These days, I live and work in Ireland. Near my home, is Newgrange – a huge mound of rock and earth that’s over 5,000 years old. At dawn, on the shortest day of the year, everyone gathers to see the sun’s first light shine along a passage and light up a chamber in the mound.

This special moment reminds me of how our classrooms should be. We should connect them to the wider world beyond their walls. We should allow light to shine in from outside.

(more…)

Extensive reading is based on the well-established premise that we learn to read by reading. This is true for learning to read our first language as well as foreign languages. In teaching foreign language reading, an extensive reading approach allows students to read, read, and read some more.

When EFL students read extensively, they become fluent readers. But there is more. Studies have established that EFL students increase their vocabulary, and become better writers.

(more…)

This article follows a previous article, in which I introduced the research project I carried out as part of my Master’s degree in research in second language education. In my study, I explored the scaffolding strategies that children with English as an Additional Language (EAL), and monolingual children with English as a first language, use in a collaborative reading task. I paired an EAL pupil with either an older EAL pupil, or an older monolingual pupil, and I recorded the children as they read together. Underlying my research was the belief that literacy should not only be viewed as a set of skills, but also as a social practice, meaning that the role of a reader’s lived experience plays an important role in comprehension.

(more…)