknown words better? 17 11 6 2 6 Would you enjoy reading lessons in future? 16 9 8 4 5 Did you enjoy extensive reading? 8; 19%-\ , 2; 2 9 % • yes • mostly yes • don't know 3; ^ • yes • mostly yes • don't know • yes • mostly yes • don't know 10; 2 4 % 9; 2 1 % i—i mosny not • not 52 Did the reading strategies done at school help you with extensive reading? 5; 12% 4; 10% 8; 19% 14; 33% 11; 26% • yes • mostly yes • don't know • mostly not • not Did you feel your improvement of reading and understanding? 15; 36% 5; 12% 13; 31% • yes • mostly yes • don't know • mostly not • not 53 Could you guess the meaning of unknown words better? • yes • mostly yes • don't know • mostly not Would you enjoy reading lessons in future? 5; 12% 4; 10% 8; 19% 16; 38% 9; 21% • yes • mostly yes • don't know • mostly not • not 54 According to their answers I think that special lessons of reading would be useful for learning languages. When the pupils have three lessons of English a week and they are expected to deal with writing, listening, speaking, there is not much time to enjoy reading. In addition, they have to cope with lots of grammar. I would like to know what my pupils enjoy more, reading or grammar? Pupils' preferences reading grammar don't know Which lessons do you enjoy more? 21 9 12 Which lessons do you enjoy more? 12; 29% 21; 50% 9; 21% • reading • grammar • don't know As we can see half of pupils preferred reading lessons. Having been asked why they answered that they understand that learning of grammar is necessary but sometimes it is boring to go through various exercises and they do not like learning grammar rules. When they are being tested grammar, they are under stress. While reading they feel more relaxed, they do not worry about grammar very much. 55 They come across a lot of new words during reading and they can remember them more easily as they are not isolated but in logical connections and repeated many times. Although they are not interested in grammar very much, they cannot avoid noticing it, so they take it even if they do not think of grammar. Due to its repetition they will learn it. I think it is the same situation with learning of their mother tongue, the grammar is important but the pupils need to read in order to have larger and richer vocabulary. Reading developes pupils' imagination which is important in other subjects, for example even in Maths as well. It gives support to creative thinking. 10. Conclusion I would suggest to introduce into the curriculum one more lesson of English which should be devoted to reading. It was proved that various reading activities and practising reading strategies have positive influence to learning foreign languages. The students should know not only a language itself but they should get some knowledge about culture, history, famous people etc. Although they are not concentrated on grammar, they master it subconsciously. The building vocabulary is easier because the words are used in helpful connections, and these conections are repeated. The pupils become more independent learners, they can guess or derive the meaning of unknown word after some time. In the year six they could start with reading lessons, first various rhymes because they can be learned by heart easily. I believe that these rhymes could help them to keep the rhythm of the language, and it could be a way to teach pronunciation of more difficult sounds. As I could observe in my lessons, the younger students are, the less shy they feel. Than they could continue with very simple short stories, later these stories could be longer and finally some pieces of a particular book. Hypotheses 1. The hypotheses that doing reading activities and practising reading strategies at school have positive impact on independent reading was confirmed. As is resulting form the chart published on page 49, their ability to deal with the texts is getting better and during the process of my reading survey they had to look up less number of unknown words. 56 2. As is evident from my survey published on page 50-53 the pupils benefited from reading activities and they would mostly enjoy reading lessons in future. The hypotheses that students' attitude to reading will be better after various reading experiences was confirmed. 11. Resumé In this bachelor thesis I focus on doing various reading activities and strategies in teaching English at the basic school. I pointed out to the impact of such reading experiences on foreign language learning and students' interest. In the theoretical part I explained various stages of reading and its importance in teaching a foreign language. In the practical part of this thesis I prepared some different reading activities and I practised them in classes in the school where I teach. The programme lasted for four months.I could see that my pupils' attitude to reading was getting better and these reading activities had positive influence to acquiring of a foreign language and their imagination. Ve své bakalářské práci jsem se zaměřila na tvorbu různých čtenářských aktivit a strategií ve výuce anglického jazyka na základní škole. Poukázala jsem na vliv těchto čtenářských zkušeností na učení se cizímu jazyku a na zájem žáků začleněním rozšířeného čtení do výuky angličtiny na základní škole. V teoretické části jsem se zabývala různými fázemi a stadii čtení a jeho důležitostí ve výuce cizímu jazyku. V praktické části své bakalářské práce jsem připravila různé typy čtenářských aktivit, které jsem zkoušela na základní škole, kde pracuji. Tento program trval čtyři měsíce. Mohla jsem tak sledovat, jak se zlepšuje postoj žáků ke čtení, a tyto čtenářské aktivity měly pozitivní vliv na osvojování cizího jazyka a jejich představivost. 57 12. Bibliography Bamford, J., and Day, R. R. Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language. Cambridge: CUP, 2004. Bronte, Ch. Jana Eyrová. Bratislava: Mladé letá, s.r.o. Simplified edition. 2001. Byrne, D. Focus on the Classroom. Oxford: Modern English Publication, 1988. Chastain, K. Developing Second-Language Skills. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. Day, R. Bring Extensive Reading into the Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Day, R. R. and Bamford, J..Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP, 1998. DriscolfL. Reading extra: a Ressource Book of Multi-level Skill a Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press, 2004 Gail, E. and McRae, J. The Extensive Reading Handbookfor Secondary Teachers. London: Penguin Books, 1991. Harmer, J. How to Teach English. London: Pearson Education Limited, 2007. Krai, Thomas (ed.). Teacher Development. Washington: English Language Programs Division, 1994. Nixon, C. and Tomlinson, M . Primary Reading Box: Reading Activities and Puzzle for Younger Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Nuttall, Ch..Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann, 1982. Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., and Williams, M . The Teaching Knowledge Test Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Ur, P. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. Wallace, C. Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Wallace, C. Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Williams, E. Reading in the Language Classroom. London, Macmillan, 1984. 58 Eyre, J."Thornfield and Mr Rochester". R+R 15 (April 2005):7. "A Guide Dog". R&R 17 (March 2007):9. "Bad Temper". R&R 17 (June 2007):7. "Bighorn Sheep". R&R 18 (October 2007): 11. "How the Eagle Got a Bent Beak". R&R Special 17 (December 2006):6. "How the Grizzly Bear Got his Hump". R&R Special 17 (December 2006): 10. "How the Parrot Got its Colours". R&R 20 (March 2010): 11. "Living Together". R&R 17 (February 2007):9. "Mountain Story". R&R 17 (June 2007):7. "Queen Victoria's post box". R&R 13 (October 2002): 10. "Sara's story". R&R 17 (April 2007):9. "The Andean Condor". R&R 20 (October 2009): 11. "The Big Turtle". R&R 20 (January 2010): 11. "The Blue Whale." R&R 20 (April 2010): 11. "The Condor, the Hummingbird and a Girl". R&R 20 (October 2009): 11. "The Fox and the Cat". R&R Special 18 (December 2007):8. " The Fox who Lost his Tail". R&R Special 18 (December 2007):9. "The Jaguar". R&R 20 (December 2009): 11. "The Lion and the Mouse". R&R Special 18 (December 2007): 10. "The Postbox of King Eduard VII". R&R 13 (January 2003): 10. "The Stork and the Fox". R&R Special 18 (December 2007): 11. "The Tortoise/Turtle. R&R 20 (January 2010): 11. "The White Horse". R&R 16 (May/June 2006): 10. "Three Wishes". R&R 19 (March 2009):5. "The Wolf and the Goat". R&R Special 18 (December 2007):6. "Why the Owl Has Big Eyes". R&R Special 17 (December 2006):3. "Why the Rabbit Has a Short Tail". R&R Special 17 (December 2006): 11. "Extensive Reading: Why? and How?" 12 December 1998 "The Power of the Human Mind!" 7 April 2011 59 Appendixes Appendix 1 The Tortoise/Turtle There are over 250 species of these animals nowadays. Some of them live on land, and these are called tortoises, the others live in the sea and we call them turtles. Tortoises can live not only in North and South America, but also in Africa, Asia and Europe. They can be found in different sizes - from a few centimetres to two metres long. The largest ones are the giant tortoises living in the Galapagos Islands. They can weigh up to 250 kilos. The body of all the species is covered by a shell under which they can hide their head, neck and short legs if necessary. They are active during the day and move slowly around a large area to find food - grass, plants and fruit. Sea turtles have longer legs with flippers and are fantastic swimmers. They live in warmer ocean waters for the whole year, but all female turtles return (sometimes more than 1 000 km) every summer to the place of their birth to lay eggs in the sand. Female tortoises/turtles dig a hole in which they lay from one to thirty eggs. After 3-4 months small young hatch. They break the eggshells, dig their way up from their nest and try to find shelter - in the sea, a lake or on land. This is a very dangerous time for them - only a small number of them are able to survive. They have been living on earth for about 160 million years. Although they are longliving animals, some of them can live more than 100 years, many species are endangered, including giant tortoises. Appendix 2 The Big Turtle Many years ago the world had two parts. The Water World, a lower part, where animals lived, and above, the Sky World with mountains, fields and people. Once a young girl fell asleep under a tree and fell down into the Water World. Two water birds caught her on their feathered backs. „That was lucky! But what am I to do now? I can't stay on your backs forever," said the girl. „We'll take you to our Big Turtle, he knows everything." And he really did. He called all the animals together and said, „We have to build an island on my back to live on. We have to find some soil." There is some in the water. Dive and get some of that soil to build the island from." 60 Many animals tried to dive, but it was too deep and they came up gasping for air - and without any soil. The last one to dive was a small toad. „It's my turn, I'll try it too," said the toad. „You're too small to help!" cried the others. She was gone for a very long time, but at last she returned and brought up a few grains of soil. They spred them on the turtle's back. The grains of soil grew and grew, until a large island was formed. It grew into our world as we know it today. Today, some people say the whole world still rests on Big Turtle's back Appendix 3 The Jaguar The jaguar is the largest of the South American big cats. Once jaguars lived over the whole . . , but now they are only found in some regions, mainly in the tropical of the Amazon basin. Most jaguars are light brown or orange with black spots. But some of them are so dark that their spots are not visible. The jaguar is a good (for a short distance it can run over 100 km/h), and it can swim and climb. Jaguars feed on larger animals such as deer, foxes, dogs, capybaras, monkeys, but also on snakes, mice, frogs and birds. They have very strong jaws and sharp . . . . . . so that they can kill their prey with one bite to the skull. They live and hunt alone, but during their hunting season, the male jaguar may have several females that usually have from one to four cubs. Young jaguars stay with their for 12 -16 months. Nowadays, jaguars are endangered animals because the rainforest is disappearing. They used to be hunted for their attractive fur and because they were dangerous for farmers' These beautiful and powerful animals have played a very important role in Native American culture - in their art, legends and tales. Appendix 4 How the Parrot Got its Colours A long time ago, Parrot was a plain bird. He didn't have any friends. One day Parrot decided to visit other birds down below the trees. He flew down and landed right next to some birds that were unknown to him and that were eating food in the grass. „Can I have some food too?" he asked. The birds slowly turned their heads round and looked at him from gead to toe. 61 „You have got to be joking, fly away" said one of them. At that moment Parrot saw a lizard drinking from a puddle of water and asked shyly, „Can I have some too?" „Go and find your own," groaned Lizard. Parrot was very sad and thought, „1 wish I was one of those birds, I wish I had some friends!" He decided to fly away, headed to the sky and flew higher and higher. Then all of a sudden, it started to rain heavily but the sun was still shining. Parrot did not understand how it was possible. Suddenly he saw a band of wonderful colours. „How