问答题
The Reader has long been the black sheep of the EFL classroom. Teachers either ignore Readers, or neglect and abuse them, failing to recognize their learning potential~ The reason for this can no longer be laid at the door of the publishers. Nowadays, a vast range of material is produced suitable for all interests, age ranges, and ability levels. It is more probably the attitude of the teacher, and thus, the student, which is responsible. Are any of the following close to your own attitude, or familiar to you from conversations with colleagues Readers are an expensive luxury. The school cannot afford them. Other things must come first.
(46) I am trying to get through a fairly dense syllabus to equip my students, ultimately, for examinations; I cannot spare the time for frills. Reading for pleasure is a private and personal thing. ! cannot see how this can be used in the EFL classroom. (47) I understand that extensive reading for pleasure can only improve language, but I have no way of checking that learning has taken place other than comprehension questions. These activities reduce the pleasure.
The above are explanations, excuses, reasons and justifications from teachers talking about the scant use of Readers in the classroom. Their comments illustrate three views prevalent at present. (48) First, that teachers feel that time spared for Readers will in some way deprive their students of certain key language skills and abilities. Second, those teachers are fostering or even pandering to students’ reluctance to read for pleasure. (49) Finally, those teachers are unaware of how to use and exploit Readers in their classrooms and therefore provide a limited range of activities, which in turn limits the responses of their students. (50) If teachers take Readers into classroom with any one, or a combination of the above attitudes, this will be imparted to the students who will then also believe that Readers are preventing them from doing something more important and are a waste of valuable learning time. They read only to enable them to answer a comprehension task.
It is up to the teacher to convince the reluctant reader that reading, either extensive or intensive, is pleasurable. Only one of many ways of obtaining pleasure is to be able to answer the teachers’ comprehension check questions the following day. The world of reading will remain, and still be as inaccessible as ever to the student.