strange, I must see what the things is!" said Parrot and flew through the thing again and again because he liked all the colours. When he looked at his wings, he saw a splash of colours on his feathers. „Wow, I'm colourful!" He flew down and all the birds stared up at the beautiful bright bird flying elegantly in the forest and everybody wanted to be his friend Appendix 5 The Andean Condor Andean Condors are one of the largest flying birds that can be found in the western parts of South America - in the Andes and along the Pacific coast. Although they are heavy birds (males can weigh up to 15 kg), they can glide on air currents with little effort. Wild condors inhabit large territories. Sometimes they have to travel more than 200 km a day when looking for their food. This bird has black feathers with a few white spots. Its head and neck are bald. The male has a reddish comb on its head and the skin on the neck is reddish too. Its large, hooked beak is very sharp and well adapted for tearing up meat. The condor feeds on the dead bodies of farm and sea animals. We can't forget to mention two condor superlatives. Its wingspan can be more than 3 metres and the condor is one of the world's longest living birds - the record is over 70 years of age. Though it is a long-living bird, it is nearly endangered because it reproduces very slowly. A condor pair only has one offspring every second year. Both parents care for a newly born bird for a long time. The small bird is able to fly after six months but remains with its parents for one or two years. The Andean condor is a national symbol, and national bird of several South American countries. It plays an important role in their myths and folklore. You can find its picture on stamps, coins, banknotes and on several coats of arms as a symbol of the Andes Mountains. 62 1. Although they are big heavy birds (males can weigh up to 15 kg), they can glide on air currents with little effort. 2. This bird has got black feathers with a few white spots 3. The condor feeds on the dead bodies of farm and some sea animals. 4. Though it is a long-living bird, it is nearly endangered now because it reproduces very slowly. 5. Both parents must care for a newly born bird for a long time. 6. It plays such an important role in their myths and folklore. Appendix 6 The Condor, the Hummingbird and a Girl When our people first came to live in these high mountains, the animals were different. The horse was the size of a dog, the fox tiny as a mouse, but the hummingbird was big as a rabbit. And the mightiest bird of all, the condor, could change shapes and talk with people. One day a shepherd girl was watching over father's llamas. Suddenly she saw a young man smiling at her. He was very handsome and pleasant. She didn't know that it was a condor.. „Let's play and I'll show you how I can fly," he said in a polite voice. „1 don't know, my llamas are here,"answered the girl. But she was curious and so agreed. The young man changed back into a condor and flew up, higher and higher. „Put me down, I'm scared. And my llamas will get lost." „F11 take care of you. I love you. I'll make you princess of this mountain," said the condor and landed in a huge nest at the top. Next morning the condor carried her some food - a few field mice. The girl said, „1 can't eat those! Take me back to my dad, please." At the moment a hummingbird flew over and wanted to help the girl. „Mighty condor, the girl needs cooked meat. I just saw a man in a valley roasting some meat. It would be better for her." The condor flew off without a word, and after he left, the hummingbird showed the girl a path leading down the mountain. He led her home to her dad. „1 thank you, my dear friend, I will never talk to strangers!" Appendix 7 Bad Temper There once was a boy who often had a bad temper. His father wanted to help him. He gave him some nails and a hammer and said, „Every time you get angry, you have to hammer a nail into your fence. It will help you." 63 At the beginning there were 40 nails every day, the next week only 20 a day and in a few weeks the boy learnt to control his anger and there were only two or three nails in a week. Finally the day came when the boy did not hammer any nails at all. „Dad, it works, I don't need to hammer any nails!" said the boy happily. „Fm happy too," answered his father, „but now I have another task for you. Every day you're able to hold your temper, pull out one nail." The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were out. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. „You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. And when you say things in anger, they leave a scar like this one. Never mind how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. Remember that." Appendix 8 Mountain Story A boy and his father are walking in the mountains. Suddenly, the boy falls, hurts himselft and screams, „Aaahhhh!" To his surprise, somewhere in the mountains, a voice repeats, „Aaahhhh!" The boy yells, „Who are you?" He receives the answer, „ are you?" And then the boy screams to the mountains, „1 admire you!" And the voice answers, „1 you!" The boy is angry with the voice, he screams, „You are a coward!" He receives the answers, „You are a !" He looks at his father and asks, „What's going on?" The father smiles and says loudly, „You are a champion!" The voice answers, „You are a !" The boy is surprised and does not understand. The father explains, „People call it ECHO, but it is really like your LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do. If you want more love in the world, have more in your heart. If you want your team to play better, play for your team. Life will give you back everything you have given to it." Appendix 9 Sara's Story Four years ago when our family was getting ready to go home from our weekend house, we heard our three-years-old golden retriever, Sara, making strange sounds. She was howling. It 64 did not sounds like pain - more like she was in a panic. She was lying on the ground and trying to stand up. A few minutes before, Sara had been running after a ball, but she suddenly tripped and started howling. Her back feet were weakly dangling without any life. We took her to a vet. Sara did not have any obvious injuries and the vet sent us to another specialist. And this process went on and on. Sara visited many veterinarians, had many special examinations, and took many special medicines. The final decision was that Sara suffered from a very serious neurological diseaase. After a long stay in a veterinarian clinic where Sara went even through physiotherapy, mostly swimming, it was clear that she would never more as before. Some vets offered to put her to sleep forever. It was something the family rejected. But a dog that cannot run? What a life! We tried to help. And what about a wheelchair? Does anything like that exist for dogs? We started browsing the Internet looking for an answer. It took some time but we were successful. We got the wheelchair from abroad. A new type of training began. With a great amount of effort, energy, time and love from all of us in the family, and hours and hours of training on the wheelchair and a lot of swimming Sara was helped. Today she is living her happy dog's life. Appendix 10 The Blue Whale The blue whale is the largest type of whale, and it is also the largest animal which has ever lived on earth. Its body is nearly 30 m long and it weighs about 160 tons. It is interesting that the females are a bit larger than the males. Their hearts need to be very large (the size of a car) to be able to pump blood throughout such massive bodies. Blue whales live in all the oceans of the world, except fot the polar seas. They are fast swimmers, their normal speed is of 22 km per hour, but if necessary, it can be even 48 km per hour. They can also dive - nearly as deep as 500 m for 10-20 minutes. A whale mother gives birth to one young every 2-3 years. The baby is about 6-7 m long and weighs about 3-4 tons, but it can gain up to 90 kg a day. Blue whales feed only on krill. They have hundreds of baleen plates instead of teeth. These animals have to take a very large amount of water into their mouths to filter the krill (a few tons a day) through the baleen plates. 65 Blue whales produce very loud sounds of a low frequency. To listen to them, people need special instruments. Scientists believe whales can communicate with each other over very long distances. Blue whales are endangered animals. Many countries try to protect them and whale hunting is prohibited, nevertheless, a few countries, such as Norway and Japan, continue to hunt them. Multiple choice questions: 1. The blue whale : a) is 30m long and it weights 180 tons b) is 35m long and it weights 160 tons c) is 30m long and it weights 160 tons 2. a) the female are larger than the males b) the males are larger than the females c) the females are the same as the males 3. Their normal swimming speed is: a) over 50km per hour b) about 25km per hour c) less than 20km per hour 4. The baby is long: a) about 6 m b) more than 7 m c) less that 3 m 5. We can hear their sounds: a) only when they look for a partner b) only when they are in a danger c) only with special equipment 6. We can hunt them: a) nowhere b) in Japan c) not near the equator 66 Appendix 11 The Fox and the Cat A fox and a cat were out walking together when the fox began boasting about how clever he was. „Fm prepared for any situation," said the fox. „1 have a whole bag of tricks. If my enemies try to capture me, I can choose from any one of these tricks." „Fm afraid I've only got one trick, but it has always worked for me," the cat said timidly. The fox shook his head, „One trick, it's impossible. I've got hundreds of ways of escaping," said the fox. „1 still think it's better to have one trick that works and not to waste time trying to choose the best one," said the cat. „Rubbish," shouted the fox, „you're not as clever as me!" Suddenly they heard a pack of barking dogs coming towards them. The cat immediately ran up the nearest tree and hid on a high branch. „That's my trick," the cat called down. „You had better use your best trick right now, the dogs are coming." „Okay, stay calm," said the fox to himself. „Should I hide behind the nearest hedge, or should I jump down a burrow or ... ?" The dogs were getting closer and closer. The fox started running around the field looking for a burrow but it was too late. While the fox was wasting time, the dogs caught and killed him. The cat looked down sadly and said, „It's better to have one safe way than a hundred you can't choose from." Match the words to their definitions: Enemy a part of a tree that grows out from its trunk and has leaves Timidly a tunnel or hole in the ground that is dug by animals Hedge unwanted things, something of very poor quality Burrow nervously, too slowly Branch somebody who hates you or wants to harm you Rubbish a row of bushes or small trees, usually along the edge of a garden 67 Appendix 12 The Fox who Lost his Tail One day a fox was caught in a trap. The fox felt a sharp pain and struggled to get free but his tail was firmly stuck in the jaws of the trap. After a long struggle the fox broke away, but he was forced to leave his tail on the trap. „Ooooow!!! My beautiful tail" What will I do?" he shouted. „How can I meet all the other foxes without my beautiful tail?" He almost wished he had died in the trap. But after some time the fox finally came up with a plan.He called all the foxes together for a meeting. „I've cut off my tail on purpose and I want you all to do the same. You have no idea of the ease and comfort with which I move about," said he. „A tail is more trouble than it's worth. So now is the time to free yourself from your tails and join me in a tailless society." An old fox who listened carefully to these words, shook his head and said, „1 think you wouldn't say that if you still had your long tail. No, we're not going to listen to you, we like our tails!" All the other foxes walked off laughing with thein big bushy tails proudly pointing upwards. Appendix 13 Bighorn Sheep These sheep have excellent sight and are excellent climbers and jumpers, good runners and swimmers. 1) Bighorn sheep graze on grasses and they also eat twigs and leaves. They are sheep without wool. Their fur is brown, while their belly, back and mouth are white. The males have large massive horns, which curl back over the ears, down and up. 2) The males horns are very important for them. 3) They run forvard and cash into each other with their horns. Such a duel takes many hours and the sound can be heard through the mountains for miles around. Females give a birth to one baby, a lamb, in the spring. 4) Nevertheless, not all of them have a chance to survive. The missing sentences: a) The female also have horns, but smaller and shorter ones. 68 b) It can walk and climb by its first day. c) They like jumping up and down safely from ledge to ledge among cliffs. d) In autumn, males use them in long fights against the other males. Appendix 14 The Wolf and the Goat An old wolf was going out to find something to eat. He had not eaten for a few days, but there was nothing for him around to eat. He was almost dead with hunger when he happened to see a young goat feeding on the top of a high cliff where he had no chance to climb. He called up to the goat, „Oh, you had better be careful or you may fall down from the cliff! Come down here, the grass is much sweeter, and there is more of it." „Thank you, Mr Wolf," said the goat, „I'm careful and I do very well here. If I came down to you, it is you who would feed better, not I." Given answers: The wolf: I am terribly hungry! I cannot remember when I ate some nice food! I am nearly dead becauce of my hunger! I could eat this nice goat! The goat: The wolf! I must be careful! I mustn't believe him! Appendix 15 The Stork and the Fox The fox and the stork were good friends. One day, the fox invited the stork to his house. „Come to my place, dear friend, please. I'm going to prepare a special banket for you." The stork was very pleased and promised to come. That evening the fox made nothing but soup. Pouring it into two shallow plates, he placed them on the table, one before the stork. The stork tapped and tapped into the plate with his long bill, but he couldn't eat anything. „I'm so sorry you did not like the soup I made," the fox said trying hard not to laugh. Next day the fox came to the stork's place. The stork had also prepared a soup. He poured it into ajar and said: „Enjoy it, my dear fox, it is delicious." 69 The fox wanted to eat, but he couldn't get his mouthinto the jar. He tried and tried, but was not able to eat anything. At the end of the visit the fox went home as hungry as he arrived. Since that time the fox and the stork haven't been friends. Appendix 16 Queen Victoria's postbox Victoria was the Queen of the UK from 1837 to 1901. Her reign was the longest in British history. She became Queen when she was only 18 and ruled for 63 years. In her private life she was happily married to Prince Albert. They had nine children and their rdest son later became King Edward VII. Prince Albert had a great influence on Victoria but unfortunately he died when he was only 42. Queen Victoria was very unhappy. She wore only black clothes and stayed in the palace for two years. She lived for forty more years and died when she was 81 years old. Victoria was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace. It has been the royal residence ever since. The period of time when Victoria reigned is called „the Victorian age". Victorian architecture is famous for its houses of red brick. During the Victorian age Britain underwent great industrial advancement (for example, steam railway, the underground in London) and the expansion of the British Empire. Britain had large colonies and Victoria became the Empress of India too. Appendix 17 The White Horse In a Cree tribe there lived a beautiful girl. Many young warriors wanted to marry her, among them were two great rivals, the Cree chief and the Sioux chief. The girl herself liked the Cree warrior. When he brought a beautiful white horse as a gift for her father, she decided to marry him. The Sioux chief was very angry at this. On the day of her wedding, he came with his warriors Gross the prairies to her house. The Cree chief helped his lovely bride up onto the white horse, then got onto his own grey horse and they rode at full speed westwards. But the Sioux warriors were hot on their heels. For a time, it seemed that they had lost the Sioux, but once they were on the prairies again, the white horse was visible for miles. A rain of arrows fell upon the Cree warrior and his young bride. They fell dead. 70 The Sioux captured the grey horse, but the white horse had disappeared. It is said that it roamed the prairies for many years. Then, long after this horse died, its ghost continued to gallop Gross the prairies, and the land where it roamed became known as White Horse Plain. They say that the ghost of the white horse continues roaming the prairies to this day. Appendix 18 The Lion and the Mouse A lion was sleeping quietly when he was woken by something running u pand down his back. He slowly opened one eye and saw that it was a little mouse. The lion put his paw upon the frightened mouse and was going to end the life of the small animal. „Please, please, don't eat me, Mr Lion," said the mouse. „Spare me, I pray you, for I had lost my way and did not know what I was doing. Forgive me this time and let me go and I may be able to repay your kindness in the future." „That is the funniest thing I've ever heard!" roared the lion with laughter. Still laughing, the lion put the mouse on the ground and said, „ You've made me laugh so much I can't eat you now. Go on, before I change my mind." Not long after this, the lion was caught in a trap by some hunters. They tied him to a tree with rope. The mouse was nearby and heard the mighty lion's roar for help. He ran to the tree and, without wasting a moment, cut the rope with his sharp teeth. „1 know you didn't believe me. But even a little mouse can help some one as big and strong as you," said the mouse. „Thank you, my little frond. I will remember this lesson," said the lion as he ran away before the hunters returned. Appendix 19 How the Eagle Got a Bent Beak Once upon a time eagles had straight beaks. It was very difficult for them to hunt for food and fish. One day Mr Eagle asked himself, „Why don't I have a bent beak like all the other big birds?" A snake heard him and he asked the other birds why they had a bent beak and the eagle did not. Mr Toucan said, „ I was born with a bent beak. I need it." So the snake asked Mr Hawk and he said, „1 was born with a bent beak. I need it." 71 So the snake asked Mr Owl and he said, „Tell the eagle to go to the edge of the forest and there he will find the bird spirit. If the eagle asks him, the spirit may give him a bent beak." So the snake told the eagle what Mr Owl had said. The eagle rushed to the edge of the forest to meet with the bird spirit but he did not find anyone there. But then, suddenly, a giant bird appeared out of nowhere. It was the bird spirit. The eagle asked him if he could give eagles bent beaks like the other big birds. The bird spirit said, „If you do some good deeds for the other animals, I will give you what you wish." So the eagle went back to the forest and helped Mr Hawk catch fish, the snake do his daily cleaning and helped all the animals in the forest in many ways. The eagle was so tired after all those good deeds that he fell asleep. The next day, Mr Hawk came to ask the eagle to help catch fish again. The eagle went with him and suddenly he found it was much easier to catch fish. Why? Because he had a bent beak. From that day on, all eagles have had bent beaks. Appendix 20 Why the Owl Has Big Eyes Long, long ago, the Great Spirit, called Raweno, tried to make lots of different animals. „1 want to make them the way they want to be, and give them what they ask for," he used to say. Some animals were already made, but many of them were still waiting for their turn. Among them also was the impmatient Owl. When Raweno was making Rabbit, Owl shouted, „Whoo, whoo, hurry up! I want a nice long neck like swans, the most colourfull feathers and a nice long beak. I want you to make me the most beautiful and the fastest of the birds." Raveno said, „Be quiet. I'm working on Rabbit now. And don't watch me while I work. Turn around or close your eyes." „Whoo, whoo, nobody can order me to close my eyes. I will watch, and you can't stop me!" Owl answered angrily. „And hurry up, it's my turn!" That was more than Raweno could take. He grabbed Owl and pulled him down from the tree he was in. Then Raweno hit Owl so hard that his head was pushed deep into his shoulders. Then he pulled up Owl's ears at both sides of his head so that Owl's eyes became very large from fear and he grabbed some mud and put it all over Owl's feathers, turning them brown. 72 „There," said Raweno, „that'll teach you. From this day on you will have a short neck, large eyes, and long ears sticking up on the sides of your head. You won't be colourful as you wanted, but brown as the earth. You won't be able to watch me working, because you will only live at night. That's all you will get from me!" shouted Raweno. „Now go and leave me alone!" Appendix 21 How the Grizzly Bear Got his Hump Once upon a time many bears lived in a forest. Some of them were grizzly bears and some of them were black bears. The grizzly bears liked to steal food from the other animals, especially from the black bears. One day the grizzly bears were hungry and didn't know where to find any food. So three of them decided to steal some food from the black bears as they always did. The grizzly bears knew very well where the black bears hid their food. The grizzly bears had to climb a mountain and there, in a cave, they found lots of food. They saw the sweetest berries and honey. They ate and ate and ate. After they had finished, the grizzly bears walked out of the cave and down the mountain as if they hadn't done anything wrong. They were happy that nobody saw them. However, somebody had noticed them - the ruler of the forest was watching them when they stole the food. When the three grizzly bears got down the mountain, the ruler of the forest stopped them. „What are you doing here Nera the mountain?" The bears were frightened and said, „We were looking for some fish." „Fish, you say, here in the mountains? I know very well that you stole food from the black bears." „Oh, that's not right. How could you know it was us? The black bears always say we do it, but nobody ever sees us. Other black bears might steal thein food, too." The forest ruler asnwered, „1 think you could be right. So from now on all grizzly bears will have a hump on their back so everybody knows who is stealing the food." The grizzly bears never stole again but they still have humps on thein backs. Appendix 22 Why the Rabbit Has a Short Tail Back when the world was young. Rabbit had a very long bushy tail. In fact, his tail was longer than Fox's tail. Rabbit was very proud of his tail and he was always showing the other animals how beautiful it was. Fox decided to play a trick on Rabbit. 73 One day, when the weather was getting colder and the water in the lake froze, Fox went down to the lake carrying four fish. He cut a hole in the ice and tied those four fish to his tail. Fox sat down and waited for Rabbit. When Fox saw Rabbit hopping round the lake, he put his tail with the four fish into the cold water. „What are you doing?"asked Rabbit. „I'm fishing, Rabbit!" he said and pulled up his tail with the fish. „I'm going to take fish down to the Cherokee village and trade them for a pair beautiful combs for my bushy tail. Sorry, I have to say goodbye now. I'll come back and fish some more in the morning. See you, Rabbit!" As soon as Fox was out of sight, Rabbit put his tail down into the hole of the lake. „1 want those combs for my tail too. It is more beautiful than Fox's," and Rabbit sat on the hole and fished all night long. In the morning, Fox immediately ran straight to Rabbit. „What are you doing?" Fox asked. „I'm fffissshing, Fffox, obut I'm werry ccold!" and Rabbit tried to get up to see how many fish there were on his tail. But he could not pull his tail from the water because his tail was frozen in the lake. He said, „Fffox, pleasse, cca yvou help mmee get my tail out of the wwwater?" So Fox, with a big, bad smile, gave Rabbit one mighty kick and Rabbit landed across the other side of the lake. But his tail... Rabbit's tail remained in the frozen water. And that's why from that day to this, rabbits have such short tails. Appendix 23 Three Wishes Narrator: Three old men with long white beards are sitting outside a village house. A woman is just leaving. Wife: Oh, good afternoon. You must be hungry. Come in and have something to eat with us. Old men: We would like to, but we can't go together. Health: My name is Health. Success: I am Success. Love: My name is Love. H+S+L: Go and ask your husband whom you want to invite. 74 Wife (goes back inside): There are the three men, their names are Health, Success and Love. They say we can invite only one of them into our house. What am I to do? Who am I to invite? Husband: How nice! Let's invite Health. To keep illness away from our house. Wife: I think we should invite Success. We need to be successful. Mother: Why don't we invite Love! It would be great to fill our house with love. H+W: OK. Let's invite Love. He will be the best guest. Wife (goes again out): Which of you is Love? Please, come in and be our guest. Narrator: Love gets up and walks into the house. Success and Health follow him. Wife: Why are you coming too? I only invited one of you like you asked. H+S+L: If you had invited Success or Health, the others would have stayed outside. But Love can go anywhere and he is always followed by Health and Success. Appendix 24 The Postbox of King Edward VIII This love involves one of the sons King George V, Edward. He was in love with a woman called Walis Simpson. Unfortunately, when she met Edward, she was married for the second time, and asking for divorce. As Edward was the eldest son of the King, he was the heir to the trone and any future English King was not allowed to marry a divorced woman. The royal family, Parliament and almost everyone in England were against their relationship. Edward was unhappy. He had two choices: he could either be the King of England and not marry Mrs Simpson, or he could marry her and give up his right to the throne. What would you do? In 1936 his father, King George V, died. Edward had to become King. But he couldn't forget Mrs Simpson and after some time he decided to marry her. By then, she had already divorced her second husband. Edward abdicated and his younger brother became King Georgie VI. When George VI became King, he wasn't very happy. He never considered what it would be like to be King and he had never received any training in how to be one . He was serious and extremely shy. He had problems talking in public - he used to stammer. But he had a strong will and a loving wife who helped him a lot. 75 Elizabeth II Elizabeth II was born in 1926. She became Queen when her father, George VI, died in 1952. Queen Elizabeth's mother, the Queen Mum was a widow for 50 years. She died in March 2002 at the age of 101. She was one of the most beloved members of the Royal family. Elizabeth II is not only the Queen, but she is also a wife and mother. Her husband is Prince Philip and they have four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Her eldest son, Prince Charles, is the heir to the throne. He was married to Princess Diana, who was known as the Queen of People's Hearts. Appendix 25 A Guide Dog Today we are going to explore some interesting facts about a very good helper and friend of the blind. All guide dogs must be well trained and prepared for the role of guide and companion. Training takes 6-8 months in a special centre. Travers cannot explain to the dogs what they are to do, but they have to teach them to do many special activities. The dogs must be friendly and co-operative. In one group there are about 24 dogs, but not all of them are able to do this work. The career of a guide dog starts when it is a puppy, 8-12 months old. It comes to the training centre like a child into a kindergarten. Puppies have to get used to busy stress, the traffic there, the public transport and people everywhere around. They are taken to theatres, cinemas, concert halls and restaurants. Every five weeks they all meet together and are tested like at school. After a year, their travers say goodbye to their pupils but their training is not finished yet. They will continue with their future masters. Even people - the clients have to be prepared. Their training starts in the centre too. They spend a week together with the dog and they both learn how to live with each other. Trainers try to choose the most suitable dog for individual clients. A temperamental dog is good for a young sporty man, but an old lady will find a nice partner with a peaceful female dog. At home, a guide dog must learn everything about its new home, and must learn how to help. Step by step the human and the dog become a nicely matching couple. Step by step Guide dogs have to protect each step of their masters in all situations - not only at home, but mainly outdoors. What actions and problems do they have to manage? 76 Obstacles. Stairs. Different surfaces. Shops. Shopping centres. Buildings. Tradic. Pedestrians. Crossings Sights. Sounds. Smells. Buses, trains, trams and the underground. Platform edges. Escalators. Lifts. In many countries there are many training centres. Many of them were also opened in our country and have prepared already hundreds of dogs. The rdest client asking for a guide dog was 81, the youngest one was 5. Appendix 26 Living Together On this page we have already met a few people who need our understanding and help. This time a medical student, Blanka, will tell us how she took care of a kid with Down's syndrome. She spent last summer in Britain working as an au-pair in an English family. This is what she wrote to us. I worked in a family with four children - James was 18, Christian 17, Anne 13 and the youngest one was Olivier. He was only six and had Down's syndrome. His brain worked differently and he needed a lot of help. At six he did things that other children do at two. Olivier was a pupil of a state school with other children, but he had a personal assistant. Every day I took a pushchair, picked Olivier from school and prepared a little snack. Sometimes we stayed in the playground with the other children. Sometimes it took us an hour to get home. Olivier liked to play with toys and watch TV serials. Speaking was not easy for him for him, he spoke in words not in sentences. He preffered using sign language. It was easier for him. At the beginning it was very difficult for me, but after a month I understood him well. His body language helped me. If he wanted something, he could be very stubborn. I had to be very patient and responsible, Olivier only lived in the present, he did not understand that what the past or the future were. He also did not understand that streets were dangerous and that not all people were good. All the family members loved him and taught him new things patiently. I myself learned a lot about taking care of a child with special needs. Down's syndrome is a genetic mistake kids are born with. They have slightly different features in their faces and usuallly have some mental retardation, which means they may have 77 trouble with leaarning. Nevertheless, most of them can do to regular schools, make friends, enjoy life, and get jobs when they are older. But needs our understanding. Appendix 27 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre (the beginning) My name is Jane Eyre. My parents are dead. They both died of typhus fever when I was a baby. My father was a poor clergyman. When my mother married him, my grandfather was so angry with her that he left with no money at all. I was poor. My mother's brother, Uncle Reed, took me to his home at Gateshead to live with him and his family. He was a good man, but he died soon after that. Before he died, he had asked his wife to promise him that she would look after me. My aunt and her children hated me, especially my cousin John. He was four years older than me, big and fat. He often hit me and called bad names. One day he found me reading a book. He asked me to come nearer. I was afraid because I did not know what he wanted. When I stood in front of him, he threw the book at me. It hit me and I fell. I hurt my head. It was bleeding. „Bad boy!" I said. „You are like a murderer!" When we started to fight, Mrs Reed came and told me that I would be punished for hitting John. „Take her to the red room," she said. So I was locked there. This room was never used because Mr Reed died in it. I was alone there without a candle. It was cold and getting dark. Outside it was raining and the wind was blowing. I was afraid. Suddenly I saw a light moving on the wall. I thought it might be a ghost, and I fainted. The next thing I remember was lying in my own bed. When I oke up, I saw the kind face of a doctor looking at me. I told him I was unhappy because I did not have parents and the Reed family treated me very badly. „Would you like to go to school?" he asked. „Yes," I said. Then he talked to Mrs Reed who easily agreed. One day I was called to the breakfast-room. When I went in, I saw my aunt and a man standing near the fireplace. „Mr Brocklehurst, this is Jane Eyre," my aunt said. „Are you a good child?" the man asked. I could not say yes because everybody else in the house though I was bad. „This little girl has a bad character and she is a liar. I want her to spend all her holidays at Lowood." 78 When Mr Brocklehurst left I said: „1 am not a liar. If I were I would say I love you but I don't. I hate you more than anybody else except John Reed. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live and I will tell everybody at Lowood how you treated me. I hate living here." Four days later, at six in the morning I was put into a coach taking me far away from Gateshead to unknown and mysterious places. Appendix 28 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Thornfield and Mr Orchester Jane Eyre is alone in the world. She is young but poor. She can expect little from the world, but she wants more than only to survive. When she goes to work for Mr Rochester, she believes she has found respect and love. But the sound of a strange laugh warns her. Thornfield Hall was a large house in the country. There, after my sixteen-hour journey, I was welcomed by Mrs Fairfax. She was a little old lady, dressed in black. I was excited at being in a new place, and looked forvard to my new life there, working for kind Mrs Fairfax. But I was surprised to discover on my first full day that Mrs Fairfax was not the owner, and that my master was a Mr Rochester, who was away from home. My pupil was a girl called Adele, seven or eight years old, who was born in France and could hardly speak English. Luckily I had learnt French very well, and had no difficulty in communicating with this pretty, cheerful child. I taught her for several hours every day in the library, although it was not easy to make her concentrate on anything for long. One day I took the oportunity of asking Mrs Fairfax a few questions about Mr Rochester. „ Is he liked by most people?" was my first question. „ Oh, yes, his family have always been respected here. They've owned the land round here for years," she replied. „ But do you like him? What is his character like?" „ I have always liked him, and I think he's a fair master to his servants." I could get no further information about Mr Rochester, but instead she offered to show me round the whole house. We went through many large rooms, finally reaching the top floor, where there was a narrow corridor with several small black doors, all shut. When I turned away to go downstairs, I heard a strange rostly laugh. „Mrs Fairfax, did you hear that laugh? Who is it?" „ It may be Grace Poole, „she answered calmly, „She is paid to help the housemaid." I heard the laugh again. It did not sound human to me... 79 I was very happy teaching pretty little Adele in the daytime, and talking to Mrs Fairfax in the evening, but I felt that something was missing from my life. I had dreams of a greater and better life, and above all, I wanted to do more. People are not always satisfied with a quiet life. Appendix 29 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre It was dark when I arrived at Thornfield Hall. A servant led me to a small room where an elderly lady was sitting by the fire knitting. She was wearing a black silk dress and a white apron. She looked very kind. She stood up to greet me. „How do you do, my dear? I am afraid you had a tiring journey. You must be cold. Come to the fire, „she said. Than she took me up to my room. It was small but pleasant. It looked so different from what I used to live in at Lowood. I though that a happier era was beginning for me. Next morning I went out of the house to have a look at it and the garden.lt was a fine autumn day. The early sun was shining. The house was very big, with three floors. It was surrounded by trees and further off by hills. I was enjoying the fresh air when Mrs Fairfax appeared at the door. A little girl was running towads us. She was perhaps seven or eight years old with a pale face and curly hair. „Good morning, Miss Adela," Mrs Fairfax said. „Come and speak to the lady who will be your young teacher. Adela was born in France. She has been here for six months and speaks English a little but she mix it with French. I don't understand her." Fortunately, I was taught French and could speak to her in her own language. After breakfast we went to the library. Adela was not used to regular lessons and we finished early. After dinner Mrs Fairfax showed me the house. I saw large rooms with rich furniture. From the roof we had a beautiful view of the garden. My life at Thornfield Hall was happy. Mrs Fairfax was a kind woman and my pupil was a lively child. She had no great talents but she was open and made reasonable progress. One afternoon in January Mrs Fairfax asked for a day off for Adela because she was cold. It was a fine day. I decided to take a walk to Hay, which was two miles away to send a letter. The ground was hard and icy. After one mile I sat down on a bench to have a rest. Suddenly I saw a big black dog coming out of the trees and a man on horseback. He passed me and went on. When I was getting up to continue my walk I heard a fall. I turned round. The man and a 80 horse were down on the ground. The dog started parking and ran up to me as if expecting me to help his master. I walked down to the traveller who was trying to get to his feet. „Are you hurt,sir?" I asked. „Thank you, I am all right. I have no broken bones." He tried his foot but it seemed very painful. He was about thirty-five, well-built with a dark face and heavy eyebrows. I felt no fear of him, no shyness. „Where do you come from?" He asked. „1 live at Thornfield Hall." „Whose house is it?" „Mr Rochester's." „Do you know Mr Rochester?" „No, I have never seen him. I am the governess there." I helped him get back on his horse, but it hurt him. Soon the rider and the dog disappeared. It was late when I came back to Thornfield Hall. I heard voices in the dining room. I went to Mrs Fairfax's room, but she was not there. Instead, the big black dog was lying in front of the fire. „Whose dog is this?" I asked the maid. „He came with Mr Rochester." A few days later Mr Rochester asked Jane to show him some her drawings. He looked at them carefully and said they were strange pictures for a schoolgirl. Mr Rochester didn't like Thornfield and usually didn't stayed there more than two weeks. This time he stayed much longer. At first, I did not see him often. Sometimes he looked at me couly, but sometimes smiled. On another occasion he called Adele and me to his room. While Adele was looking at her presents from Mr Rochester, he wanted me to sit down and talk to him. „You look at me carefully, Miss Eyre," he said. „Do you think I am handsome?" „No, sir." „What do you mean?" „Sir, I was too impolite. I beg your pardon. Beauty doesn't mean a lot." One afternoon Mr Rochester asked me to take a walk with him. He explained met he story of his passion for a French opera Dance Celine Varens, Adele's mother and how she left him with a small girl who she said was his. So he decided to take her and bring her up. His friendly frankness and the kind way he treated me attracted me to him. His face became the object I best like to see. 81 82